Razom

Fall has arrived, and I hope it stays 🙂 I love the cooler weather!!

Kolya and I have been moving around, house/pet sitting for the 3 weeks! It’s kind of like being on a mini-vacation and a little extra cash in our pockets 🙂

This past week, we’ve both been missing Ukraine a LOT! Maybe because it was leading up to today, my mother-in-laws birthday! and also the first day of school for our niece, Lesya. It’s hard getting established again in a new city where it’s been over 8 years since I’ve lived here! But we are plugging along, with God pointing out in different ways the why we are here at this exact time 🙂

In 2 weeks start the ESL classes at our church. Kolya will be taking the class and I’ll be helping out in one of the other classes, depending on what class Kolya will be testing into! I joined the Mission Awareness Team (MAT) and had our first meeting last Tuesday evening. And the first Saturday of every month, we are helping to organize a service project morning, in the hopes of getting the Young Adults more involved in other aspects of the church and helping. This Saturday will include cleaning the nursery and disinfecting toys, and painting an upstairs Sunday School room (I’m pretty sure) and organizing or at least knowing what costumes the kids have in a closet for the Christmas plays.

We are looking forward to heading out to Baltimore next Saturday the 12th for the 33rd annual Ukrainian Festival! If nothing major happens between then and now, we will be having a fun day trip 🙂

Well, I’m off to apply for some more jobs… I’ll try to post more regularly!

That’s how long we’ve been living in AMerica. 3 weddings down, a month in our own apartment! 2 trips to Cape Cod. An overnight in Williamsbury with Anna. Picking and dropping her off. 5 job applications submitted and hope to hear soon if I got any of the jobs. Countless hours searching for work. 2 trips to Boston. Working on internet for the apartment, but as of now, we are able to get it for free, just not 24/7. Kolya traveling more then me all over Delmarva! 2 baby showers. 1 make-up party. a few birthdays. Kolya’s brother got married! Talking from 1-3am with all of Kolya’s family on Skype. These are just some of the things we’ve been kept busy with. Not to mention, buying a car and all of that 🙂 We are blessed. We hope to slow down a bit and be able to relax and unwind. We are enjoying Kolya’s 3 day weekends with little trips to the beach or shopping and other things 🙂 We’ll see what these next 3 1/2 months will hold for us… Buy God’s grace, we know nothing more then what we can handle! As His timing is always perfect in molding and maiking us more like Him. Off to return a few things and get some more stable internet for a longer update.

It seems like so long ago that April 1 seemed forever away… We were completing documents for the Embassy, we got the visa! Working until the end of February, moving all our stuff yet again back to Kyiv, my parents leave, Allyson arrives!, off to the village for 2 1/2 weeks, back to Kyiv, visiting with friends and relatives, packing and shipping off a suitcase this morning with a friend! And now, we’ve got less then 48 hours in the place we both call home.

Tears have been shed by Kolya’s family… the unknown of when they’ll see us again or ever if our plane crashes…the uncertainty of what is in store for us once we reach the states, for the long-term… Where will we work? live? find a car?

What we do know is that our God is faithful! He has brought us to and confirmed in many ways that this is where and what we are supposed to be doing for this season of our lives. Will it be tough? Yes… Will we bent, molded and conformed more to His likeness? Yes… Will everything ‘just’ happen perfectly? No…

Please pray with and for us as we start this new adventure, in a new land… For Kolya to quickly adapt, for us to find like-minded friends, for our marriage in the new challenges/differences/roles we will be taking on… and for us to keep our eyes on Him!

Last fall, when Kolya upgraded to his own laptop computer, we sold his desktop to his sister and brother-in-law. After several months of storing it at mom and dad’s (thanks) we were finally able to pass it off! It ended up in Kolya’s village over the New Year’s holiday. And today, they connected to the internet. It’s a SLOW connection, but I’m able to check email in these last 2 weeks before we leave to the states!

I was able to find out that someone is willing to take a 50lbs suitcase to the states for us! WOW! It will be in Maine and hopefully, we’ll be able to make a couple hour detour and pick it up in April when visiting family in Boston and Cape Cod!

We’ve been in the village since the 9th of March and plan on returning to Kyiv next Wednesday. Kolya’s oldest sister and 2 daughters (6 and 4) are now living back here and we’ve had tons of fun with them AND teaching them how to write and the alphabet. We’ve even got them saying, please, thank-you and I’m sorry. Hopefully it will continue after we leave! Kolya’s younger sister and husband were here last weekend, with his sister staying through this weekend! It’s been great getting to spend quality time with many of Kolya’s family. We’ve been here every 3 months since we’ve been married… and we’re not quite sure when we’ll be making our first trip back to Ukraine!

We’ve been gearing up by trips to the dentist for teeth cleanings and such. I didn’t have any cavities 🙂 and we’ll see what happened when Kolya returns this afternoon.

Well, I better run… Clifford the big red dog puzzle is waiting to be put together in the other room with Lesya and Nastya…

12 days until we fly….

6 days until we return to Kyiv…

18 days till we land in Salisbury…

19 days till I start job hunting 🙂

Kolya and I now have one month left in Ukraine until we fly to the states on April, 1! Not much time left… I thought I would be posting more often but, it looks like it’ll have to wait until next month! We have ‘moved’ back to my parents where we continue to pack, sort and pitch.

We were hoping that we would be able to visit the states while my parents will be around so they would be able to share in introducing my dear husband to ‘our’ side of the family and friends! We started the visa process in January when we got back from visiting Kolya’s fam. It took 1 1/2 months, start to finish! God is amazing! We had enough time to think and pray about how to spend the 1 1/2 months before we would fly. 🙂 We finished work out in internetless Bucha the end of February, giving us time to spend 2-3 weeks out west with Kolya’s family and our two cutie nieces, Lesya and Nastya (6 and almost 4). How the details have come together in getting our double bed and other things out to the village when we don’t have a car, etc… have been truly amazing as only God could orchestrate! We’ll be sending my parents to the states late tomorrow night, or the wee-hours of the morning Tuesday and look forward to seeing them soon!

Please keep us in your prayers that this ‘last’ month will be spent with quality time with friends and family and our focus would stay on Him!

Yes, limbo is where I’ve been feeling the past little bit. Every time you think you know what’s going to happen… it doesn’t or at least not in the way you expect it. You don’t take the time to come up with a daily anything… just filling the days waiting for when you think you may move and then don’t! So, we are STILL in limbo… We thought we were moving on November 17th to a place where Kolya will work, we can live until we figure out everything. Well, we are now preparing to move on December 1. When will we know??? November 30th, in the evening. So, as many of you may have seen on facebook, I am currently unpacking/sorting/repacking. With Thanksgiving thrown in and leaving on Saturday for the weekend, not much time is left. We obviously don’t need ‘everything’ as it will be fully furnished BUT it is nice to have some of your own things to make it homey… and our Christmas things. We have thrown out some things, a big bag and box to go out to Kolya’s mom (hehe) a pile for my mom, keeper things to store, things to take with AND a box for what we would really LOVE to have for when we find a semi-permanent place! We’ve been very thankful for wonderful parents letting us stay with them! We have accomplished some things which I think has made it worth their while 😉 but we are looking forward to being on our own again 🙂

On a side note… I LOVE THE HOLIDAYS! I don’t know if Thanksgiving will ever be celebrated by just family, for me. I love that my parents opened up our home for many people, a tradition that continues here in Ukraine! Although this year will be 6 family members and 4 ‘others’, it’s going to be super fun as it always is! 5 pies were made today and most everything else will be complete tomorrow to enjoy a relaxing Thanksgiving day! I’m soooooo glad I don’t have to watch the parade (but it was fun having everyone think I loved it and was off of kitchen duty except for commercial breaks!) This year we will attempt Kahlua Sweet Potatoes that are my absolute FAVORITE! It’s been a long time since I had them (back when Lynne would cook and mom would clean) and this year I’ve got the Kahlua to make them!

On another aside… I love my husband! He is the most wonderful man and I don’t think life could be any sweeter! He is a dear and I love him! (hmm, maybe I’ll devote an entire post to him!)

And now… back to limbo… urgh… sigh…

Kolya and I have been talking a lot about what the future may indeed hold for us 🙂 It’s exciting to start to see some things that have been making progress! It seems since pretty early on in married life so pretty much near the beginning of this year, we’ve been treading water. Sometimes that’s good and sometimes not so great BUT we were happy to find the wonderful church in Kagy and build some lasting friendships that both us and them have been planning when and how to get together! It was nice to known as Kolya and Jeanne, not just Jeanne and oh yea, that’s her husband or Kolya and oh yea, that’s his wife. We’ve been all over the place as well and haven’t felt strongly about really staying in one of those places this past year and starting/raising a family! So, now we are still in the waiting mode BUT Kolya has been offered a job and it looks like by the end of the month we’ll be moving (again)! It’s been fun and frustrating working on different projects together and have both had our moments, heh. But we both agree married life is great and all that we’ve lived through in this year has been worth it in building/uniting us more strongly then if we hadn’t had lived through everything. We serve an amazing, gracious, faithful, trustworthy God! We didn’t even imagine that this is what our first year of marriage would be like BUT we wouldn’t trade it for the world 🙂 I’m preparing myself for moving out to the land of no internet so I figure I’ll try to post more these coming weeks! I can’t wait to move and decorate for Christmas!!!!

Kolya has his International Passport!!!  Yea!!! And he is home 🙂

I just had a wisdom tooth ‘deleted’ from my mouth… bottom left. OUCH!!!!

Please pray for a quick recovery!

Nothing like chisels, wrenches, scooper things and other things to make your mouth feel nice 🙂

Mom says it’s a banana split for me tonight for dinner. Heh.

Back tomorrow at 9.30 for a check to make sure it’s healing okay… no stiches…

Lets see, what else… at least I’ll have a week to recover before taking on 3 kids for 2 weeks…

So far, Kolya, mom and dad laugh at home I talk… Half of my tongue is still numb, not to mention the whole left side of my face!!!

Praise God for Sasha! That he is a great dentist! That when he said say ‘Ahhh’ if it hurts… he stopped and gave me another shot. (that was when he was digging for the roots… OUCH!!)

Thanks in advance for your prayers!!!

Anyone who has had a wisdom tooth removal, you can share your recovery suggestions!

Rachel Taylor… I feel your pain as I just rewatched your youtube diary of you wisdom teeth removal!