Month: November 2013

Thankful

Posted on by kimnjed

Happy Thanksgiving (a day late)!

I had a witty post simmering in my brain all about the antics of yesterday. I have a photo diary of potatoes soaking in the bathtub, turkey in it's brine on the covered balcony, cornbread for stuffing, and out-of-this-universe pumpkin pie vareniki that we created. But I just can't go there today. It'll have to wait.
I spent this morning at Romaniv orphanage for boys and men, and I have so much more to share than turkey wit. I wish so badly that you could have come along with me. I know if you did you would never be the same. No one can be the same after spending time at Romaniv.
We first visited Romaniv in April of 2012. Jed and I, our eyes met as we looked over the room of boys, “Yes, this is what we were created for.”
In May we visited again, looking with different eyes, ones that were wise to the fact that soon these boys would become a part of normal life for us.
Today I returned for the first time since our move and I am wrecked.
These are not just boys in pictures. These are not just sad stories to gain your sympathy. These are Zhenya, Vitalik, Misha, Valera, and Sergei. These are little hands that hold mine and walk the halls and throw balls and build legos. These are little hands and big hands that hit themselves and each other for stimulation. These are faces that smile, and frown, and grimace, and bite; faces that are smooth like a baby and faces that are covered with the scars of self-abuse. These are eyes that light up, eyes that are clever and knowing- even when the mouth can't speak, eyes that are blind, and eyes that are distant, almost unaware of the other humans around. These are not just another need that is unmet. These are not just another story to make you feel guilty for your wealth.
These are real boys. They are now a very real part of our life. These are “our” boys. And they are beautiful.
One boy, who is now a man is unable to walk, but there is no wheelchair for him. Day after day he lays in a small room in his bed while life passes him by. The caregivers want so much for that to NOT be his life, but what can they do?
As I sat at his bedside and rubbed his back, unable to speak to him in his language my heart broke and melted at the same time. My heart broke for him, that this is his reality, that when I return home to my Jed and my babies he will still be laying there alone. But my heart melted at the same time with the love of the Father. God sees and He knows. God has brought people to Romaniv for such a time as this. This boy, this man, he is not forgotten. God brought Nina, a volunteer for Mission to Ukraine, to his bedside to hold him like a Mommy and feed him a banana. God is on the move in Romaniv, and God is on the move on behalf of the orphans of Ukraine.
So, today I am thankful for the beautiful boys of Romaniv. I'm thankful for the opportunity to love them, hold them, play with them, and look them in the eye. I'm thankful for Nina, who has her own son with special needs at home, and faithfully visits Romaniv each week and is called “Mama” by many. I'm thankful that although the need looks outrageous, and the situations seems impossible, God has made promises and they WILL be fulfilled. These boys are not beyond His grasp, not too far from His reach. The one with the most scars from continually banging his head on the wall is not beyond hope. Each of these boys is known by the Father and He will have His way.
For these boys, and other boys and girls just like them God asked us to move across the world and be His hands and feet. I'm so, very, very thankful for that. May God have His way in Romaniv and in the lives of the fatherless all across Ukraine. So be it!
 
 
 

 

Birthday Cooking in Ukraine 101

Posted on by kimnjed

Saturday was Ezra's birthday!

 

This was the first birthday celebrated away from family, so I think Jed and I were both feeling the need to make Ezra's birthday extra special. As in, Ez was convinced Hannah came to visit JUST for his birthday. We let him believe that. After all, it's not every day you turn 8!

 

We asked Ezra what he wanted to eat for his birthday and he said he wanted pizza. Woohoo! I can make pizza! No big deal. He also said that instead of birthday cake, he wanted cherry vareniki. Really??? Okay, buddy, anything for you on your birthday.

 

So, Friday night, right after her arrival, I roped Hannah into helping me make some vareniki. It's a time intensive job, but much more fun when you have company. 🙂 Vareniki are little dumplings made from butter, flour, salt, and egg. They can be filled with potatoes, cheese, mushrooms, cabbage…or cherries. Mmmmm. That's how we like them best! You top the cherry ones with sugar and sour cream. They really are delish. Jed and I had them the first time we came to Ukraine and I'm pretty sure I experimented cooking them the very day after we arrived home. 🙂

Vareniki/PJ party


Yep, no rolling pin...discovered after we had already begun. Enter, milk bottle!

We rolled out the dough, cut out little circles, then put a spoonful of sugar and a couple cherries in each circle of dough. Then we ran into problems. You have to crimp the dough around the edges to seal it so the cherries don't leak out when the vareniki is boiled. Well, I always just set my cherries in a strainer and work fast. BUT the only cherries we could find were frozen, and as they thawed they leaked like crazy. We had some funky looking vareniki on our hands!
While we worked we listened to the Phil Collins station on Spotify. In my former life (2 weeks ago) I did all my best work (and card-playing) to Phil Collins station on Pandora. Jed, Tom, Emma, and I have worked for years (literally) to perfect our Phil Collins station. It's seriously like a work of art. Occasionally a Coldplay song will get thrown in and one of us will rush over to thumb it down, but that's a rarity. It's pretty spot on in awesomeness. It's been faithfully tended and nurtured to perfection. Let's just say, when it comes to Spotify radio we have our work cut out for us. No Pandora in Ukraine = starting over. Boo.
BUT, Jed had just mentioned earlier in the evening (can't remember why) that it felt like a Top Gun music moment. And while we were in the deep throes of vareniki-making, guess what song came on???

Cool, right?? PS: not sure why the vareniki look hypercolor yellow. Hmmmm

Nothing lifts the spirits like a good 80's mix. 😉
Saturday dawned and Ezra was up with the sun. He was so excited for his big day!!
Hannah and I got busy on the pizza dough fairly early since we had guests coming to celebrate for lunch. As we let the dough rise we walked down to the grocery store to see if, by chance, we could find some parchment paper for the pizza baking. We were doubtful we would find anything, but it was worth a shot! Imagine our suprise when we found just what we were looking for!
We hurried home, rolled out our dough, and got ready to preheat the oven. Then we actually took a good look at the oven and found this:

Ummm this is our oven control. Any idea how to decipher this?? Only three temp choices. I guess we better invest in a thermometer 🙂

We spent some time googling for a way to use the oven and eventually decided to just wing it. The dough baked perfectly! Yummmmm!!!! Praise The Lord!
I took it out, ready to slide it off the pan….and at that point realized we didn't actually buy parchment paper. It appeared we bought some sort of paper that stuck like glue to dough. Hahahahaha

Pizza with a side of paper

Time to clean the dough off the paper in the other pans before the other crusts suffered the same fate!
In the end, the pizza and vareniki turned out delicious and all was well. This adventure is so hilariously fun!!!
 

 

On Cousin-Fetching and Toddler Bribery

Posted on by kimnjed

This weekend was full.

Full of fun, full of laughs, full of food, and full of lessons learned the hard way. Hence all the laughter.

My cousin Hannah came to stay for the weekend! She arrived on Friday afternoon and we were so excited it was like Christmas Eve on Thursday night. Our first real visitor from afar! Hannah has been in Western Ukraine doing an internship through her University back in Oregon. She arrived in Ukraine in September and leaves in December, so this weekend was our chance to experience Ukraine together. We had a BLAST.

 

Jed was at Romaniv orphanage with MTU on Friday, so it was up to me to fetch Hannah from the bus and get her back to our house…with all the kids in tow. It might have been a tad intimidating, but I was feelin' good, feelin' confident. I could do this!

When our family travels from Kiev to Zhitomir we take a certain bus that randomly picks up at a metro stop in Kiev and stops really close to our house in Zhitomir. Well, Hannah wasn't taking that bus. She arrive in Kiev via train, so she was going to catch a bus leaving from the official bus station in Kiev. I asked a friend where that bus would drop her and he was pretty sure it would take her straight to the big bus station in Zhitomir.

 

The kids and I left early so that we could easily navigate the local buses to get to the big bus station. I knew that I knew where I was going, so it was all good. I prepped the kids (listen to Mommy, stay close to Mommy, pay attention to what's happening around you…blah blah blah) and they were doing great! We arrived at the bus station plenty early; we even had time to get a little bread treat at a bakery next door (which was suprisingly filled with meat…not a bad thing, unless you're hoping for sweet. Hehe) All was well…or so I thought. 🙂


I have no idea what Ez is doing in this pic...we had been waiting at the wrong bus station for quite a while at this point...I think he was delirious.

After about 45 minutes I get a phone call from Hannah:

 

“I'm here! Where are you guys?”

“Oh, we're inside. We'll come right out! Hmmmm I don't see you…where are you? Maybe stand underneath one of the bus stall numbers so we can find each other that way.”

“Okay, I'm standing under number 7.”

“Ummmm…me too. Oh geeeeeeeez.”

 

Oops. Hahahaha! We were at the wrong bus station! Apparently the Kiev bus station sometimes delivers to the OTHER bus station in Zhitomir. Wa waaaaah. No big deal, except I totally didn't know how to get from one station to the other. So, I told Hannah to stay put, and in good faith, told her we would find her. 😉

I called Jed, who happened to be with locals who also spoke English and everyone was trying to give me directions…it wasn't happening. So, I got all brave and starting asking directions in broken Russian. And, wonder of wonders, miracle of miracles, we made it! We found Hannah!!!

It was quite the triumphant moment. Hannah and I were squealing with joy, everyone around was laughing at us, the kids were jumping up and down…it was a sight to behold, I'm sure. 🙂
At that point I was feeling pretty proud of myself. Look at me, all travel-savvy! Errrrr…not quite.
So, I thought I knew the way home from the second bus station, but once we started walking, the street I thought I needed was a one-way. Looking back, we probably should have just returned the way we came, but I think I was too overcome with joy at seeing Hannah to think rationally.
We started walking, and walking, and walking, looking for a familiar landmark. Oy. Struggle. Soon we were quite lost. Ha! The kids were being quite the little troopers until Seth decided he was done walking. He started doing that limp-noodle thing until I was basically dragging him down the sidewalk. If any of you know Seth in real life you know he's a big boy. He's no lightweight. Hannah and I had already taken turns carrying him and Hava quite a bit, and at that point he just really needed to walk. But he wouldn't. He sat down on the sidewalk and started screaming his lungs out. I didn't know what to do, so I did the “Okay, Mommy's leaving..bye bye…” thing (which rarely works with Hava and NEVER works with Seth. He calls my bluff every time) and Seth continued to park it and scream, much to the amusement of everyone passing by. Again, quite the sight to behold, I'm sure.
Enter the Babushkas.
Two little old ladies walked up to Seth and started rattling off in Russian. I'm not sure what they were saying, but they were apparently trying to convince him to stand up. They were tugging at him, pulling at him, talking and talking and talking to him as I stood back laughing way too hard to be considered a good parent. Seth was not havin' it. He only started screaming louder and louder. “Who are these people?? What are they saying? What have I gotten myself in to???” Then one of the Babushkas started digging around in her bag and pulled out a piece of candy. She offered it to Seth- in exchange for him standing up…which worked. OF COURSE! Seth grabbed that candy, stood right on up, wiped his tears, and marched over to Mommy, “I eat my candy now???” OMG.
Hannah and I were dying. We were laughing so hard. Only NOT in the US would a total stranger walk up to your screaming toddler on the street and bribe him with candy. It was amazing. In that moment I was so stinkin' thankful for that Babushka! She saved my life. 😉 I told Seth he couldn't eat his candy till he walked all the way to the bus. Oh yeah, I got some mileage out of that bribe. You better believe it! Oh I love Ukraine.
Eventually we found a bus number I recognized, made it home, and settled in to a cozy weekend of fun with our Hannah.
Stay tuned for the rest of our weekend adventures!

 

About Stuff

Posted on by kimnjed

So, before we made the big move to Ukraine I searched the Interwebs (as Jed likes to call it) like a mad woman for any and every blog I could find about life for Americans who had moved to Ukraine. I found some that I really enjoyed, mostly because the writers were working with orphans and I dig that. Obviously. But, what I was really looking for was details about the little things that make up life in Ukraine. I wanted to see daily life so I could *try* to be prepared. I didn't find a whole lot of that, probably because when it's your everyday life you have a hard time believing anyone would find it interesting. I mean, do people really care what your washer machine looks like or how small your rolls of toilet paper are? Well, I cared! 🙂 I wanted to see any and everything. So…I hope to give you glimpses to our everyday life…maybe some of you will find it interesting?? If anything I know my mom will be happy to see it all. Hehe

 

For what it's worth, here are the things of note that I've been thinking I should tell you about. I have to take notes right when the thought comes, like this:

Dogs and Motion Detectors:
You all saw the outside of our house, right? Not so perty. You can't always judge a book by it's cover, and our house is proof of that.
Anyway, on that corner there is a motion-detecting light. We didn't realize it was there till the first night we moved in. I kept waking up all night to the light going off and on because it's literally right outside our bedroom window. The light was off and on, off and on, off and on ALL NIGHT. The entrance to our house isn't exactly on a busy street so I started getting all concerned when night after night it was like a strobe light in my room. Welp, not to worry, I figured out the culprit. Stray dogs.
Ukraine has lots of stray dogs. They are running and sleeping all over town- and especially through our yard at night. I woke up one night and bravely looked out the window, afraid of what I'd see, only to see a group of dogs running back and forth under our light. Ha! I feel better now. 🙂
No Top Sheet:
I love Ukraine. I love Ukraine because people don't use top sheets. If you have little kids you understand. It's like you know your kids should use top sheets, but they are forever crumpled at the bottom of little beds. I'll confess, after a while I just gave up and stopped trying. I felt a bit guilty, like my kids were sleeping in filth, until we moved here! In our house there are bottom sheets (only fitted on one side), and then big blankets in a top sheet material duvet cover. Genius! All the cleanliness of a top sheet, minus the crumple. My guilty mother's heart is now at peace.

Also, the sheet sets never match. Just when I thought it couldn't get easier, it did.

Translate to Russian, then Ukrainian:
There are two languages mostly spoken in Ukraine: Russian and Ukrainian. Even though Ukrainian is the official language and most of the signage and stuff is in Ukrainian, we've decided to focus on learning Russian. The reason for that is that the dreams God has given us are bigger than only Ukraine. The dream He's given us extends to the whole former Soviet Union region. So, it seems more wise to focus on learning Russian since it's more widely spoken worldwide.
Anywaysssss when we go to the store it gets a bit tricky. Some of the labels for the food are in Russian and some are in Ukrainian. When I see a label I don't understand (let's be honest, that would be 97% of them) I first google translate into Russian, and if that comes up with nothing or a totally irrelevant word I then translate it into Ukrainian. As you can imagine, grocery shopping takes a million years. I think I need to start trying to translate to Ukrainian first, it might save me some time. 🙂 Google Translate is my new BFF.

I misspelled the first ingredient on the second line...it should translate flakes. 🙂

Bagged Food:
Tons of the refrigerated food comes in bags. Who'd a thunk it? The kids think it's great. It's all fun and games till someone pokes a hole in the milk (ahem, Seth).

Mayonnaise, ketchup, milk, and sour cream

Mr. Clean:
I just thought this was funny.
Cake for Bfast:
This morning we started at MTU and all the staff got to meet the kids! It was super surreal to have our kids there. Sigh…happy. To welcome us they brought out cake. Way to win over my kids! Anyone who serves cake at 8:30am gains guaranteed hero status at our house.
Boxes Arrived:
Our boxes came today!!! Merry Christmas and Happy Birthday to us! We shipped 6 boxes on September 10th and they arrived today. We were hoping and praying they would all make it and that we would beat them here so we could receive them and MTU wouldn't have to store them for us. God is too, too good to us!!! Would you believe the boxes are almost completely filled with just books? Yep. We figured just about everything else we could need we can find here, but all our books in English? Irreplaceable. We got a super amazing shipping deal, and I'm so happy we did it. Books and some school supplies are really all we shipped. Addy, my little book lover, is going to be so happy to be reunited with her friends. 🙂
Ez Pez Bday:
Our little Ezra turns 8 years old on Saturday! My cousin Hannah has been in Western Ukraine since September doing an internship through her university and will be in Ukraine till the middle of December. We are SO EXCITED that she is taking the train to come and visit us this weekend! Ez is convinced Hannah is coming all this way just for his birthday. We won't correct him. Turning 8 is kind of a big deal.
 
Welp, I think that just about covers it. My brain is officially mush. We started Russian lessons today and I'm surprised our heads didn't explode. Jed went to bed long ago and now I better go too before I turn into a pumpkin. 🙂
Happy Wednesday Everyone!
 

 

A Sunday in Kiev

Posted on by kimnjed

Happy Monday everyone!

 

We had a great first weekend. Jet lag remained a beast, but I think we have just about defeated it. All the kids slept through the night last night and didn't wake up till 5:00am! Thank you Jesus, because I haven't yet found a good coffee to brew at home and {no sleep + disappointing coffee = the pit of despair}. BUT- we all got sleep last night, and today we bought new coffee that was recommended by a friend and fellow Northwesterner, so things are looking up! PTL!

 

I think our trip to Kiev yesterday had a thing or two to do with our kids exhausted state, so add that to the list of reasons why I love Kiev. 😉

 

A trip to Kiev is no small task for a family of 6. Let me lay it out for you.

 

We started out from our house at 9:00am and walked about 15 minutes to the city center where we caught the bus to Kiev. Buses go back and forth between Kiev and Zhitomir all day, so it's pretty easy to get a seat.

The bus ride is about 2 hours long and it takes us right in to the edge of town. Normally at this point Jed and I would hop on the metro and then walk quite a ways to church, but we figured with all the littles it might be easier to take a taxi. Our friend Olya (THE BEST) ordered us a taxi and we were off!


We arrived at church around 11:45, just in time to visit with friends we love before church started at noon. The kids were big fans of Kiev Vineyard right away as our friends bribed smiles out of them with candy and cookies and tea with milk. Ukrainians are buying the hearts of our children right and left and the kids don't mind it a bit. 😉


Oh man, arriving at the Vineyard in Kiev was like comfort food of the best kind. I think Jed and I both let out all the breath we'd been subconciously holding since we touched down on Wednesday. We are family there. And the crazy thing is, we didn't even feel like guests this time. It was grand. Ezra got to play soccer and wrestle with our friends, Addy made a little friend named Ruslana, Seth got his fill of cookies and juice, and Hava got carried to her hearts content. Kiev Vineyard speaks our love language very well. At Salem Vineyard (our home) the kids have a few guys that they love to harass and wrestle every week at church. It's one of the highlights of their week. Their most favorite wrestle/tickle/tease church friend is Jesse. As we left Kiev Vineyard I heard the kids discussing “Hey, let's make Elvin, Max, and Sasha our Jesse for now, okay?” 🙂 We love you Jesse!!!!!

Learning Russian from a new friend

After church we headed by bus and then by foot to our favorite Sunday lunch spot: Puzata Hata! Woot! While at Puzata we got to meet up with an adoptive family we've been in touch with for several months now. God actually worked it out that they arrived in Kiev the same day as us last week and they'll be there for several weeks adopting a sweet baby. They are dreamers like us and we were SO HAPPY to meet!!! We're hoping to spend more time together in a couple weeks. Thank you friends for coming to meet us! All our mutual stalking paid off! Hehe


We lingered at lunch/dinner for several hours and finally decided we better start our long trek home. We went back to the bus stop by metro and the kids were SOOOOO excited to finally use their escalator skills. Oh yeah, all our practicing paid off and the kids handled the escalators like champs.

Ready to get on the metro!

The bus ride home to Zhitomir was a bit of a doozy. It was pretty warm (I'm a hot person. If you didn't know. It's my cross to bear.), but there was a Ukrainian variety show on which kept Addy and Ez occupied for quite a bit of the drive. Seth and Hava fell asleep almost instantly, but they were on our laps, and at some point Jed had the nerve to shift his position and all hell broke loose. Seth was half awake, half asleep and started screaming for some unknown reason. We couldn't fully wake him up and he continued to scream for a looooong time. It was super painful…I'm sure the rest of the bus really loved us at that point. Oy.

By the time we arrived back in Zhitomir all the kids were asleep and we didn't have the heart to make them walk the 15 minute walk back home, so we hired a taxi and somehow managed to tell him where we live. Success!

All in all it the day was fantastic. We had lots of laughs, lots of hugs, and lots of adventure. Thank you Jesus for family in Ukraine.