A Whirlwind of a Week

We went and we are back again. We had to travel to Kiev to apply for two of our kids' passports, since the old ones expire soon. We took an overnight train on Tuesday night in Kherson, got to Kiev at 9:20am on Wednesday morning, and at 9:45 pm we were back on a train headed for Kherson. We went to the US consulate, filled signed the papers, and were told to come back next week to pick up the new passports (Jamie will probably go). After the consulate we went to McDonald's for lunch -- I have never been a big McDonald's fan, but let me tell you that after two years of very little McDonald's it starts tasting really good. After McD's I had my doctor's appointment, and everything checked out OK. The doc wants me to cut down on sodium and to watch my calories. Polly and Anna had appointments with a pediatritian, too. Anna got her MMR shot, and Polly -- poor Polly -- had a wart on her finger catarized. We spent the rest of the day with our new teammates in Kiev, Garrett and Kristen. They live on the 20th floor of a new apartment building, and the view was simply astounding. Thanks, guys, for your hospitality!

Yesterday we arrived back in Kherson, and today we had a wedding to go to. It was the first wedding that Jamie was officiating. Since the church has no authority from the government to make marriage official, every marrying couple has to go to the court house to have justice of the peace done. Then Christian couples would usually have a second ceremony, in church, where they get married by a minister before God, and where blessings are pronounced. Today was no different. Victor and Nina had an appointment at the marriage registration office (like the justice of the peace) at 1 pm, and after that they went and got their pictures taken. They arrived at the cafe where the reception was going to be and we had the Christian wedding ceremony. It was very nice. One room at the restarant was set up for the service, and the other room was ready for reception. There was lots of delicious food and we saw and participated in many Ukrainian traditions. We will upload some pictures soon (some morning when our internet connection is faster).

The bride and the groom

The room where the wedding ceremony took place. The restaurant had a room which was set up for the wedding.

The grooms mother with the traditional bread and salt welcome
Reception room
Victor and Nina
Stuffed pike

Upclose of the stuffed pike (the creature in the pike's mouth is crayfish)The wedding cake
Guests at the reception

First Month Without a Landlady

Well, it's been 4 weeks since we last wrote and since we moved to our new home. It's been a month of settling in, unpacking, adjusting, finding some things to repair (already!) and surviving without a kitchen sink and countertop. We still have boxes sitting around, waiting for some shelves to go into, and we are trying to be patient. Tomorrow we hope to get our kitchen countertop and sink installed, and I will be able to unpack my kitchen stuff. We have been using a lot of plastic ware (thanks for the supply, Melinda!) and doing our dishes in the bathroom sink. It hasn't been too bad, really, and I try not to focus on all the boxes with kitchen stuff sitting around. We have been able to host in these 'camping' conditions, but we can't wait to be able to go back to doing in a couple of times a week.



We have been working on putting some shelves in our closets. Someone mentioned to us a warehouse/store where you can get particle board cut to your specifications. After an evening of designing and calculating, we had our measurements. After two days we picked them up, and over the weekend Jamie and a friend put them together. It turned out pretty good. We were able to unpack our clothes. We also put some shelves in the pantry (see picture below). Now we are ready to do Timmy's closet.






We got our final "no" from the local telephone company, and we looked into satellite internet providers (our only option here, since cable internet companies will not run a cable to our house for the fear of it being stolen). We are now using a satellite provider, but the connection is very slow, it feels like we went back to dial-up days. In larger cities the connection is better, I am sure, but here we are getting just bare basics. Our Skype is choppy, and we often have to forgo the picture for the sound quality. Vonage is not working because of the satellite modem set-up. We still haven't given up hope on the telephone land line (and hence, DSL), but we will probably have to wait several months before they update their system to enable us to get it.



Our lot came with some mature fruit trees, and we can't wait to see how they do this year. We have 2 apricot trees, a peach tree, a cherry tree, a pear tree and an apple tree. Makes me wonder why we didn't grow any fruit trees in Maumee. We definitely had plenty of sunshine in our back yard. Our back yard here is about 1/3 size of what we had back in the US, but the previous owners made good use of the space there. Our kids will have to learn to play between the trees. :-) I would like to plant some grape rootlings this spring, and have been reading a lot about it. The challenging part in growing grapes in this part of the world seems to be pests (particularly, philloxera). Finding grafted plantings with disease-resistant roots is very difficult here still. We will have to pre-treat all plants that we are going to plant and spray them at least a couple of times each spring and summer.



I have been very thankful for our washing machine here. It can do 8 kg of laundry per wash, and I was able to cut back drastically on the amount of loads I do every week. At the old house, with the 3.5-kilo capacity washer, I was doing about 10 loads a week. Here it's about 4 every week. We are still using a drying rack and radiators for drying clothes (no clothes dryer yet), but over the last 2 years I have gotten used to this, and I don't even think about a dryer anymore.

And last but not least, it has been wonderful to be free from the monthly visits of the landlady. We parted on very good terms, and we will invite her over once the countertop is in. It is nice, though, not to think that someone will be coming over and checking out the house to see if we have done any damage. We are thankful to God for His wonderful provision for us.