From Heart to Heart

We have been in Ukraine for a whole month today.  I have such mixed emotions, I'm not sure what to think.  There is such a passion inside me, every person I see reminds me why I am here!  But... (yes there is a BUT) there are other things in which I am having such a hard time with. 

PTL!  The Lord provided us a great home in a great location, but our neighbors like to play there music loud and it is the boom, boom kind of music if you know what I mean.  There really nice, but it's hard to focus on any one thing with the neighbors music vibrating through our house.  One night, it went on like that till 4am. 

I still have not been able to cook a real meal since we've been here.  I can't read any of the labels, so I only buy by the pictures, or use my translator on my phone to try and figure out what everything is.  It took me 3 weeks to figure out how to order pre-made food in the store so we can eat something other than Salome and cheese sandwiches :)  So now it's chicken plove and young capushta salad every night.  We do now have a translator that has been helping me at the grocery store, so I have been able to buy a little more than I had been.  Right now, we only have a stove top.  Here in Ukraine, they do not use ovens much, so there is not much of a need to have one.  We have a oven ordered, hope it will be here soon.  I guess as a mom and wife, I want to be able to provide for my family, but I can even fulfill my position by getting what I need.  It's very frustrating. 

Public transportation....I have already dedicated a post to it...but it does deserve an honorable mention here.... I do not like public transportation... I do not like it Sam-I-Am.... for them it's a part of life... for me it's a extreme frustration.  I try so hard to be content... but when you have old grandmother yelling a your children and you have no idea what there saying... it can be quite upsetting.

Church is a lot different too.... in church last week... I had to walk out in the middle of the service and go to the bathroom and cry.  I don't know exactly what it was.  It may have been I couldn't understand the songs, or that when I was listening to my translator it made me feel a little disattached from the service...not sure exactly....

...it was nice to finally get our boxes yesterday.  We have peanut butter :)  Yeah!!!  It was like Christmas opening all those boxes and seeing things that were familiar to me.  :)  Big smiles :)

I am so sorry, I know this post is a little on the negative side and very scattered... but I miss home something awful and my mind is going in 1000 different directions!!!  Sometimes I lay in bed thinking of my mom and dad, and family we left in the states and all my friends and church family....  sometimes I really just want to go home... Go back to the states where everyone is familiar and I don't need a translator to get things done.  Where I don't have to pay $100 for an clothes iron.... I know this is a part of my adjustment, but I don't like myself like I have been...

God has been sooooo kind and gracious to me....He knows what an adjustment this has been.  My kids and my husband are doing so great :) I am so happy they are.  But I know there is going to be a time in which they will go through the same thing I'm going through, and I hope by then I will be a little more stable and be able to help them adjust better!!

Public transportation in Ukraine

 

We have been in Ukraine for several weeks.... and I do believe I have mastered the public transportation system....we'll....almost :/  Above is a picture of a very empty Marshuka (bus).  Most of the time, they are so packed, it makes you feel like one of those chickens in the crates that they stuff full to transport on the back of 18 wheelers....

Here we are riding a empty Metro (it's very hard to take pictures when they are packed...you can't move your arms to get to your camera (OK, so maybe not quite that packed, but sometimes you can't hardly move around because you are so squished in)

 

Below, Brian is buying the tickets we need to get on the Metro...

 

But now we can bypass these machines because we got Metro cards that we use...we just scan in our cards to go through the turn stalls (electronic ones).

 



 

Everyone trying to get to their destination....just another reminder of why we are here.  To help them see God's way to Heaven so THAT will be their final destination.

 

 

Marshuka and Trolley Bus stops....each sign telling you what bus numbers stop there...

 

 

Our family riding on the Tramvi.  This tram rides on rails...these are also very empty compared to what they usually are...

 

A Day on Public Transport Video...

 

 

I have realized that I took for granted the fact that I had a van...and could go anywhere I wanted in that van.  Didn't have to depend on anyone else to get where I needed to go.  It does get frustrating sometimes, having to wait on the Marshuka or Tram to get there.  Often times, the trams break down and one doesn't come for 45 minutes.   Or if it breaks down while your on it, you have to find another way to your destination.  I don't know how many times I have been late to somewhere because of the public transport.  I leave way early just incase and still end up being late.  This has been great culture study for us.  We can be more understanding when someone is late for church, because the majority of people here depend on the public transportation to get them where they need to go...never again will I take a car for granted... :)