Saturday & Sunday
Can you see the ice in the sea????
It’s Sunday, early afternoon, February 5th, and we just got home from walking back from church. I don’t think the temperature is as low today but the wind makes it feel very cold. The pipes broke in the apartment building somewhere this morning so now there is no water. Not sure how long we’ll be without water but it is not an unusual thing to happen. The pipes outside are not insulated. My friend, Alyona, whom we visited last night, said they used to have water only 2 hours a day but now they have water most of the time. We have so much to be thankful for and we don’t even know it.
We had a very good time with my good friend “Tall Alyona” and her family last night. I may have already explained that Alyona is one of the translators on our mission team when our group comes from school to work with the orphans. She and I are always together when she is able to come with us.
Bill and I (and my Ukrainian “son”) picked up Luke and went to her house where she had delicious snacks and tea waiting for us. It was an evening of fun and laughing. Alyona is a composer and a beautiful pianist. She is extremely talented. If I can figure out how to post videos, I’ll post some of her playing (even though I told her I wouldn’t) :) . Alyona has 2 boys, Max,16 and Kostya, 10. Her husband, Sasha, was the life of the party by entertaining us with more singing and silly dancing. He even played his comb (you know-with wax paper) while Alyona played the piano.
Luke found out they had a broken trumpet and jumped up to see it right away. He went right to work to try to fix it. Sasha and Luke ended up taking it into the kitchen to work on it. Proudly, Luke came back out with a fixed trumpet and played a few songs for us. He.is.adorable!!!! Have I mentioned that I love him to death?
Thank you Sistrachik for a wonderful, wonderful evening! LOVE YOU!!!!!
We got home and texted back and forth to the kids and found out that the high school girls soccer team won their bi-district soccer game yesterday! YEA GIRLS!! Our daughter is the assistant coach. YEA DANA! Bill and Dana texted during the guys game and she kept us updated on how it was going. Trent plays on that team and our son, Mike, is one of the coaches for Trent’s high school soccer team. They won their bi-district game as well. YEA LIONS! YEA TRENT AND MIKE! We cheered from here!
Today my “Ukrainian son” is going to take us to the orphanage #4 to see the kids. We know several of them from the orphan camp, Camp Viktoria, that we go to in the summer. It will be awesome seeing them. We’ll stop and get candy and fruit for them before we go. We’ll then go pick up Luke from his school and spend the rest of the evening with him.
We’re not really sure what Monday will bring. Alyona will try to get papers moving and will try talking to all the right people the need to be spoken to about specific things. Of course we’ll let you know once we find things out.
Thank you for your prayers. We are feeling them. Love all of you!
Alyona and me (I'm standing on my tippy toes)
beautiful table!
Kostya and his daddy
Sasha playing the comb
Max video taping his dad singing
