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The Everyday stuff:
First morning in our apartment. I walk into the kitchen and it is a calm haven. Helen is nestled in the corner by the window eating oatmeal. I walk over to the freshly stocked cabinets and get some cereal sans milk because I don’t know where we put it last night (No running fridge yet, milk is somewhere outside).
Enter Ben with the bag of milk. First he is all stressed out about how to open the bag. Then as he tips the bag to pour over his cereal he douses the counter as well.

Alex: “Oh my gosh Ben, seriously?”
Helen chuckles.
Ben: “You try it. It’s not easy!” He then wipes the counter with the sleeve of his threadbare flannel shirt that he never removes.
Helen chuckles.
Patti enters: “Here give it to me.”
Patti tilts the bag over his bowl. Milk is everywhere in an instant. All over the bowl, counter, and dripping onto the floor.
Ben: “Got it!” Alex and Helen laugh as they watch the boys try to fix the situation.
Ben quickly grabs newspaper places it over the spill, “I saw this trick on Big Daddy.”
Patti then sets his bowl on top of the newspaper to catch what is dripping off the counter.
Alex: Patrick that is disgusting! We haven’t even cleaned off that counter.
Patrick: Whatever it’s fine. I don’t want to waste the milk.
Helen chuckles.

Ben again challenges Alex to do a better job pouring. She grabs the nearest glass and pours over the sink.
Over her shoulder Pat mumbles something about a dirty glass. With minimal spillage, the milk is now in a glass. 

Patrick: You say I’m gross look at that glass. No one is going to drink the milk now.
Alex: Oh no! I didn’t notice it was dirty!
Patrick: I told you that glass was filthy!
Ben ready for his second bowl says, “Here give it to me, Ill just pretend it’s pepper in the milk.”
Alex: You can’t even see the “pepper” past the little hairs in the glass. Sick.

Pat shakes his head.
Helen chuckles again and says, “I feel like I’m watching an episode of Friends.

MInistry:
This month we are living in Kyiv the capital of Ukraine. We have our own little flat on the sixth floor of a giant blue and white cement building. Hot water gushes out of the pipes (woohoo!), 3 bedrooms, little kitchen with fabulous windows looking out onto the streets, white (grey) flowered wallpaper; it’s what you picture a dingy old city apartment to be, but it is all ours and we are absolutely enamored.
 
Everyday we go to English clubs on various university campuses and talk with Ukrainian students. (My favorite is a girl named Larissa who is also studying Spanish. So English for an hour and then I chat in Spanish with a Ukrainian) After club we go hang out with them at one of the hundred coffee shops in town. People walk around cold as ice, in a hurry, stylishly dressed in black, and ready to be somewhere. It’s a far cry from Africa and India where everything is bright, slow paced, and you are the main attraction. At first glance it can be intimidating, but as you start chatting with people, and throw in some Russian words, you may leave with a new best friend. Please pray for the relationships we are building. These students know about Christ, He just isn’t an important part of their every day lives.
 

Random:
I don’t know why I love this country but I just do. After Kenya, it is my favorite so far and we have only been here 2 weeks. I thought I was becoming an intense lover of the country, but you return me to the city and I just melt. We walk everywhere! 15 minutes to the nearest farmer’s market, 20 minutes to the metro stop, 25 minutes to our favorite pizza place, 5 minutes to Curves (Jill and I became members for the next 2 weeks!), and you are always surrounded by some amazing old architecture. Oh and I’m obsessed with the Cyrillic alphabet! I feel like a 5-year-old discovering words for the first time.