Dear
mom,
We’ve
been gone a long time and we’re working hard but don’t worry, we’re
okay. God sent us some temporary moms to take care of us until we get
home…
So here we are in Yalta
working hard manual labor – shoveling, lifting heavy rocks,
avoiding snakes – and then one day right in the middle of our work
we get an announcement. Our translator comes outside to tell us that
there are American doctors here and requests that we all come say
hello. To be honest at first we weren’t thrilled with the idea. This
year we’ve had our fair share of being the show-and-tell; we show up
somewhere and all the sudden people are being brought out of the
wood-works to say hello to us as if we’re celebrities or something.
So we kind of figured we’d walk our sweaty selves into a room of
straight-laced American doctors who probably don’t want to be on
display, shake hands, smile, say hello, make a little small talk, and
be back to work. Wrong!
As we drug
ourselves up to the church we were greeted by,
Oh
it’s so great to meet ya’ll!
What?!
Did we just
hear someone use the
grammatically
incorrect but very amazing phrase
ya’ll?
Our hearts immediately
warmed as we were embraced by several wonderful ladies in
bright-colored scrubs smiling and laughing with each other. We
were instantly friends. This group of awesome women are
traveling with a church from Georgia and they are here in Ukraine
partnering with local churches to provide people with free medical
check-ups.
They invited us in to see
the clinic they had set up inside the church. They asked all about
our trip and listened intently as we described the details of our
year. They encouraged us and even helped us poke fun at Brian. They
gave us hugs even though they were clean and smelled good. Basically
they treated us like their own and they loved on us like a mom would.
Who would have thought that God would send a group of women all the
way from Georgia to come love on some smelly World Racers during
their last few days away from home? God
knew just what we needed.
Like I said,
these women took us in as their own and they immediately began to
shower us with blessings. We got to laugh and joke together, we got
to see funny pictures of them on facebook, and some of us were lucky
enough to get back rubs.
They
even gave us all free check-ups!
On our last
day with our new friends they brought us a huge goody bag. They had
all rummaged through their luggage and compiled a
jumbo bag of treats to help us make it through these final
days of the Race.
We got Ritz
Bitz and Tootsie Rolls!
Kendall was
sick in bed but it brightened her day to get granola
bars and Twizzlers.
We even got
noise makers so we
could celebrate together when we land in America. Yeah!
you so much Diane, Donna, Sherry, Rose Mary, Kim, Sam, and Monta Rae!
You all were an amazing blessing to us, we love you, and we will not forget you!
