Day 5.2--Housekeeping

I finally slept last night.  The night before, I had not been able to sleep at all.  I've never been through that before.  It was very discouraging to watch the sun rise and know that I would go through yet another day feeling groggy and sick to my stomach.  The phone call telling us that yes, Nastia's paperwork was in (hallelujah) but no, you can't go to the orphanage yet didn't fall on happy ears and a rested, strong mind.

Yesterday was a challenge for both of us as we had to swallow a pill we really didn't want to SEE, let alone TAKE.  This morning is a little easier as we are able to see some of what the Lord is doing in our lives and have a little more perspective.  I'm sure a full night's sleep helps with that as well.

Since we knew we were going to be here for a few more days, we headed back to the store to get  more "supplies" as we hunker down for a little while longer.  We had run out of water, but since it was the Sabbath we waited it out until Monday.

Marsh is having to just write and write and write so he needed some snacky food to keep him going and we didn't have replacement trash bags and such.  It's amazing what a roll of paper towels in one's possession will do for a person!

So, yesterday afternoon it was off to the neighborhood market.  We went after I had slept off a few hours of sleep depravation and we let the unwelcome news set for a bit. We picked up ingredients to make olivye (the modern version of Ukrainian potato salad--apparently the original olivye is nothing like todays' recipe...potatoes, carrots, eggs, peas, pickles, cucumbers, mayo), veriniky (dough wrapped potatoes...these are premade and frozen...just boil...yum!), smetana (think sour cream Ukrainian style...waaaaay better than sour cream, though...this goes on the veriniky), frozen veggies and pilmieni (dough wrapped meat...also premade and frozen, yummy with smetana and pepper).  It's weird to buy so much premade, frozen food!  Cooking and doing dishes for two is also very strange.

We also bought laundry detergent.  The cool travel laundry things my parents gave us for the trip were left in our orphanage region for when we returned.  I left everything I knew we'd want when we got back so we wouldn't have to haul it all over again.  I never counted on a week in Kiev before getting back to all my stuff! 

So, now that I've had an actual night's sleep, I've done laundry (it all has to hang to dry before we leave in a couple days) and made an actual meal (Marsh has been doing that since we got here...let's face it, he's a better cook and he loves it plus I've been a nauseated zombie).  Now I feel a little more normal.

When we woke up this morning Marsh, who had a harder night, suggested that we just stay on Utah time.  We ultimately decided against it, but I can see his reasoning.  It's really, really hard to deal with jet lag.  I'm not sure if it's because I'm getting old or what but the time change has been really hard for me both trips.  I told Marsh we would have serve our missions stateside because I will be totally useless overseas.  He laughed at me and said, "You poor girl!"  Just like his wife to worry about things that far in the future.

I have contemplated calling the mission home in Kiev to see how I can serve while we're here.  Marsh is really busy writing and I am otherwise just reading, studying and journaling.  I'm sure there are better things to do with my time. The president and his wife are about our age and have children at home!  Their story is quite interesting.  You can read about Sister Klebingat here:  www.mormonwomen.com/2011/04/20/embracing-a-culture-of-faith/   

Some of our thoughts have been occupied with why we are in the situation we are in.  We have watched three families (two from Utah, one from New York), all dear friends of ours now, go through this process pretty smoothly and pretty much according to plan.  It is our assumption that someone dropped the ball at the beginning of our process, forgetting to make sure Nastia's paperwork was in the SDA prior to us submitting our dossier. I hope that this slip up will help make sure other families with similar sibling situations have all boxes on the checklist marked before they fly half way around the world.

That being said, I do believe that our lives are orchestrated by God down to the detail for our learning and growth.  Hopefully our experience will save others heartache and difficulty later on, but in the meantime this has been an important learning experience for me. As usual, I am being shown where my weaknesses are, but also learning about aspects of faith that I didn't know existed and power in faith that I didn't know I had.

The challenges are simply situations we are given to practice the virtues we have been taught and exercise the power and knowledge He has given us through former experiences.  If we go through life forgetting to look for the lessons, we will be less prepared for the coming challenges.

Love to you all.