I made it!

After 24 hours of travel--filled with 3 babushka friends at LAX, feeling alone and so out of place in Moscow, my Russian friend Alexander on the flight to Kiev, and a 4+ hour slightly scary careening-around-corners-way-faster-than-it-felt-like-we should mashootka ride to Anika's apartment in Sumy--I arrived in one piece! Enjoyed about 3 hours of sleep, then was up and training/taxiing/walking to the Pravda orphange for graduation day! (needless to say, last night's 10 hours of sleep felt AMAZING) Finally got to meet so many of these kids I've heard so much about over the past few years...and let me tell you, it was amazing.

I was a little nervous and unsure of how it would be, since I don't speak the same language and am a total outsider and newcomer to the kids. But apparently having Anushka as "muya seestra" grants me much credibility, because from the first time I said "Menya zavut Kari," I had kids who wouldn't leave my side! First the quiet-but-faithful Elana, not saying much but continually smiling my direction glued to my hip. Then the spunky and slightly in-your-face Talia, the author of the "Ya rada, ya rada!" dance with me (apparently in Ukrainian they don't have a word for "excited", so Anika told me "ya rada"--I'm happy--got the idea across. Since it was about all I knew to say, I kept saying it to these two girls over and over again. And now it's mine and Talia's favorite song and dance!). Right before graduation I met (for the third time, I think; so many new faces and names, it was hard to keep them straight!) Leela, who pulled me into the ceremony with her minutes after we became friends (I wish people were so welcoming in America!). Amazing, to be so welcomed into their world, even if only for an afternoon! Humbling, to be a complete stranger in a completely strange place, and to have to rely so heavily on others to communicate the simplest things. Exciting, that I get to spend 10 days of camp getting to know these kids more!!!

I'm definitely still adjusting to things, though--jet lag, new people, new places, the unknown in general. I'm definitely one of those people who likes to know my part to play and what's coming next, and that's not so much how they roll here. So if you think of it, friends, pray for me...

>>That I'll be able to be a blessing to all I come in contact with--the kids at the orphanage, the kids at the apartment, Anika, Annie, and Melissa, the rest of the camp team--even when (and ESPECIALLY when) I'm feeling a little unsure of myself.

>>That I'll learn how to communicate without words, since that's not such an option, but with what I do (hey, does that remind anyone else of 1 John 3:18).

And to sign off, I'd like to leave you all with an amazing quote from a great book I read half of on the way here, "Everything is Illuminated." This line comes at a part where Alexander (a Ukranian) is consoling his friend Jonathan (an American) about an unfortunate thieving Jonathan had occur while riding a train in Ukraine...

"Please do not let your experience in Ukraine injure the way you perceive Ukraine, which must be as a totally awesome former Soviet republic." :)