Alive in America!

Yep, after 2 days of little-to-no-sleep, a 3-hour delayed flight from Moscow and an hour of trying to find my dad in LAX, I FINALLY made it home in once piece! Slept for 10 1/2 hours that first night and woke up NOT feeling like an emotional wreck anymore...ha. Life is returning to normal, I'm in the process of unpacking and putting away the random odds and ends strewn about my bedroom floor and catching up on things at home. Like In-N-Out. And pizza. And Thai food. And good food in general. And Disneyland. So if any of you would like to assist in bringing me back up to speed in any of these areas, feel free to give me a call! :)

The last few days in Ukraine, I was asked by the kids several times: What do you like better, Ukraine or America? Not an easy question; I definitely didn't love Ukraine itself. But those kids...oh, those kids. Misha. Bogdan. Sasha. Alec. Natasha. Ira. Ira. Alla. Christina. Elina. Slavik. Vitalik. Slavik. Denise. Ilia. I don't even know how to say or spell half of their names right, I don't even know half of their stories. But in those 10 short days of running camp, I came to love them so, so much!

In those 10 short days of camp, I swam with (and almost drowned...kinda) Bogdan and a million other kids as I tossed them around in the river. I went on an "excursion" with cool kid Misha throughout the orphanage grounds. I was taught how to count by my little buddy, Slavik. I led and debriefed (with the help of a translator, of course) teambuilding activities. I sang and danced like crazy with Katia. I played a crazy game of indoor futbol with Sasha and Yura, which I was sure we'd get busted for. I taught kids about s'mores. I took countless kids to ice cream at the magazine. Took (or had taken on my camera) around 1500 pictures. And so much more.

And even thought I couldn't really speak the language or share my faith verbally with these kids, God was still at work through other people and all around me. 5 kids became Christians on the last day, and all heard the good news about Jesus several times. Now they say they're going to get together and study the Bible on a regular basis. Doors were opened for the girls and Ukrainian leaders to keep up conversations about God with kids after camp, and I'm excited to hear what comes of it all. I found myself constantly being driven to prayer just out of the utter madness of it all at times. Yet even in the madness and unknown, God showed himself faithful to provide just what we needed, just when we needed it. And that was freaking awesome.

I'll work on getting up some stories, pictures, and videos over the next week or so. But in the meantime, I'm uploading a bunch to Facebook...feel free to have a look around! Thanks, friends, for all your thoughts and prayers over the past few weeks! If you'd like to hear more, I'd love to share more...over that In-N-Out, seriously...