Bleak House (a mid-week update)

Okay kiddos - here's the deal: You want new posts, you need to shower us with comments. Capeesh? Zach - nice job bro. You are the king of the comment. Also, a little housekeeping: If your name is "Jen" - we know lots of Jens and believe me when I say we love them all - please include some sort of special identifier (ex: Jen B. or V. from church...Jen from the neighborhood...Jen who used to live in India...etc.). Know that as we're sitting in our sucky little flat in Ukraine this helps us to, you know, think the warm, happy thoughts that come with blog comments. The types of thoughts that will get us through this until we get home.

Ahh...exhale. Glad that's done. (ps - Ted wrote that first section)

Yesterday we moved to a new apartment. Originally we thought we might move to a totally different city, depending on where the child we would be matched with would be located. Even after we found that Dima was here in the Kiev area, we knew we would move because at $95/night, we would run out of money if we stayed there. So yesterday we packed everything up again (much easier than packing to fly overseas) and went and waited out on the curb for Vadim to pick us up and take us to our new place – the place we will most likely spend the duration of our stay. It was a little suprising to see an Italian couple climb out of Vadim’s car, with all their stuff, and move directly into the place we’d been staying. We knew that it had been booked for someone new, but didn’t expect that they would literally take the key out of our hands and put it in theirs! I immediately felt guilty for not cleaning the place better. I had sort of thought that, hotel-like, someone would clean between us and the next person – not that l left it trashed or anything, but I hadn’t cleaned thoroughly. And I hadn’t changed the sheets on the bed – mainly because there was only 1 set. Oh well – another example of how knowing what was going on really would have been an advantage!

So we had gotten rather used to our original apartment – complete with almost American bathroom, a decent kitchen (with a dishwasher, which I never used, but no oven, which I would have used a lot) and 2 totally separate rooms. The bedroom had been small but the livingroom had a nice comfy loveseat and a chair, along with (most notably) a very big TV and dvd player. We had been told, in Vadim’s sketchy English, that "old apartment: very good! New apartment….good.” So we knew this one could be a step down, but were a bit unprepared for the realities of the new place. Let’s just say, a few tears were shed, and last night we all felt rather low. However, after a good night’s sleep, I think we can see these things in a better light. The new place is a lot smaller (probably 400-500 sq ft, although I’m no judge of these things. I just know it’s noticeably smaller than my first post-college apartment, which was a roomy 600 sq ft.) but still in a nice area of Kiev, and thankfully still very close to where we were before, and most importantly our new friends and the church we attended on Sunday. The kitchen actually has a stove and oven, but if I’m going to be able to use either I’ll have to buy some basics – like a cookie sheet or pan of some sort to use in the oven, a dishtowel and even some spoons. As there is no toaster here, I’ll have to learn to toast the old-fashioned way, in the oven (assuming I can buy a pan or something to put in the oven.) But yet, this morning as I was doing my quiet time, I was reading about the Israelites, and their struggle with contentment – how their complaining about the plain diet or their circumstances was really complaining about the Lord. I want to be careful that I am not guilty of the same sin – so, I will list the things about this apartment that are better: there are ice cube trays, so I can make ice! There is an oven, so I can bake! The bed is much softer, and we slept better last night that we had the whole previous week! The washing machine is bigger, so I can do 2x as many clothes at once (which is still about ½ an American-size load, but still.) We have an interesting (if loud) view of the busy street below. We are close to things we had become familiar with already, a big grocery store, our friends and church. And most importantly, we are all together as a family, safe, here for a really great kid, and God is with us – for this we are truly grateful.