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June 30, 2008 |
We've been at my grandma's since Friday night and we've been busy ever since. We had a bunch of family in town through Sunday, and at the same time we've been slowly trying to get my grandma's house in order.
My grandma was an avid collector, but not a collector of anything valuable. She's got a ceramic bird collection numbering around 142 pieces (expensive pieces). She's got probably nearly half that amount in these ceramic carousel horses (also very expensive). She also loved to read and has the complete hard back series of several authors including John Grisham, Nora Roberts, James Avery, Danielle Steel, and more. These books sat on shelves in her living room next to her 200-300+ VHS collection.
We have always known about her OCD (and we all do feel like it was most truly a disorder). She could never just buy one in a series of anything. A couple of years ago she told us about how she hated to "have" to buy Mission: Impossible III on DVD because her other two were on cassette. That's not the worst part, though: she hated the Mission: Impossible movies. But because she bought the first one, she had to buy the rest.
This problem of hers is probably best showcased in her most complete and extensive collection: her Beanie Baby collection. You know those big clear plastic Tupper Wear-type bins you can buy to store stuff in? She's got around 25 of those things filled with Beanie Babies (and some that have the larger Beanie Buddies). Best we can figure, she's got around 1,500, and not one of them is on display in her house. With every received order (or eBay win), she would put the tag protector on, then put it away in a bin, and put that bin out back in her storage shed, or stuff it in a closet (and I mean stuff).
Because this collection is really the only one that has any potential value, Katie and I are inventoring every single Beanie. We've got this 20-30 page list of every Beanie ever made, and we are going through each bin, Beanie by Baby, marking off what she has and which bin its located in. It's quite a project, and we still have no idea how to go about selling them. (Individually listing 1,500 Beanie Babies and their pictures on eBay is definitely not my idea of good time, much less mailing all of that!)
So that's what we're doing. How's your summer going?
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June 25, 2008 |
As I mentioned in a post almost a year ago, in the Russian culture the wedding ring is worn on the right hand. This was quite a change for Katie and I to get used to, but we did get used to it, and now we are both facing the challenge of wearing our rings on the other hand. I keep expecting to feel it on my right hand, and when I don't, I get scared that I lost it. And at the same time, I keep feeling discomfort on my left hand and can't figure out why. Funny.
We are in Lubbock now and are staying with Kris and Barbara Smith. It is good to be here and to see our friends, but as we were driving into Lubbock yesterday both of us starting getting this nervous feeling in our stomachs. Nervous from knowing that this is where our life will be now, I think, and knowing that our life being here means that it won't be there. I had a homesick feeling in my stomach all day yesterday.
Yesterday Katie and I both felt like we had overcome our jet lag, having stayed up the entire day and felt fine, but neither of us could sleep in passed 6:30 this morning. I guess we still need a little more time.
We're going to go and try to get our insurance situated today, and maybe look at some apartment options for when we get back here in August.
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June 23, 2008 |
As Brandon mentioned in his last post, we are in Arlington, Texas right now. We got in on Friday and have been able to rest and recuperate at Tim and Mina Burow's house since then. We have had a good time visiting and sharing stories with them about the people in Mariupol who we all love so much.
Yesterday we met with the church at Woodland West. We recieved such a warm welcome from our supporting congregation. They all were glad to see us and we heard a lot of thank you's and compliments for "a job well done." We met with some elders and mission commitee members over lunch to give a report on the work there, and then Brandon spoke that evening during the Finger Food Fellowship/Missions Update. We showed the picture slideshow of the year in Mariupol, and had a time of questions and answers.
Even though the "welcome home" was so warm and kind, I felt like crying for most of the day. People would ask us if we were glad to be back, and our answer was usually "yes and no" (except for the time Brandon said flat out, "no.") . We are of course happy to see people we love here in the States, but being here means that we don't get to be with the ones we love in Mariupol. Our hearts ache when we think about them doing the things we usually did with them, except now they're doing them without us.
We were able to talk to Andrei, Anya, and Sveta on Saturday because it was Andrei's birthday. What a blessing it was to hear their voices. But it broke my heart to hear him say that he wished we were there for his birthday party and that he missed us. I feel so sad knowing that we will no longer be able to jump on a bus and visit them on a Wednesday or Thursday afternoon. We won't be able to sit around their kitchen table, drink tea and share our lives together.
There is comfort knowing we will most likely visit them again sometime in the future, and we will look forward to the day that we all meet in heaven.
But even those thoughts don't ease the pain as much as I would hope.
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June 20, 2008 |
After an extremely long day of chasing the sun around the planet, we are getting ready for bed in Arlington, Texas. We flew from Donetsk, Ukraine to Munich, stayed the night there, then flew to Chicago, and from Chicago to Dallas. We are tired. Our flights went fine and were on time, so all of that is an answered prayer.
As we sat in Chicago waiting for our connecting flight, I felt very out of place. The way people act here just feels so uncomfortable to me. Things feel different. A couple of times we heard Russian speakers and it was like taking a breath of fresh air. Strange.
Talk to you soon...
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June 17, 2008 |
It's 11:41 — the end of our last day in Mariupol. Amazingly we are all packed and ready to go, and have been since late this afternoon. All the credit for that miracle goes to my wonderful wife who has slowly been packing and partly living out of a suitcase for the last week or so. Our taxi leaves at 11:30 in the morning and it feels good to know we won't spend our last few hours running around making sure we haven't forgotten anything.
Several friends are coming over to say goodbye before we leave which will be pretty difficult. And because we're into torturing ourselves, Sasha, Ira, Vanya, and Sasha are going all the way to Donetsk with us to see us off at the airport. I was looking at Sasha tonight, admiring how he has grown so much from the shy little boy he once was. He is a man now, and thank God he is a godly man. I don't want to say goodbye.
It's amazing to think about what we were doing and thinking this time a year ago. We had just arrived and were completely overwhelmed by the task ahead. God has been good, and he has been faithful. Though we approach this next year with uncertainty, we do know that our God will bless us beyond our imagination just like he did this last year.
Below is a seven-minute slideshow (with audio) capturing moments of our lives from the last twelve months. I hope you all enjoy it as much as we did living it. (For those of you from Woodland West, please do your best to wait until Sunday night when we'll all watch it together.)
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