I am His beloved

It was nice to be lazy and hang around the flat on Saturday before we went to the circus at four. I watched one of Louie Giglio's talks from Passion about Jesus rescuing us before we are sent to our burial.

"Wake up, O sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you." -Ephesians 5:14

It was a great reminder of the place I was back when I first heard this talk in January and to see where I am now. The struggles I have overcome, the struggles I still put myself through, and my Savior who is stays constant through it all. Little by little I'm making it through the book I had mentioned in a previous post, "Abba's Child" and I'm being stretched and grown by each page that I read.

"...the heart of it is this: to make the Lord and his immense love for you constitutive of your personal worth. Define yourself radically as one beloved by God. God's love for you and his choice of you constitute your worth. Accept that, and let it become the most important thing in your life."

I'm learning that I should be seeing myself as not only one forgiven by God's grace, but one deeply loved by Him. I am His BELOVED! Only when I can fully grasp that will I be able to love myself and live my life glorifying to Him. Needless to say, I am not only having a great time in Ukraine, but I am also learning so much about the Lord and His sweet promises to me!

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We arrived at the circus and I had no clue what to expect. Ann and Nadya were excited because the circus is something they only get to do once a year. It was very similar to our circuses in that there was popcorn and cotton candy, balloon animals, and animals to take pictures with, but it was a little different because it was a permanent building where only the circus is held, and there were no large animals like lions or elephants. The acrobatics were amazing and scary to watch.  

Out of all the years Ann has gone to the circus, she has never been picked out of the crowd to be part of a performance, and somehow I was picked... twice! The crowd favorite was a clown that came out between acts. This was the first time that he picked me out of the 400+ people there!

(At the end, I'm holding a baby doll if it is too difficult to see!)

The second time I was picked was only because another lady was in the ring and her daughter started crying so she had to go sit back down. I guess because I was on the front row and he knew I wasn't too shy to go out there, he picked me again for a group skit.

At the very end when he brought me back to my seat he pointed to his cheek for me to kiss, so I leaned in and he turned to where I kissed his lips, so that was the reason behind my yelp!

It was such a fun experience and I'm proud to say I was in a Ukrainian circus!

On Sunday we woke up early and got a taxi to the train station. Most people here have dachas (or country homes) to grow fresh fruit and vegetables. We had an hour train ride out to the country and then a local village person gave us a ride. It is usually a twenty minute walk each way, which is hard to believe when they have pounds of freshly picked produce to carry. Once we got there Zoya prepared a second breakfast for us and then I had a nice long nap. Ann and Eugenia share their dacha with her parents and are a few houses down from her aunt and cousin's.   Ann showed me around their plot of land and explained the different plants and had me guess a few. The only obvious ones to me where the garlic and peppermint plants. It was nice being in the fresh air miles away from the closest city and eating food as it was picked. Ann made the observation that it had the same feeling as being at the monastery, very peaceful and serene. It's pretty clear through all of the pictures that it was a beautiful place and I wish we could've had more time there! We left about an hour before the train arrived so we would be sure not to miss it. We walked to the train station because it was downhill. I told Ann that this was a good preparation for when I'll be in Colorado in a little over a month!

I loved all of the mixed matched furniture and fabrics. It gave the house a true country feeling

The flowers Ann painted

Breakfast Number Two 

The patio we sat at and where they have dinners.
Sometimes Nadya will pull a cot out here and sleep in the open air!

Freshly picked raspberries

A flower they dry and use for sore throats and tooth aches 

Mulberries

Recycled concrete window sills. Igor brought these one by one to make the patio. 

Cucumbers

Raspberries. Yum!!

As fresh as they come!

Red currant

Putting me to work!

Soon to be grapes

Tool used to pick fruit from trees

Cherry blossom

My Ukrainian sister!

Lucia showing me how to harvest potatoes

Signing their wall using charcoal. It was harder to write with that than you would think, hence the sloppy writing!

Attempting to show me how to crochet 

Not too successful...

The root cellar where they store food in the winter and summer

Zoya added sheets to give the cucumbers some shade

Each time Zoya leaves the dacha she feeds this little guy.
He knew when we walked up that we had some tasty bones waiting for him.

A larger dandelion calls for a larger effort

Yesterday was another day relaxing at the flat trying to keep out of the heat. Ann had to go to work, but Nadya and I played Connect Four and chess. I'm not proud to say that I only won the less strategic of the two. It was enjoyable to have some more time with Nadya, and especially because she HAD to speak English since Ann wasn't there.

Later on we went to an art exhibit where a local artist paints portraits of people in a different time period. One of the paintings was of Nadya's music teacher! I couldn't believe the detail that went into the paintings to make them look so realistic.

From there we went to an Adidas store, where the prices were surprisingly higher than in the US. It seems weird because the salaries here are much lower. I was hoping to get a jersey for either Ukraine or Italy for the Euro Cup. I asked Ann if we could try and find some face paint to get into the spirit for Ukraine's first match against Sweden. She had never seen any face paint and we were skeptical of finding any, but Nadya knew just the store to go to. They ended up having it and only one set of paints left, so we had gotten really lucky! I felt like it wasn't going to be enough so I found a Ukrainian flag a couple of stores down. Ann doesn't usually follow soccer (or "football"), and because it was the sport I played my whole life I had to get them excited! We painted up, rearranged the furniture, and blared the cliche soccer song "Ole." The first half flew by with no goals, and then we found ourselves down 1-0 51 minutes in. Ukraine tied it up just 3 minutes after Sweden scored and we were jumping around and screaming like true football fans. At the 60 minute mark, Andriy Shevchenko came through for Ukraine with his second goal and for the final score 2-1! We jumped around, were cheering, and even played "We Are the Champions" by Queen... classic. Such an exciting and memorable night!

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