We got back to Ukraine about 10 days ago. It was so fun to be able to spend New Year's here in the village with people we dearly love. It has been snowing like crazy and very cold. That is for sure new for us as we usually try to go home during the cold winter months. I won't give you all the gross details, but making the trek out to the outhouse is not my favorite. For those of you that don't know, we are renting a space in the center of our village to open a cafe. It is seriously a dream come true. They are selling it for a very reasonable price but we need to rent first but the end goal is to buy it. The boys have been doing work on our house and slowly but surely it is getting better and better. There are currently 5 of us living basically one room which is always, lets just say, not boring.
We were here for Ukrainian Christmas and started new traditions that we hope to keep for years to come. Yesterday, we had "home" church which was really cool and we are excited to see what will come in the future. We recently just had a big discussion in our house about church and what that even means. I am a firm believer that church is important, but sometimes I think people can get stuck on church being a building and lose sight of what is really important about church, which is worship and fellowship. This can be done anywhere and not everyone has the luxury of a church building or even transportation to get to a church so we brought it to them. Our little village has no building (yet) for people to be able to gather and worship, so instead of taking a 2 hour trek to the city we used what we had and invited people into our home. I don't believe it will always be this way but I also firmly believe that for right now it is right and God is in no way disappointed with us for not going to an established church. We have never been the type to do things the conventional way and we sometimes get some backlash for that, but what I have learned is at the end of that day you have to do what you believe is right and what God is calling YOU to do. And that is not going to be the same for every person. Okay okay... That is enough of that, now look below of fun pics of what has been happening the last 10 days :) They are a little out of order. I am not the best with techy things so... I couldn't figure out how to move them to where I wanted. This blog took me like hours to do just for the darn pics...
Hi Melissa, this is Tina. When I petitioned for my husband John, I also had problems trying to coordinate the date and planning of our wedding with when we estimated immigration would allow John to come to US. I petitioned in Sept of 2003 and John did not arrive until August the next year! So 5 months seems not so bad. Good you have a lawyer, we did not. It was hard to schedule a traditional wedding when everything was so up in the air. But have faith and keep praying, God will provide a way. It will be beautiful and special, let the things you cant control just go and see how God will provide a new way. Blessings to you both! I am praying for you. Love the idea of a cafe BTW.
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