April 19, 2009 Ukrainian Easter and Time Warps

Happy Easter again! This morning we woke up at 6:30am to go to the blessing of the Easter basket, orthodox style. It's much like the blessing the US Ukrainians have, only here the sprinkling is more like going through a water sprinkler! The priest blessed our basket, then POW we were sprinkled with a small paint brush type thing. As people left I thought about the ride at the water park, you know, the one where you stand on the bridge and get wet as the passengers ride down.

Alla baked all day yesterday. They make Easter bread, which is cyliderical because they bake the bread in cans kind of like the folgers cans back home. They also boil eggs and decorate them with the same bands we have back home, just decorated orthodoxically (I know, that's so not a word).

I also got some background info on my Eli, too. Apparently, Alla and another worker fell in love with Maxim as soon as he came in to the orphanage, which must have been at birth. She said he was so small and thin they didn't think he would live. So the two workers took shifts feeding him every hour to get him back to health. They doted on him and loved him very much, not letting anyone else care for him. When he was 2, he went in to the groupa he's in now. I owe them so much for saving my Maxim! He's adapting well to having a mom, which is credited to them. He'll still have some issues to iron out when we get back home, but all in all he's a well adjusted, very intelligent child. And that's partly due to the wonderful care Alla and the other worker gave him early in his life.

Alla is such an amazing woman! She made us borcht and a potato dish that were INCREDIBLE! And she also made enough bread for her daughter, my mom and I, and the kids in her groupa, PLUS a woman that can't get out. She truly has a wonderful heart and I'm so thankful God brought us together.

Other than that, I'm starting to get anxious to get home. This waiting period is probably the most difficult for me...I've been here a month tomorrow...can you believe it? The time has gone by so fast! There's still a lot to do, but I'm hoping to leave on May 1st...Please pray for that!

Speaking of time, one of the titles of this post is Time Warp. I'm telling you, the Ukraine must be in some sort of time warp, and I'm not talking fashion. You see, time seems to be a bit reversed here. I'm at the internet and you would expect time to be flying by, right? WRONG! This is something I enjoy, and the time is slowly ticking away. And you would expect the time to drag on as I'm grocery shopping or doing chores, right? Totally not true. I'm doing laundry and POOF it's time to see Maxim. I'm not saying this time warp thing is bad...just unexpected. Hey, I'll take this anytime, it's just the reverse of what happens back home. Oh, another example. The court was behind because one of the assistants was stuck in traffic. Dave and I stood for an hour, AN HOUR, and it seemed to fly by. I looked at the clock and said "Hey, we've been here for an hour." Dave didn't believe me at first. Funny, huh?