While I don't have any pictures of the party to share with you (Rach's internet connection is still down), I did manage to find some pictures of the girls' weekend to show everyone. As you know on Saturday, all three families in Khmelnetsky took a castle-hunting tour to the towns of Kamyanets-Podilsky and Chernivtsi, which are about 25km from the Romanian border. Here are some pictures I found online of the region and the castles they visted:
Castle in Kamyanets-Podilsky
Another picture of the castle...
ChernivtsiBTW, all of these pictures are © by the US-Ukraine Foundation (i.e., I'm not stealing them!) and can be viewed here with lots of other great photographs. I highly recommend this site to everyone to get a taste of what a beautiful and diverse country Ukraine is We didn't get to all the regions with photos, but I can vouch for every picture of Kyiv that is shown...absolutely wonderful! These will have to suffice until the girls' internet connection is back up at the hotel or they get home, whichever comes first.
Rachel and Ali say to tell everyone hello and that they miss you and being able to read your comments here on the blog! They continue to be adventurous and find new places to eat, shop, and enjoy what little time they have away from the orphanage. At a Greek restaurant they wandered into to a few nights ago, they were getting stuck on the Ukrainian-only menu (i.e., no English), when they ran into our wonderful, somewhat-English speaking cab driver, Gnadi, who so faithfully drove us around town until someone rear ended his 26 year-old Mercedes two weeks ago...anyway, he stepped up and ordered for them and saved the day! Everybody enjoyed seeing him there as well as he quickly became our friend right after getting to town. His English, which is pretty good for someone who has never left continental Europe, the pride he took in his city (as evidenced by driving us by every WWII monument, cemetery, and memorial in town!), and the great gifts from all over Europe he and his wife sell at the local bazaar each Sunday (we bought a beautiful bronze crucifix from Germany), endeared him to us right from the start. He's really a pretty cool guy with a great sense of humor, and we're all praying his car gets fixed soon since driving is his livelihood.
Enough rambling for today. I won't leave you with any strange Ukrainian pop star videos today (though I do have a really funny Ukrainian Army recruiting video on my blog over here). Just some great pictures of castles I've never seen and some second-hand tales of children's parties and new friends...can you sense my jealousy at having to come home? Ahhh...Хорошо (it's ok).
Rachel and Ali say to tell everyone hello and that they miss you and being able to read your comments here on the blog! They continue to be adventurous and find new places to eat, shop, and enjoy what little time they have away from the orphanage. At a Greek restaurant they wandered into to a few nights ago, they were getting stuck on the Ukrainian-only menu (i.e., no English), when they ran into our wonderful, somewhat-English speaking cab driver, Gnadi, who so faithfully drove us around town until someone rear ended his 26 year-old Mercedes two weeks ago...anyway, he stepped up and ordered for them and saved the day! Everybody enjoyed seeing him there as well as he quickly became our friend right after getting to town. His English, which is pretty good for someone who has never left continental Europe, the pride he took in his city (as evidenced by driving us by every WWII monument, cemetery, and memorial in town!), and the great gifts from all over Europe he and his wife sell at the local bazaar each Sunday (we bought a beautiful bronze crucifix from Germany), endeared him to us right from the start. He's really a pretty cool guy with a great sense of humor, and we're all praying his car gets fixed soon since driving is his livelihood.
Enough rambling for today. I won't leave you with any strange Ukrainian pop star videos today (though I do have a really funny Ukrainian Army recruiting video on my blog over here). Just some great pictures of castles I've never seen and some second-hand tales of children's parties and new friends...can you sense my jealousy at having to come home? Ahhh...Хорошо (it's ok).
2 comments:
Praise4 the Lord. I am so excited to hear that this day begins the final prep work and the soon arrival to USA! Ali, Rachel and Alice have really made us all proud. :o) God is so good.... We all look so forward to our chance to see CLark, and the rest of the Judd family.... we are so jealous that we have to wait. You know if there was a way I would meet them at the plane... Just know that my thoughts and prayers are with you all. Continue to keep us updated as we don't know when we will get to meet your precious child. Let us know in advance when we will get to see you all, a party in Louisville will be happin' :o) Love to all! Your friends/distant cousins in the great Blue Grass State!
Hi y'all....oh, I'm so glad it was just the internet being down. I was beginning to worry since no posting since Friday...whew! The news of tomorrow (or hopefully) being the final day at the orphanage for little Ruslin Clark is just the BEST!!! That is soooooo awesome!! Can't wait to meet him. He's such a little cutie.
The pictures of the castles are just lovely. They would probably be rolling on the floor laughing because...I could hear me now in one of those sounding like Gomer Pyle (golly!!!)..lol.
Let us know when all of the legalities are done and Rachel, Ali, Ruslin Clark & Aunt Alice will be coming home. Take care y'all. Much love,
Lori, Bryan, John & Christopher :)
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