Before I give you my journal I would let you know that my family has suffered a tragedy. My duaghter Janessa has had a miscarriage after her 16 week of pregnacy. So I have been quiet here for awhile. I am going to the states to be with her and other family on the 14th of Dec. and returning to Kremenchuk on January 5th, Lord willing. Please pray for all of my family. Here now is my journal.
Friday, December 1, 2006 – Monday, December 4
In the morning I got ready to take my first days off since August – literally. About 11am, I left for Kiev to spend 3 days there. I rested. I read. I ate at TGI Fridays twice – very expensive, but very good and very American! I went to my first Russian speaking movie without a translator. I worshipped with a church of Christ there, had a late afternoon dinner with friends and visited with them until 9pm. On Monday morning I got up early and traveled back to Kremenchuk – about 4 hours. Then I turned around and went to the village for my afternoon class at 3pm where we had our 5 regular girls. By the time the day was done, I was pretty tired. However it was good to get away and get a break!
Tuesday, December 5
We had our last AIM meeting with Jared and Frankie as they will leave next Monday to move back to the States. Classes and all went well today. We had 27 for singing and then we celebrated Sasha’s birthday, preacher from Komsomolsk. We had our last singing night with Jared and Frankie. a lot of lasts this week.
Wednesday, December 6
Again we had a good day of classes. We had 9 girls in our younger classes. They want to have more classes a week. Then at the private school we had maybe 30 kids all together in our classes there.
Thursday, December 7
We went to the village today instead of Friday for our younger class because they couldn’t have in on Friday. We had 17 kids in class! This is such a great class!
Friday, December 8
Today was a day of lesson preparations, shopping, etc. that I haven’t done in a long time. We had our Fun Night with 15 people and good evening.
Saturday, December 9
Tragedy struck! I checked my email about 6am and there was a message from my oldest daughter Jenise telling me that my youngest daughter Janessa’s baby had died within her for unknown reasons, except that the heart stopped beating. I called both daughters and talked to them. They will use medication to induce labor. Janessa is in the hospital and in shock, even more than the rest of us. I broke down. I sent out some messages by cell phone and several responded to me and came to me and helped me through the day. I was in contact with Janessa and BJ several times through the day – but because of the time difference, I couldn’t be a lot until after 5pm our time – 9am, central time. Janessa will probably be in the hospital for 2 days. All Bible Clubs were canceled today – I couldn’t have taught anything. I couldn’t even think straight.
Sunday, December 10
When I called BJ in their evening, my early morning, he said that Janessa and he really wanted me to come to them, so I began to make flight arrangements and plans to come. When I called again around 5pm, Janessa was delivering the baby in great mental as well as physical pain. I have my flight plans together to leave on Thursday, December 15 and arrive in Omaha, NE at 11:30pm where BJ will pick me up. We had 37 at our evening worship and afterwards we had our good by for Frankie and Jared. It was very hard for all of us. Many tears were shed. They have really become a strong part of our lives and now they are leaving. They have blessed us greatly and we will miss them beyond measure! We love you guys!
Monday, December 11
I loaded up Frankie and Jared at 7:30am and headed for our hotel at Borispil, where the Kiev airport is. Kelli, Olya, Yulya and Alina took the train up. We spent the afternoon and evening together in Kiev. I went to bed about 8pm.
Tuesday, December 12
I got up at 2am to get Frankie off and to the airport where his flight left at 4am. The girls stayed with friends in Kiev and met us at the airport at 3:30am. Actually his flight didn’t leave until 4:40am, so we had more time together. HARD time! It was so hard to say good by! Then we all went back to the hotel for an hour and then returned to see Jared off at 7am. This was really hard too, maybe harder because it was the last one and it was all really final. Then we flew back to Kremenchuk – in my car – to get Alina back in time to take a 10:40am exam. We also got word today that Igor’s grandfather died. This was another hard blow for our family here. I got a haircut, did some errands, got an hour sleep, taught my class at School 9 with 7 kids and one new boy! Then to the bank, home again and people waiting for me. So I had no rest and no alone time. I had to finish preparing for the evening devotional and my talk. We had 19 this evening. Afterwards we went to the boys flat and finished clearing it out of a LOT of stuff they left. I got about 10:30 and went to bed!
Wednesday, December 13
This morning I caught up on this journal, made more travel plans on the internet and will email it out to you. I don’t know when I will write in it again, as I will leave early tomorrow morning and come back on January 5th. Please pray for my safe travels. It is really hard to leave my Christian family here with they having just had the trauma of having Jared and Frankie leave and not being able to celebrate the New Year with them – the biggest holiday of the year. But I am needed more in the States right now. I will travel much. Thank you for your love, prayers and support.
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