Life in Ukraine

Well I have held off writing this because I wanted to have pictures, please read the previous post about this, but I guess words will have to do for now. We are blessed to be staying in a beautiful big home with a fully gated front and backyard. The owner has colorful flowers everywhere and we are keeping their sweet dog so the kids are having a blast with that. A neighborhood boy comes over often and speaks russian to us 90 miles an hour even though we tell him constantly we don't understand him. About every other sentence he says hello, which is the only word he knows in English. After a couple of hours of playing I tell him goodbye in Russian but he just says hello to me, he knows exactly what I am saying. I have to walk him out the gate to get him to go home! He is only 6 and I have never even seen his mother. Our next door neighbors who are christians and one of whom speaks English say his family are not believers so we are praying to have some opportunites with them in the future as we learn Russian.

Spencer is really enjoying school. The other missionary kids from all different ministries around Kiev have been so friendly and fun to be with. He attended youth group last friday night and really enjoyed that. The classes will be challenging so pray he continues to be diligent particularly in Algebra 2 and Russian.

We have been to several different grocery stores which aren't too hard because half the brands are American and our friend has always been there to interpret, but once we get a car that will not always be the case. People seem to be understanding. What is hard about it is that we want to talk to people! We feel rude, especially on the train; people always talk to the children and they aren't able to respond. The kids are so confident though they are not the least bit afraid and are constantly asking how to say things in Russian then saying them to the people they meet. The Stemples, the American family we work with, just adopted a 9 year old Ukrainian girl who only speaks Russian, Marina. She and Katherine are really learning from each other to speak the others language. They play for hours!

Carra is really loving this semester at Moody and such a surprising praise, she is on the same floor with a new girl whose parents are missionaries in Kiev. Spencer is in the same grade with and has gotten to know her brother here at school in Kiev. We hope to meet their parents soon.
So Carra will have someone she enjoys to fly to Ukraine with for Christmas!!! God is so good to us! Well we will write more later.

In His Care,

The Claxtons