My whirlwind trip

October 5-15 I was outside of Ukraine. That was weird, but the trip was wonderful. It was really strange to have all the travel--so much travel!--go smoothly. No evacuations, no delays, no explosions: I guess that is what normal life is like when you're away from war. 

(I will say that planning and setting everything up before I went seemed nightmarish. Again: so many details! And I was doing it all with, as Will said, "children sitting on my head" most of the time, sometimes very literally. Our favorite little people who were our guests for the whole month before I went were with us up until the day before I left. Their family was moving out of our house while I was packing for my trip.)

The purpose of the trip was three days of meetings in New Jersey with the AmblesideOnline Advisory and Auxiliary. (I'm on the Auxiliary.) We have lots of online meetings and work together behind the scenes all the time, but they decided that we needed some focused time together in person to go over the upper years of the curriculum and make changes. Back when I looked at tickets to go, I saw that the cheapest airport to fly out of was Vilnius, which put a visit to Raia into my head, and then the dates of Asya's return trip fit in, too.

So, I travelled all day by bus to Krakow, spent the night there, and took trains all the next day to get to Vilnius. After another night there, I had a little bit of time to walk around Vilnius and see sights from books that our girls and I have read before my flight to Denmark. Denmark was the only place where things were a little tight; that flight was a tiny bit late, but a lot of people were making connections, so they held the next flight, and I made it.

Then I arrived in the USA. That was the only unpleasant moment of the whole trip. I hadn't been there for 7 years, but always before I'd heard that weird-to-me phrase "welcome home" and stamp and through. This time a passport that had never been in the USA and coming from Ukraine meant that I was whisked away to a back room for aggressive questioning. But I got through that, met up with my friends, and made it to the beautiful house in the woods they'd rented for our time together.

The first morning in New Jersey (or New York? we were right on the state line) I saw a bear! Like I said, the house we were staying in was out in the woods. I was drinking coffee on the deck very early before anyone else was up, and I saw a bear walk by. Then I went down to the creek and saw coyotes. There were deer and chipmunks all around. 

We spent our focused time together talking, working, and laughing. It was amazing. Really, these women are the best. Any time I get to be with them is like a bit of heaven on earth. We sat around the table inside or on the deck and worked through one AO year after another, discussing books, books, and more books. All too quickly it was over. Saturday morning we packed up and headed to a very iconic diner for brunch. I felt like we were in a movie about small-town America. After lingering there, we went on to the airport and flew off in all directions.

Even then, my good adventures weren't over yet. When I arrived back in Lithuania, I got on a train to Klaipeda, where Raia is. She met me at the train station, made sure that I got to my little hotel (a room in an elderly lady's house), then went back to her dorm. Her days are very full, but the next day I sat in the library and food court at LCC and spent time with her between her classes and meetings and the tour she was giving for guests. That night we went to a poetry reading together. Tuesday I went for a long walk by myself, then sat around again. In the evening we went down to the sea to watch the sun set. Then Raia took me to a little cafe there on the beach. It was all just ideal.

The third morning of this leg of the trip I started out on a set of trains which brought me to Krakow and Asya by evening. It was so good to see her again after her six weeks in the USA! She and I spent the night in a hostel, then got on a bus the next morning. And then we were home.

A bunch of photos, in random order:

Yes, very random. Last photo of the group:
In the bus on our way home.

Klaipeda, Lithuania

Something we always notice as soon as we cross the border

Entering Lithuania

Lithuania loves us. (Thank you!)

A fun part of Vilnius

No photo of the actual bear that I saw,
but this was in the house there in NY/NJ

NY also loves us. (Thank you!)

Oleshky thoughts

Oleshky has been in the news a lot lately, and that's good. Good that a terrible situation is getting attention, at least.

Personally, I just found out that someone I know got out from there and arrived in free Ukraine. Traveling from occupied territory is a long, roundabout journey,* and she had recently been wounded, so it was probably doubly hard. The photo I saw of her was so shocking that I cried. Her face looked sweet, but she used to be a powerful, polished, businesswoman type, not sick and elderly. I'm not going to share the photo. 

The photo of her and contrast with the appearance I remember made me think of when the former mayor of Kherson was returned from captivity last year. At that time there were lots of before and after photos of him going around online. Here's one:

Now, the contrast in the person I know is even more drastic, if you can imagine that. And she was just living under occupation, not in actual captivity. This is why I want to scream: 

Ukraine cannot give up occupied territory! It must be returned!

The occupiers are monsters and this is what they do to innocent people. 

That's all for now. I just thought I would add my voice to current events in Oleshky and give a reminder that what is happening in occupied territory is not right. 

*This map from Kyiv Independent shows how people have to go all the way around now, for what used to be a quick trip across the river.

First two weeks of school?!

I wanted to write something the first day of school, then the first week, and now we're already headed into our third week?!? It would probably be weird to be teaching just one child for the first time in many, many years, but I feel like I've been thrown all the way back to the beginning of our homeschooling anyway, with one in school and three preschoolers running around. Oh, and now we have a university student in the house, too:

I haven't had a free moment to feel any weirdness of just teaching Bogdan, of having him in high school, or anything at all. Instead of life slowing down at the end of summer, it went wonderfully crazy. Asya left for her grandparent visit, and the same day a family of five moved in with us. They're our beloved friends from Kherson, and their children are our "imaginary grandchildren." For a while they lived here in Frankivsk, then went to Kyiv, and now they're moving their family back here. They're staying with us until they find a place to rent. 

The next day Vika, Asya's friend from church in Kherson, arrived with her mother. They were also staying with us until Vika could get settled. It turned out that she's settling with us! She is going to be renting the room in this house that our landlord used to live in. So, her mother was here for a few days, and then left. Vika, of course, stayed on.

Since then my friend from Kherson wanted to stay with us to visit her son who was on leave here and someone else who would usually stay with us came through town. I had to tell both of them that there was no room in the inn. (But then to add to the craziness I had to make a quick trip to Kyiv to get a document, and I got to visit my friend there.)

So, we're alive and well and actually starting another school year. A few more photos from the first day:

Kayaking

One of the most fun parts of this summer was a three-day kayaking and camping trip that we went on with the older kids from our Sunday school. Our pastor's wife, who is also one of the Sunday school teachers, leads these kayaking trips for other people. Last year Bogdan and I went with her on one, and this year Asya went with a group of adults that she took just before this. But this trip she planned for our little group. She said that she took three Hunsuckers to captain the three boats other than hers. We had a total of four kayaks, twelve people: eight kids from the Sunday school, Asya, Vira, and I (three Sunday school teachers), and Tanya aunt/guardian for two of the kids and friend/leader for all of them.

I shared all of my photos here, and Tanya's photos of kids and nature are online, too. Enjoy!

Asya's adventures

Asya left today for six weeks in the USA. This will be her first time there without the rest of us, and it's been half her lifetime since the last time she went at all. She was 9 the last time we went. Now she's 18. 

Today she has an all-day bus into Poland. Tomorrow she flies to North Carolina. (Also her first time flying alone.) Her grandparents there have three full weeks of travel and visiting planned for her. Then she'll have three weeks in Florida with my parents.

We've also been working toward her moving to Kherson after she gets back from these travels. I wrote a little bit about that in this prayer letter of ours. In some ways plans are coming together well, and in other ways we acknowledge that we have to hold them with very open hands. Just in the past week Kherson government has been telling people to evacuate. Not everyone will leave, and there will still be needs that Asya can help with, no matter what, but we have seen things changing. It was obvious while we were there this summer, and the situation continues to develop. (Asya would have heat in our house, but we need to work on electricity options.) Anyway, we need lots of prayer in general, Asya needs prayer and to build a team of supporters, and Kherson needs prayer.

Also, I saw a post (below or here) a while ago as I was thinking about this visit for Asya. Some of you reading this will probably see her soon, and I would love to have you ask her about her upcoming plans, how you can get involved, and also maybe use some of the questions in this post. She might seem shy, but you don't have to be. Ask away!

(Another link to read about Kherson.)

Grandparent visit, part 3

The other big thing we did with my parents was a day trip to Yaremche up in the mountains. We had gone there with our Sunday school in early spring, and I definitely wanted to go back now. It was a wonderful and beautiful day.

Tired dog on the way back

That's pretty much all the photos I have from a very full and good visit. We're so glad they could come!

Grandparent visit, part 2

After the trip to Kherson, back in Ivano-Frankivsk we finally celebrated Will's birthday, a month late. We went to the Crimean Tatar restaurant, and thoroughly enjoyed the atmosphere and good food. Apparently I didn't take a single photo, though, at least not until we got ice cream for dessert at a different place afterwards: 

One of our neighbors is a beekeeper. He had been waiting to meet my parents and show his amazing yard, so he and his wife sent over a huge bowl of various tomatoes and basil as an invitation to visit. Asya's friend Ira from Kherson/Kyiv was visiting, so the girls made pizza with very fresh ingredients that night. And we had a lovely visit with the neighbors, touring their yard, seeing the beehives, and then just sitting and talking for a good long time.

(Bogdan took this photo while lying in their hammock.)

We also had a cookout one night while Ira was here:

Sunday was special. The church here baptized two new members at the river before the morning service. (A random man walking by joined in our group photo?!)

Even though I didn't take many photos while Mom and Dad were here, I still have at least one more set to share.