Hi It's Mateusch (Matt!)

Dear Family and Friends,

So far, my introduction to the Ukraine has been fairly quiet; however exciting. As it turns out I have some possible distant relatives here in Tulchyn! My last name (Kwiatkowski) leads to some interesting conversations as Poland once ruled the Ukraine! Funny thing is, people always expect me to be able to speak Polish, but all I know is Ya Cha Ko Hum (I love you!). We spend the first day in Kiev, tripping to a couple old orthodoxed churches. We haggled with some market people and traveled on their very dependable train transportation. At the center of the city, all was decorated for the celebration of the holiday. There is a big Christmas tree and around it are about 15 Santas dressed exactly the same, smoking cigarettes. The one in the picture to the right was the "best" Santa and Jim quickly snagged a picture of him with Karen the day before. We think the cat is out of the bag when it comes to the children believing in Santa here....not too sure how that works with several Santas all in the same spot at the same time!!! Jim is able to communicate sufficiently in the Ukrainian language making things easier, but interesting at times. A Ukrainian tradition here is for people to travel door to door singing songs Christmas Eve and Day (they celebrated their’s 1/7), like our caroling. We got a knock on the door to see a couple in their late twenties, dressed very nicely, singing a Ukrainian song. However, at the end of their song, it is also tradition to then give them money! The next thing we knew, our doorbell was ringing for the next 2 hours…we didn’t answer the door!

The past few days have been wonderful, filled with opportunities to visit Roma at the orphanage. He has such a warm spirit, gentle and playful. Jim and I have had some great play time with him creating rough and tough games. He continues to love to throw things with his feet, place objects (really anything laying around) into his dumptruck, into a basket, or at each other! I have noticed that he enjoys finding the limits of things, taking them to their capacities. It is never enough to put just one or two items into the dump-truck, it always has to be filled to the brim. Jim and Karen had purchased a slinky that he loves to stretch out across the entire room! It is amazing to watch him do that as he continues to push and challenge himself with each task we so easily take for granted. He is so perseverant. The ladies at the orphanage let Jim feed him lunch yesterday. Roma was very adamant about feeding himself, something the workers never allow; they are very demanding in all they expect of the children…everything done quickly and institutionalized. So anyway, Roma constantly finds ways to adapt. He is so beautiful.

What an important day today !! We are dependent on God for everything, but especially the important documents which will determine the length of the rest of our stay here. Svetlana is currently obtaining documents to get Roma’s birth certificate and identification card with his name change. We will then also need to get his passport in order. Getting things accomplished here in the Ukraine is “like a box of chocolates”, you never know what you are going to get…thanks Forrest Gump. We remain in prayer that these important documents would get done quickly without fail. The past day and a half has been met with about 7-8 inches of snow; we also pray that all roads are passable as we will need to travel into Lidesian, a much more rural road system than you can imagine. Thank you for your prayers that all matters are laid at God’s feet as we wait to see how things will unfold.

We will be writing again soon as we have more information about the rest of the week!

Love,

Matt and Jim