That Place

Seven years ago, I boarded a plane for the very first time. It was the longest travel time ever taken (thanks to bad weather and cancelled flights), but resulted in a wonderful trip. 

That trip was to Ukraine, and the very first day that I was there, bouncing down a bumpy road to a little village, I was sold. I wanted to come back already, and I hadn't even left. 

For some reason, God has brought me back there a total of five times, which I can't believe even now. Each time has felt like the last, but for whatever reason, part of my heart is there and I guess I just can't stay gone. 

Year one - a wheatfield on the way to Borkiv (our first camp) with the lovely Kristine. July 2005.

And the last time I was there... January 2009.

It's been three years since I've been back, and I really didn't think I'd be going to Ukraine again. 

But here I am. 

Why am I going? 

My degree is in Intercultural Ministries. Because I'm in the World Missions department at Moody, my internship has to be overseas for at least six weeks. I was originally planning on teaching English in Asia, but then an opportunity to do my internship in Ukraine came up, and I knew it was God. I'm sure I'd love Asia (I really liked China), but Ukraine had my heart first. 

So for the next six weeks, that's where I'll be. I plan to post as often as I can while I'm away and give updates on things that are going on over there, but wanted to give a heads up. 

Pray for my flights over there and for reliance to be on the Lord during this trip. Pray also for Carson, who won't be joining me. He'll be working extra hours and gearing up for our move. 

See you in July!

Graduation

Graduation weekend began with my parents' arrival, but you'll hear more about that in a different post. 

On Friday morning, we had a graduation rehearsal. Dad came with me and took pictures, 

Here we are lining up.

I practiced receiving my diploma (took a screenshot from a video Dad took)

 Graduation Brunch

Moody Bible Institute Spokane Class of 2012 

(our biggest class yet... and you were going to say something about how small it was, weren't you?)

 Everyone who's been at Moody-Spokane at least four years...

Graduation Day

All the Intercultural grads

Naomi and I

Getting ready...

The chaos of lining up

Second-year roommate... one of my favorite professors

   

With our Campus Dean, Dr. Lewis

Rach!

Jamilla

And then... THIS HAPPENED... my most embarrassing moment. My shoe fell off while I was going up the stairs. Plus side - I got the most applause. Minus - I carried my shoe under my arm while I received the diploma.

But I still graduated

Yay!

Afterwards, there was plenty of talk of my little incident, and also plenty of pictures. My face hurt.

All the family that came - wow!

Blonde, Brunette, Redhead

Josie (my last-summer roommate) and I 

Tomato Street for lunch afterward.

This is exactly what happened...

I was exhausted and took a nap after lunch, but we had a picnic at Comstock Park that evening. 

Everyone who stuck it out to the end... there were a few more than this :) 

But the point of this post is... I'm DONE! SO thrilled about that! 

Second Year Celebrations

We were away the weekend before our anniversary, so we made a pit stop at home, and then headed to the Davenport Hotel for a night. It's about a fifteen minute walk from our front door, but it was still nice to celebrate our anniversary somewhere special. 

This is in the elevator.

Not the most inspiring view, but it was still fun to watch people nine stories down below. You can't see our apartment in this picture, but it's basically diagonally behind that white building on the right. 

I wanted steak, so we did Outback take-out. We didn't have two chairs, so we ate it on the floor of our room. And yes, Carson got a salad while I had steak and potatoes. 

Cotton candy for our "cotton" anniversary. He also got a bow tie and dress socks, all of which sound really boring, but he did want it!

A box full of cotton things... everything from socks and tshirts to beach towels to cotton balls. He really went with the theme. 

The shower

We made toasts. None of them were serious... things like "and here's to two more years!" were said. 

Leaving... 

And on our actual anniversary...

I tried on my wedding dress and am proud to say that it not only fits, but it was too big!  

 Not sure how that happened, but it was a pleasant surprise. 

So we had John take a few pictures of us, two years later. 

I might make it a tradition to try the dress on every year, just because I like it so much :) 

 Carson brought me these flowers and a card on our anniversary. He's sweet.