Back in 2009...

When I was in high school, I went to Ukraine a bunch of times. Over Christmas break my sophomore year of college, I got to go back during the winter with a small team. We lived in an orphanage and played in the snow and led Bible studies and had our hair done a thousand times each day by little girls. It was such a special time and a sweet trip. Well, I recently discovered videos of the trip that Jillian made right after we returned, and I thought why not? I'll share them!

Here's the video Jillian compiled from our trip to Ukraine. 

Interesting things about our time there:

I'd never shoveled snow before and we did that for so long that we were incredibly thirsty and  drained a couple pots of tea trying to quench our thirst, and eventually walked to a nearby store for water. Best water ever. 

I'd never been sledding before either. 

We took the kids ice skating and while I LOVE ice skating, it was the best time I've ever had on the ice. Kids falling everywhere and hanging on to us and having so much fun. Loved it. 

At night when the kids went to bed, we'd hang out and play games (the sort of "embarrassing" games we played in high school youth group) with the older Ukrainians and translators. 

And on our way back, we stopped in the Netherlands for a couple of days. We visited the Corrie ten Boom house right down the street from where we stayed in Haarlem, outside Amsterdam, and went in to Amsterdam to tour the Anne Frank House. Both great experiences, and although not the most savory city I've visited, the trip itself was a lot of fun and I loved the quirks about the town we actually stayed in. 

Interesting things about this trip I was reminded of when watching the video: 

We stole Caleb's belt for no apparent reason and wrote ransom notes for it. 

I had an ear infection and had to get powerful ear drops put in. 

There's a narrative at the end where I'm scared about a mouse in our room. 

My dad found a webcam that was facing the square our hotel was on, so Jillian and I went outside with umbrellas when it wasn't raining to make sure he could see us (there's a clip of us talking about it).

Jillian and Stephanie flew separately from the rest of us, and missed out on flying international business class, which was the best flight experience ever. It's a whole different world, with real silverware, tasty food, and seats that recline. I slept for 6 hours.