The Jolliff Family

We had our ultrasound on Thursday and all went well. Praise the Lord! (I am having some trouble getting the pictures online, but will keep trying!). Baby weighs right at 1lb and is head down. Though that will change multiple times before Baby arrives, I was glad to know Baby knows how to get in that position:) Baby was developing well and had all the vital organs. We decided not to find out the sex with this little one, just like last time, and we look forward to the arrival come this summer to find out boy or girl. For now, we are just thankful to God for a good report on Thursday and continue to pray for a healthy baby and pregnancy. "Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows." James 1:17

I didn't take a single picture of our fun morning at the Children's Museum. However, I did take a picture of what happened after the museum (plus Sam's big boy bed he is now in.)

Well, probably this won't be the last you will hear about Ukraine from me but we'll wrap it up for the short term. My trip to Ukraine with just amazing. From the moment I arrived at Luda and Vova's apartment, to the moment we flew out of the old school Kiev airport, I have so many memories, people and experiences that I am sure to never forget. I didn't honostly know what to expect when I said that I would go to Ukraine. I remember last fall Bev talking about Ukraine and the vision for the conferences and I felt called to go. I honostly didn't know why because I only knew two things about Ukraine... 1. it was cold and 2. it was half way around the world. But still, I felt called to go and so I did. Initially it was hard to leave, but God soon clarified the reason He would have me go. You see, on the surface we in America, I myself, and the Ukrainian people are oh so different. Literally world's apart. But once you talk with the people and get to know th...

After a big day of rearranging Sam's room and playing outside, we topped it off with dinner on the back porch. Just what a guy wants:)

We enjoyed a fun, though busy weekend. On Friday night, Hap headed to Louisville for an Upward Conference and meeting. He loves to hear Caz, the founder of Upward speak, and he also was able to have a planning meeting with some guys for soccer in the fall. Sam and I met up with Hap on Saturday morning at Preschool Messy Day at the church. It was super fun! Sam wasn't a big fan of getting paint on his feet but enjoyed "painting" with pudding and graham crackers. Then a trip to play in the pool. This was all in the church gym and he enjoyed himself! In the afternoon, we decided to paint the new baby's room. I don't have any pictures because it is a mess and we are in the process of moving lots of furniture around to make a room for the baby. It is excited to get things started for Baby #2. I have an ultrasound this week, so I'll post more about baby later on this week. Speaking of baby, though, I turned 21 weeks today. Over half way there:) Here i...

We did other things in Kharkov besides the Women's Conferences. I can not explain that every thing we did was wonderful and each experience just was better than the last in my opinion! Here is an overview of some of the activities the missionaries are involved in weekly and the ones I had an opportunity to participate in. One of the first nights we were in Ukraine we went to a Young Woman's Bible Study at Nadia's apartment. These ladies are going through a Bible Study on being good wives. These young women are being discipled by Nadia (one of the pastor's wives in Kharkov) as well as being taught about topcis such as how to be a good wife and mother. I think my most favorite thing we did while in Kharkov was going to the English as Second Language classes (ESL). We were able to go to three of them and I really enjoyed it. These students are mostly "professionals" and are eager to learn English. The way the class works is the first thirty minutes is ...

We were priviledged to work with four great missionaries while we were over in Ukraine. Keith and Wendy Wofford, Linda Gray, and Amanda Dillion all serve in Kharkov, Ukraine. Keith, Wendy and Linda have been serving in Ukraine for 10 years (I believe it's 10, could be more but I can't remember). Amanda has been in Kharkov for around 1.5 years and is learning the language well. These missionaries were so wonderful to be around and work with. They work hard at loving the people and connecting to the locals in various way. Keith and Wendy have two children who serve along side of them. I don't have a good picture of either Amanda or Linda, but here Amanda is in the yellow shirt during a Team Kharkov meeting. Each week the four get together to talk about prayer and praises going on in their respective ministries and lives. They have a time of singing and sharing. I was encouraged by being apart and I am sure it is nice for them to share together each week while they ...

Some Sam pictures from today. We played outside ALL morning and when we came in we were hot, notice no pants. So, since Sam is in a big boy bed the routine is I put him down, he plays for a few minutes, I remind him to get into bed and he naps. Well today, he found a pen in his room and the rest is history and how I found him when "reminding" him to get back into bed:)

I have a ton of pictures from the three conferences that we held. If you would like to see more, please let me know, but I am just going to post a few. I took alot of pictures of specific people that were at the conferences, but I'll tell you all about them. Tomorrow I will post about the "other things" we did with the missionaries while we were in Kharkov. In Ukraine, March 8th is Women's Day. It is sorta a combination of Valentine's Day and Mother's Day, except it is for all women. Women receive flowers, chocolate, and goodies from the men in their lives. Women of all ages get treats. It is a national holiday, so everyone is off work for it too. So a few years back, the missionaries in conjunction with some local Ukrainians decided to do conferences for women on that day, and that brings us to now. This being the first year that they have done for than 1 conference. Ok, so Friday was for Older and Retired Women. Two of the women from our group sp...

I want to put a quick note up here to clarify that I am posting these comments in a humerous light and in no way want my faithful blog readers to think that I am being negative towards my experiences in Ukraine. I would go back in a heartbeat, squatty potties and all:) More pictures to come!

The food in Ukraine is somewhat interesting. Though not as strange as other places, like Asia or Africa, it is definately different than I am used to. The food is high in fat content with very little fiber. Apparently they will have more fiber come the summer, but they eat season to season, unlike us here in the States. Luda fixed ALOT of food for us and wanted us to be well fed. I had to tell her I needed a kids portion or otherwise it was way to much and I felt bad not eating it all! Take a peak at some of our meals... Breakfast anyone? This was some kind of pancake filled with mashed potato and diced up meat, with a green onion to garnish:) All served luke warm. This she called a meatball, but it definatly was not a meat I had tasted before. It has some rice in it too... This translated out to "Mushrooms on a Grass Plot" When I first glimpsed at this, I just didn't think I could do it. First of all, I'm not a huge mushroom fan and second of all I am not a fan of...

Yep, that's right... Squatty Potties are the National Ukrainian Toilet:) haha!! Well, not exactly but they have alot of them. If you are out in public you can expect to use a squatty. Some are nicer than others as you can tell. Thankfully, in the apartment they have a normal toilet (that you can not flush toilet paper down) but I got pretty good at using the squatty... but just remember bring your own toilet paper:) This one was absolutely disguisting!! I gagged when I walked in and said I pulled a muscle trying not to touch anything:) Funny enough, I was looking through my pictures one night in Ukraine and asked Betty, my roomie, where this squatty was at. Before I could show her the picture however, I realized that it was the elevator in the apartment. Small, dingy and could be easily confused with a squatty hmmmm!!

Well, I am back from Ukraine and can report that I had a wonderful time. For the next few days I'll post lots of pictures about the different aspects of Ukraine for you to see. I took so many pictures and look forward to sharing the stories and pictures with you. My body is adjusting to Indiana time and I must admit that it is 2:30am in Ukraine, so pardon my misspellings:) Ukraine was ruled by Communist Soviet Union for 70 years, just to be free from communism in the 1990's. Communism permeates every part of Ukrainian life. In Kharkov, where we were at for the trip is only 100km from Russia and has a Russian mindset of don't fix it, just patch it. So, it literally looks like you are in the 1940's and the city has just been bombed. Everything is just old looking and run down. The apartment complexes are all concrete and honostly falling apart. They are old communist apartments. The couple I stayed with, Luda and Volva, where given their apartment 25 years ago when Volva...