Craft Day

As promised, here are just a few of the wonderful girls I have gotten to know in my 8 years in Kyiv. I want to write about what they have all meant to me through the years, but I just can't do it right now. Yesterday during church, as we started to sing some of the beautiful songs that we sing in Ukrainian, I started to cry so hard. SO many memories! It is going to take me a little bit to gather my thoughts about these wonderful sisters. (This is Zoya and I...we have a reputation for dancing on tables at birthday parties. :) It's a long story for another time, but not nearly as dodgy as it sounds.) :)

BUT...in the meantime, on Saturday I had some of the girls over for a "craft day" (translation: to get rid of all the JUNK that I have hoarded to do crafts before I move). Martha Stewart I am not. But, I HATE to throw anything away and love to come up with something creative by using things that would normally thrown away.

When I first moved here it was hard to find pretty cards and things. Not a life necessity, of course, but something that's nice to have if you can. So some of the girls and I got together to make cards. Since then we have done things like cover Pringles cans with pretty napkins to use as a pencil holder, decorate small boxes with pictures from magazines to use to hold spices in the kitchen or CDs or whatever...

This time most of the focus was on decorating a bulletin board for Kristen Markey. Kristen is the youngest daughter of George and Pam Markey. Pam and Kristen, along with her older brothers Aaron and Johnny fly in from America tomorrow and some of us in the church have been busily getting my old apartment ready for them all to live in. The girls (Anya, Ksusha, Zhenia and Oksana) decorated this bulletin board for Kristin just so she can have something pretty all of her own. (I think tomorrow I need to go back to the apt. and get a close-up picture to better show how pretty this turned out).

I'll have to have more on "The Girls" soon...although I don't know how I will ever share all that they mean to me....or even just a part of what they mean to me....we'll see...