Many sides of thankfulness

It's been a humbling experience here in Ukraine, particularly when we were in Izmail and visiting Sasha in the orphanage. Today is Thanksgiving back home but here it was an ordinary day for the locals. In fact, our facilitator was at the Canadian Embassy trying to pick up some documents, but when she got there, she found out it was closed.

Today Sasha and I went to a large scale mall called "Ocean Plaza Mall". I wish I would have known about this upon our arrival as it is as close to a "home" mall as I can get here. They even have KFC.
We went to return a keyboard I bought that had Russian characters, but then the cheap Jen came out and said, "Just write on your laptop!" So I did. The return process is quite involved. It started with me waiting for 20 minutes and getting dirty looks from the people I tried to communicate with that didn't speak English. Then once it was my turn, it was another twenty minutes of processing five, yes five pieces of paper, plus they photocopied my passport and stapled it all together just to get 250 hrivnas. (about $20 CA) I now have a paper trail that documents my time at Ocean Plaza Mall in Kyiv, UA.

I found a crazy huge grocery store at the very bottom (the mall had four levels) of the mall. Ashan, I think would be the translation. It was like a Costco minus the membership. Sasha being Sasha, was impatient but as soon as we rolled to the grocery section, he was little Mr. helper. Here you have to weigh the produce yourself and print a sticker rather than the cashier doing it (I've clogged some lines without this prior knowledge of pre-weighing). So Sasha was in charge of printing labels and asking for everything including this carrot slaw stuff that I was reluctant to buy as I'm not a fan of such foods, but we bought it anyway. We got home and began to prepare our first Thanksgiving together. Although it will never be complete without Dave and my family and a dog jumping up on the table to eat the food, but it was Thanksgiving nonetheless here in Ukraine.

Sasha and I prepared a simple dinner of sliced ham (of course), potato pancakes (deruny), with sauteed mushrooms and onions. Don't forget the sour cream and carrot slaw. The table was set, we said grace then we dug in. It really was a nice dinner even though it didn't last very long.

I shared with Sasha some of our traditions that we do at home, like eat ham and potatoes, share our stories of thankfulness which led me to state my thankfulness for meeting Sasha and calling him my son. I am also thankful for my husband who walked every step with me throughout this journey and who trusted me enough to complete the process on my own. Thanks Dave! I love you:)

Although Sasha speaks very few words (even in Russian), I know he is thankful. I could see it in his smile after he was finished dinner, it was twinkling in his eye as we continued the Cholosky tradition of 31 after dinner, and I can see it now as he watches some Ukrainian t.v with me at his side. I am even thankful for the quietest of moments with him. Thank you for you, Sasha:)


                                                                     Happy Thanksgiving

We ventured out even though someone was a little grumpy and didn't like his photo taken:)

 It's hard doing selfies on a Rebel... (I look pained)

Some sort of Slavic Festival taking place at Independence Square this past weekend

On our way to Lviv Chocolate Shop and we spotted this... it belongs to Nicolas?!?

Ok, so I am embracing my bride stalking... But she was so pretty running down the steps of St. Andrew's Cathedral...

Lviv Chocolate Shop and this kid orders Blueberries and cream!

 Sasha's first Funicular ride! He won't ever admit it, but he was loving every second of it:)

Thanksgiving Monday, I gave some cooking lessons. Dave, we might have a chef on our hands!

 Yah, he's pretty thankful:)

 And so am I:)

Cholosky tradition. Sasha lost first round.

 I lost the second!

And the winner of 1.50 grivnas (or 12 cents) is.....