I've been in Ukraine

The first time I was really impressed with Bobby was when I called him and asked what he was doing. He told me he was at the nursing home- just for fun- playing Bingo with the residents. Sigh.

Well the apple doesn't fall too far from the tree. My mother-in-law is a wonderful, serving person. Years ago she began a program called TOUCH (Take One Ukrainian Child's Hand) in Uzhhorod, Ukraine. The organization supports an orphanage, a program for girls to learn skills to take them into the workplace, a program for children without parents in the home, a Roma school, and even more stuff I can't remember right now. AND Bobby's dad helps in the medical field in Ukraine, and they send shipments of needed supplies from the US.

I had the opportunity to go with my in-laws to Ukraine! And what a incredible time I had. So many thank-yous to the Ramptons. I would love to go again next year with my mom. Here are some pictures of Ukraine, and our day in Budapest, Hungary the day before our flight home...

This is me with some darling kids from the Roma school. They were so so sweet.

This is our church in our hotel room on Sunday! Three members in Uzhhorod. So great meeting them.

This is of the wonderful TOUCH delegation. I met some really inspirational people there.

Below is me with the girl Bobby and I sponsor, Anna. She is a real sweetheart.

Here is a doctor his family we ate with one night. Ukrainians are SO hospitable.

The younger kids loved to have pictures taken of them, then to look at their reflection. So I have a lot of pictures of kids! I made collages of some of them to show you how cute they were.

This is the orphanage kids getting homemade quilts.

This is a picture of my father-in-law giving a speech at a rally against breast cancer.

We painted at the orphanage. Except the kids were so excited that they actually did the majority of the painting.









A bunch of kids that are part of an after school program supported by TOUCH. They put on a show for us, that I will have to download a video of later.

We went to a "hot tub" that had fire heating it underneath!

One of quite a few castles we got to see! The Ramptons took me to one up-close.

We got-by without knowing Ukrainian because of wonderful student volunteers who would translate for us. Ira was my favorite. I miss her!

One of Bobby's good friends, Nandan was there. And it was so fun to get to know him better. This is us in front of some orthodox church.






Although I knew we would be in Budapest for a few days, I didn't think about it until we were there! Budapest is a beautiful, incredible city! I have a lot of pictures from here but here are some favorites...

Getting gelatos :)

St. Mark's Cathedral

Looking over Budapest

Alice :)

Budapest at night

Going to Ukraine was such a special, life-changing experience. A big, huge, enormous, gigantic colossal thanks to the Ramptons for the opportunity. I feel so blessed to have gone. Thank you!