Happy birthday, Mark!

Yesterday was Mark's birthday! We went to church and after the service Kenny announced it was Mark's birthday. :) I promise I had nothing to do with it. They sang to him and had cake, and teased him about the Ukrainian tradition of pulling a person's ears the same number of times as he is years old on his birthday. Thankfully for Mark, no one pulled his ears. :) After cake, many people stayed and talked and played cards and hung out. It was a lot of fun and I learned how to play nertz in the process. Then we played a few games of Phase 10 before the youth group started their class.

We went back to the apartment and a while later Kenny knocked on the door to let us know they were going to have a snowball fight in the playground right behind our building. Mark got suited up and then got ambushed when he went out the back door! Don't worry, he got plenty of revenge. ;) Today he's a bit sore but I'm sure he'll recover in a few weeks. ;)

In the evening, we went to Lora and Kenny's apartment and had spaghetti and played A LOT of nertz. We were there way too late but had a great time. We basically interrogated them about their decisions to move to Ukraine and their perspectives on their time here. Their teenage daughter Leanna stayed up and played as well, and it was great to get her perspective since she has lived in both the US and Ukraine but has spent a lot of time growing up in Ukraine. Here's a few pictures from yesterday:

Hanging out after church


Youth group


The ambush


Oh, and I talked to the Embassy today. They have received our update and everything is in order! :)