You know what happens when you assume?

So, the secretary of KCA, a Ukrainian, told us of this great store that is friendly to foreigners and has lots of foreign stuff and we should try it out.  Well, we have been looking for black beans for the last 6 months and have come up empty; so we figured this was our last hope!  We looked up our transportation route and headed on our way.  Just like the internet said, the bus stopped right in front of the store so we went on our merry way shopping.  Just as we were told, we went into this "Costco" style store, showed our passports and were given a temporary card to shop until we dropped!

We found black beans!  After countless stores and time after time of failed attempts, our mission was successful!  I told Colleen she better stock up on these as you never do know when you can find these again.  So we continued shopping and our final bill came out to roughly $75.  And, me being the assuming Canadian, paid the bill and we began our adventure home.

The wonderful website www.eway.in.ua/en/cities/Kyiv failed to mention that this store is on a busy street, without any way to cross to get to the other side where we can catch a bus back.  Us being the daring Canadians trudged against the snow and wind for a good kilometer with kids and our goodies in hand towards a place where maybe we could cross the street and get on a bus home.  While waiting for the bus, Colleen asks me what the bill was.  "$75"

"Wow, something is definitely wrong, those beans didn't cost $10 a bag did they?  Let me see the receipt."‎

 

I showed her the receipt and sure enough, we bought a purse for $25.  Now you have to realize, $25 dollars can feed your family for a week here in Ukraine, so this wasn't just pocket change we had spent on an item that was not in our possession.  But, be being the assuming Canadian did not even think that the cashiers would possibly scan items and add them to your bill for personal gain, but we all know what assuming does.  And boy did it ever.

 

Needless to say, we did not walk back the 1 kilometer back to the store to try to explain why we did not have a purse in our possession but it is on our receipt and we would like our money back, please (very polite Canadian!).  In the end though, we were thankful that we are very fortunate to be able to cushion the $25 blow and still be surviving.  What if this had happened to a Ukrainian who had been ripped off food for his family for a week?

 

Christmas is upon us so we decided that cookies are the way to go.  Sugar cookies, nice and simple.  At least I assumed they were.  All the ingredients are easy to find here so we baked them, made icing and then we wanted to colour the icing.  Food colouring and sprinkles.  Sounds simple; but not at all simple.  I went to the store and to my surprise, there is no food colouring and no sprinkles.  Even IGA in Bow Island or the grocery store in Sexsmith has these things, but Ukraine, No way Jose.

 

So, I had a brainwave!  Jello!  we could buy coloured jello mix it and then we would have colours for our icing.

I think the colours turned out ok.

Next, sprinkles.  I found pastiage in the shape of ladybugs on leaves, and what colours are those?  Red and Green; Hello Christmas!

And the knife came out and I cut until I could cut no more, but we had sprinkes and coloured icing!


Can you tell where the countertop ends and where the cookies start?

In life, we often assume things will always be the same and then when things do not go as expected, you lose your job, you get sick, your children start dating someone who you have never met, that life that is nice and cozy is then brought into disarray.  I remember praying a prayer in contemporary issues in missions and it went like this:

Disturb us, Lord, when
We are too well pleased with ourselves,
When our dreams have come true
Because we have dreamed too little,
When we arrived safely
Because we sailed too close to the shore.

Disturb us, Lord, when
With the abundance of things we possess
We have lost our thirst
For the waters of life;
Having fallen in love with life,
We have ceased to dream of eternity
And in our efforts to build a new earth,
We have allowed our vision
Of the new Heaven to dim.

Disturb us, Lord, to dare more boldly,
To venture on wider seas
Where storms will show your mastery;
Where losing sight of land,
We shall find the stars.
We ask You to push back
The horizons of our hopes;
And to push into the future
In strength, courage, hope, and love.

By Francis Drake

 As much as it pains me to imagine a life with Jesus that is not assumed I am terrified of what that could mean by asking God to disturb my cozy, comfortable life.

So after a week of assuming things and realizing what that does to you, we all relaxed, exited that it is just 4 more sleeps until Grandma and Grandpa Johnson come visit!