As Ukrainian As It Gets

I have been living outside of Ukraine for almost eighteen years, which is hard to believe. Pretty much more than half of my life, I have been living abroad. I miss Ukraine sometime. I miss memories that I treasure from my life there, not all of them, but a lot of them. I have to admit that although part of my heart will always remain Ukrainian, a lot of my thoughts, values and convictions have evolved over the last two decades. One thing is still the same--I am proud to be a Ukrainian.

Although the kids know a lot about Ukraine, I clearly see how difficult it is for them to imagine or understand in detail how life used to be for me over there and how life is there now. Visiting Ukraine gives us a short glimpse into the culture, but we also know that our family always tries to host us in the most generous way and show us the best the country has to offer, thus avoiding some of the harsh realities of some people there. Sadly.

And I will not go into detail about my biggest regret--our kids not really speaking Ukrainian. But that makes me very sad, so I won't think about it right now. Instead, I wanted to focus how grateful I was  when after my aunt and cousin brought a bunch of Ukrainian embroidered shirts, our kids all agreed to wear them to take pictures:)) So here is our Ukrainian family in the sun.

   

Joined by my mom:) 

And that's all I wanted to post:) My Ukrainian family pictures:).