It's a new day...

2010 will be another wonderful year! I am making plans to return to my second home, my country by choice and not birth. Just the anticipation of seeing old friends, making new friends, walking the streets of Dnepropetrosk...it all makes the butterflies in my stomach come to life!

This year will be very different for me as well. In 2009 I lost some who were very dear to me. My beloved Father "Big Bill" passed away in July from complications of dementia and a broken hip...in November my brother, by choice not birth, Gary Hutcheson passed away from an aneurysm. Gary and I traveled to Ukraine many times, he was more than a friend to me. He encouraged my love of mission work, he mentored me in the culture of Ukraine, he made me laugh often and out loud. He was the brother I never had, I loved him and will miss him more than I can say. 2010 did not start out much better. I lost a beloved brother in Christ, Ben Andersen, to cancer. His wife, Sharon, is one of my best friends, Ben was my husband Rick's best friend. I will miss the family vacations together, the "Andersen fix" on the weekends, the camping, the instant computer fix, all of the things that he and his wife and children mean to me. Sharon, Regan and Bennett are still a huge part of my life and we will miss Ben SO dearly! Words cannot express the depth of loss I feel! It will hit me again when I return from Ukraine and Ben is not there to meet me and eat at Macaroni Grill together...Sharon...we will do it together and honor his memory with much love and laughter.

I am also going with a team of people this year. Some of the Mission Committee from Bentonville, AR will be there at the same time. I am not sure, as of today, what the travel plans will be, but I believe that we will go thru Moscow this year. SOOOO...that will be another adventure as well. I am so looking forward to going with Steve, Cathy, and Glenn. I know that the Lord will bless the work that is to be done while we are there. I am SO looking forward to seeing my sisters Rita and Jane and Tanya and all of the other brothers and sisters at the church there....I can hardly wait.

I will blog again as the plans gel and I know more about who/what/where/when and how!

Jackie