I joined Mylene and Patrick for Christmas Eve Dinner at a traditional Ukrainian Restaurant downtown Odessa. The food was delicious. Another American couple (Linda and Jamie ~ he’s the one holding the beer) that is here adopting from Ashville, NC joined in as well. After a fabulous meal we walked over to Philharmonic Hall and listened to a concert. The building was incredible. It was built by the Tsars and clearly for the royalty.
After the concert Mylene, Patrick and I decided to go to Christmas Eve Mass. We met on the way a Spanish couple who are adopting their 7th child that we knew from seeing them at our orphanage. We were early to the church (luckily we got seats). It was a beautiful Catholic Gothic church. The service was pretty spectacular. It lasted for 2 ½ hours! The entire service was in Ukrainian, I don’t understand why, but a Cardinal held the mass. Also there were several Russian/Ukrainian Orthodox priests there in their “garb” as well.
When it came to reading the Gospel, they read it in 7 languages! (part of why it took so long). Also in the end all the priests at the altar stood up and gave some sort of speech. Not understanding Russian, we really didn’t follow what they were saying. Although we could tell that the Orthodox priest was very serious and very stern in his address!
After church we hurried to our bus street to catch our bus home. We were freezing by then as they don’t heat the churches and in all that granite and stone it begins to feel very cold after a while.
2 comments:
Love the pictures -brings back so many memories of when we adopted Oksana in April- although I didnt know they had a circus in Odessa.
Glad Jamie and Linda have found their daughter as well!
Christine -
Andrew, my parents and I wish you the very merriest of Christmases and hope your journey back is safe and uneventful. We so look forward to meeting the children and seeing you and George upon your return.
Love, Tynan
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