San Francisco for a Ukrainian Visa

Edna accompanied by Joshua in a San Francisco park

Today we drove to San Francisco so that we could go to the Ukrainian Embassy in the morning to get Edna a new visa (She had to reapply because her passport had to be renewed). We decided to spend the afternoon exploring some of the city. Please pray that everything goes smoothly for Edna's visa. We are hoping that she will get one that is longer than just a year.

What? I was clearly under a child's supervision at the time of the photo.

Interestingly enough, we came across a Ukrainian Orthodox church on the walk back to our motel. Small world.

San Francisco is such a colorful city. Everywhere we turned we saw brightly colored rainbow flags lining the streets. Isn't Hawaii supposed to be the rainbow state?

Joshua pondering the rising cost of gasoline

Back in SLO

Edna, Dominic, and Joshua at Calvary SLO

We have been spending this week in San Luis Obispo, CA sharing what we have been doing for the last year in Ukraine. Each day has so far been packed with trying to visit everyone and prepare for our return to Ukraine. Our sister in Christ, Tiffany Cook, has graciously opened her home to us, making our time here a lot less stressed (Thank you so much Tiffany). It has been so wonderful to see so many friends (and strangers) and hear how they have been blessed by the news of what God is doing in Bila Tserkva. We are so grateful to all of you who have prayed for us, supported us, and encouraged us. We are only a family of four, but we are humbled to know how many of you are behind us in some way or another. Thank you to all of you here in the U.S. and also to everyone in Hungary and back home in Ukraine. We are truly blessed by you all.

Justin and Dominic passing time on the swings at Cuesta Park

Joshua getting his feet wet at Avila Beach once again

Having fun with a name

Not even close to being old

You can take the boy out of Ukraine...

But you can't take Ukraine out of the boy.


Papa, Boris, and Joshua enjoying the nice weather

The first thing Joshua wanted to do when we got to California was to throw down a blanket and share some Ukrainian snacks with Boris. We had packed some snacks from Ukraine so that we could share them with people, but Joshua decided that the weather was so good that he needed to enjoy it with some calamari (dried squid) and suharyky (flavored bread sticks). It's good to be back among family, but our hearts definitely yearn for Ukraine.

"Sit Boris, sit!" Boris loves calamari

Waiting for shashlyk

Boris and Joshua at the end of the day