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Our neighbor Oksana, her sister Natasha, and friend Olya celebrating Ivana Kupala

We made it home to our apartment in Ukraine late Thursday/early Friday our time. Our flight and transfer from Moscow to Kyiv was thankfully uneventful. The Footes picked us up at the airport and delivered us safely to Bila Tserkva. (Thanks Danny for fighting the little yellow van all the way to our place.)

We were somewhat dreading walking into a stuffy apartment that had been closed up the whole time we were gone, but we were pleasantly surprised when we walked in. There was a cool breeze and fresh food in the kitchen. We found a note on our refrigerator from our neighbor downstairs, Oksana. In the note she welcomed us home to Ukraine and told us to enjoy the food. She had made us chicken borshch (cabbage soup), compote (fruit drink), and our landlord had baked several pastries for us as well. We felt so blessed that they had taken the time to open up our apartment and make sure we were comfortable and had food.

The next day we shared some American snacks with a few of the neighborhood kids. They had never seen beef jerky, Fritos, or Cheez-Its before. Here's a video of the girls giddy with snacks. It ends with them basically saying "No comment" to their new status as celebrities.

Most things have gone smoothly so far, although Joshua slipped on the stairs today and chipped his front tooth. The girls he was playing with brought him to our door with a bloody lip and even a bag that they had carefully placed his tooth fragments in. We cleaned him up and he went back to playing. What really had him frightened was the thought of going to a Ukrainian dentist. (He'd heard all the horror stories from his friends.) He should be OK until we can find a good dentist.

At least it's a small chip

We are just thankful to God that we are back safely and continue to be welcomed home by all of our friends and neighbors here.