The Weekend

OK, so for a weekend where you are supposed to rest, not happening :)  For Saturday we went with our church group (yeah, we have a church group here now :) for a youth event day in the woods.  Zhytomr climate and scenery wise reminds me a lot of British Columbia, a few hours north of the Seattle area where I grew up.  We packed 16 people into a VW van (yeah, we're close!) and took a ride about 20km outside of town.  It was a beautiful place with a big lake, lots of tall pine trees, and lots of sunny weather.  Camp was set up we had such a fun day.  We took a walk with the kids in the woods, the boys found a lot of small lizards running all over the place and had a blast catching them.  Then the kids went for a swim (we discovered that Kayleigh and Michael are good swimmers).  It was great watching Dylan and Michael together, they are really two peas in a pod with many similar likes, and Dylan has been amazing as a big brother.  After swimming we ate, grilled chicken, cabbage salad and potatoes, very tasty :) 

Then sports kicked in, which for me was a lot of volleyball.  I represented pretty decently, but smartly avoided the football fields as I saw some very talented players.  Michael jumped in and played some and actually hung in with the adults.  The end of the day was signalled by the thunderstorm that came through with 1/2 inch hailstones!  Back to the flat at the end of the day where the kids showered up and everyone crashed for a good nights sleep.

For Sunday, up early to go to church here in Zhytomr for the last time.  The day started with bad news from the states that my mom has had a stroke.  No real news on her condition other than she is in ICU.  Went to church service said our goodbyes to our other church family.  They have been wonderful and a huge blessing to our family!  Then back into town to run around and get ready to travel.  We are busy packing for our travel back to Kyiv and then our flight home!   All that is left is picking up the passports, then getting visas at the US Embassy and the kids medical check.  And, getting in the plane for our journey home.

For travel, we have our flights booked for our trip home!  We will be arriving Wednesday May 9th in San Antonio, TX in the early evening, I'll send out our arrival information soon :)