Still Rejoicing . . .

because Artyr's passport will arrive tomorrow morning and we will leave Ukraine at 8:05 AM on Saturday morning!!!  Thank you for your PRAYers.  Although it's not as we originally intended or planned, we are sure that God has been and is still in control of ALL of our circumstances.  Even if His purpose was only for us to spend the last two days with the Gurleys from Georgia (who are adopting Vika and Sly from another orphanage), it was well worth it.  We have enjoyed catching up with Mike and LeeAnn (whom we haven't seen since camp in August), as you can see in some of the last pictures below.  Whatever God's reasoning, we are, Lord willing, out of here on Saturday, and we will arrive back home sometime early Sunday morning.  Artyr doesn't know, yet, but we've invited all of his friends that have already been adopted to come over on Sunday afternoon to visit him.  He just keeps saying over and over how much he misses Mama and Gracie and Jordyn and Grandma(s) and Grandpa(s) and Dima and Erik and Lena and Ana and Vika and Anslee and Vika and Dema and Russell and Lori and Russell and Cheri and Dusty and Tina and Mick and Janel and Eric and Cindy.  It will be so great if all of them can be there on Sunday to officially welcome him!  Here are some pictures from our last couple of days, including our trip from Krivoy Rog here to Kiev.  Enjoy!

Here I am giving Artyr his first lesson in shaving

We figured out a better and less expensive way to adopt children

Here's our cabin on the train . . . can you feel the heat, yet?

Artyr with his lovely present from the Canadian missionary
team that works in the orphanages in Krivoy.  Thank you
soooooooooooooo much, Adam and Curtis and team!

Artyr eating some "very good (his words, not ours)"
dried calamari on the train

Tim's face . . .

 . . . because Artyr kept doing this for most of the trip to Kiev

The mall that we have walked to every day since being here
in Kiev (about 1.5 miles from our apartment).
It's called "Dream Town", and it's as big as Noah's Ark!

I saw this picture at the mall and thought that Ginger should
get something like this (mostly because I secretly want a face
tattoo) . . . what do you think, sweetheart?

After dinner one evening, we decided to try our hand at
curling . . . we are somewhat embarrassed to admit that
it was really a lot of fun!

On our second trip to the mall, Tim noticed this statue.
The orginal statue is in the Louvre in Paris,
but this was a nice replica.  It is called the
Winged Victory of Samothrace.  Tim's family's roots
come from the Greek Island of Samothrace.  Tim
actually has this statue tattooed on his left arm, also! 

On Tuesday, we headed on the world's deepest subway system
(from what we're told) to Independence Square . . .

 . . . where we saw break dancers . . .

. . . a pretty awesome angel statue (and many other cool statues) . . .

. . .  a round shopping mall that we almost got thrown out of
after taking this picture (because apparently taking photos inside
round malls is not allowed in Ukraine . . . haha) . . .

 . . . we also saw a cat and Bart Simpson . . .

. . . who, after posing for a couple pictures, expected us to pay
 them 150 grivna . . . we gave them 4, then wished them a good day!

On Wednesday, we met up with the Gurleys and had an
AWESOME dinner at T.G.I.Fridays here in Kiev!

We met up with the Gurleys again on Thursday afternoon
and showed them how to get to Dream Town . . . while there,
we visited the arcade . . . I forget who had the high score in
this game with a 104 (hint . . . it was me!)

I was teaching Artyr how to defend the family against an
attack of zombie aliens here . . . very practical stuff!

Artyr was trying on a shoe in the Puma store

We added this for Ginger . . . this is what happens when three
boys live together for a couple of days!  Oy yoy yoy!

Artyr getting a haircut from LeeAnn . . . Before . . .

. . .  During . . .

Well . . . you'll see the "After" soon enough, because we're coming home!!! Praise the Lord!!!