What a great day in the end! We didn’t go to Stan’s soccer games this morning because we wanted to be available when Vladimir would say the new apartment was ready. When we hadn’t heard from him by 3 pm we decided we had had enough time without the children and rode the bus to the school.

We quickly found each other at the school (word gets around pretty quickly when the Americanskis show up) and asked Stan’s and Dasha’s teacher, Valentina, for permission to take the children home with us and have them sleep at our apartment. Mistaking our request for a final request to take them to the US forever at this time, never to be seen again, she became emotional until we broke through the language barrier a bit using a calendar to clarify that we were not yet going for good and that we would be visiting the school over the coming week. We could see that Dasha likewise misunderstood as we noticed a tear roll down her cheek. There is certainly a mixture of emotions tied to these events. We got her straightened around too and we all left for the bus stop.

As we were about to board the bus Vladimir showed up, told us the new apartment was ready, and drove us to it. A very nice place to live and accommodating of our little sub-family, it is just down the lane about 100 meters from the previous apartment where the Dodges remain. Susan was ecstatic to see a clothes washer. We transferred our belongings from the Dodges’ apartment to the new one and together went shopping for groceries.

We enjoyed walking, talking and observing together. The children were all very helpful in the shopping process, always looking out for our safety, happiness and well-being on their turf. We will return the favor when we return to the other side of the ocean. It brings on a warm feeling to be together. The sense of family, unity and permanence is much stronger than ever. Dasha organized the kitchen as we were putting groceries away.

The children were all anxious to shower – to be clean. They wanted their clothes washed. Dasha wanted to know where her copy of the Book of Mormon was and then told the boys to be sure to read it. After we had family prayer we hugged and kissed them before bed. They asked that we close their bedroom door. Soon Susan could hear one of the older children reading the Book of Mormon aloud to the others. A little while later there was some giggling and then peace. And that is what we feel today – peace, gratitude, love – a bit of heaven.