New Coat and Boots

When in the States recently, I bought a new winter coat for Nikita. I wasn't sure what size to get, since he wasn't with me. I decided to get the bigger of the two that I was debating on, which is something I learned from my mom. Until I was 16 my shoes were always too big for me. :)
Anyway, mom had brought him boots from the States as well when she had come to visit.

Needless to say, we were ready for the snow.


Last Sunday, it came!!! It was so beautiful, and it seemed to mark some sort of new beginning for me, personally. It's a wonderful thing to see God put something white and wonderful over all the mud and brownness. He's a good God!

Going for a Walk and VERY Delayed Apartment Pics

I promised pictures of our apartment a long time ago, and now here they are. First I will introduce our tour guide. This is Noah, showing you the height of the mirror in our bedroom.

This is a random staircase that literally doesn't lead anywhere but to look out the window. The guy that built this apartment (the architect of the building) thought he would build out more, but then decided against it, and just put a window there. In the summer time, this was where Noah slept.

Since we don't have a closet, we got creative with where to put our clothes.

This is just random.

This is the master bedroom. You can see the "random room" through the window. And, you can see our IKEA bed. I love IKEA!!! We don't have it here in Ukraine, so we hauled this guy all the way from Poland.

This is one of our storage areas. To the right is a door to a sauna. That's right a real, working sauna. We don't use it a lot, but it's fun to say we have it.

This is the boys' room. They are both really enjoying sharing a room. I heard them laughing the other night. Nikita was doing something funny to make Noah laugh.
I feel so blessed that they get along so well! God is good!

Here's the new lamp that Nikita got, so he can be a good student. He has just recently made a breakthrough in reading. We're so proud of him.

This is the foyer. That is a fireplace there in the corner. I can't wait to try it out.
It's getting about that time.
I just want to sit in front of the fireplace with the Christmas tree and Christmas music. :)
I think this will be my favorite room in the house.

This is our living room looking out into the foyer.

This is the other view of the living room. Most of the furniture was already here. And you'll also see your guide, he has slacked a little on his job, but he's ready to make a strong finish.

Here's the foyer looking at the front door and another small, foyer-esk space.
(I really don't the proper terms for these rooms.)

Oops. The guide got a little jammed up.

Here's Noah more interested in something on the floor than he is in telling you that this is the front door foyer area.

Here's the kitchen.

Another view of the kitchen.

Here's the director of Sports Chaplains Ukraine hard at work in the office.

This is a storage room off the office that Andre sometimes uses as office space.

Noah and Sergei are down to business on the other side of the office.

Well, that's all from about our apartment. Nikita wanted me to tell you all that he's sorry that he left the guiding to Noah, but he had to go to school. Bummer.

So, it's getting colder here, but we still venture out from time to time. We dug Noah's snowsuit out of the closet, and this is what he looked like with it on.

After all that has happened in the last months in our family, we just hope that you all are enjoying your families to the fullest. We know that we are.