General update

Happy Ukrainian Independence Day!

Jaan and Raia had a great time at the beach, but their stomachs were pretty upset for a few days afterwards. I don't know if that was something they brought back from the sea or if they took it there with them. The little kids in this house were also kind of sick while the older ones were gone. Jaan was able just to lie around at home when he came back, but Raia was off at that amazing South Point Youth Festival. Every time she would call me to tell me that she wasn't feeling good, I would try to talk her into coming home, but she didn't want to. So, she had a wonderful time, but came home looking like she had lost weight and hadn't slept for a week. Then she did sleep most of that day on our couch with tons of noise going on all around her, and that was enough for her to recover fully.

The festival organizers are posting lots of photos, but I only found Raia in a few of them, and I'm posting those here:

Today Jaan is helping with a wedding at church, Raia is getting ready to go out to holiday festivities with people from the youth festival, and Asya and Bogdan are playing all day with friends; there are at least four visiting children running around, beyond the 4+3 who live in our house.

As for me, I hope you've read Jeanne's ninth update. We need lots of prayer, especially over the next few days. 

We went this morning to do blood tests, to get that out of the way in advance. They needed a whole lot of blood, and I passed out, so I've been feeling pretty yucky since then. (I think the clinic in Kyiv combines some tests that they did separately here.) At least they were very nice, though, and I'll be okay, of course. We got really good coffee at a coffee shop afterwards, too.

Tomorrow Will and I will head to Kyiv, and Monday morning we'll have to hurry from the train to the clinic to get there in time for my scan. That's why we decided to do the blood work in advance: one less thing to fit in on Monday. I would like to get everything done in one day at the clinic. Ideally, we'll have the scan, wait for results, have the consultation with this oncologist that I haven't even met yet (my own doctor is a chemotherapist, and she's out of town), hear good news from him (I hope!), eat a nice lunch at the restaurant there, get Keytruda #5 (if the news was good), and be done. It is possible that some of that will have to be put off until Tuesday, though. Please pray for us every step of the way.

(From last time in Kyiv)

Oh, I've also been trying really hard to get everything ready for school, so that I can just be tired next week, if I need to. Will got Bogdan tentatively registered for bandura at music school (hurrah!), and we have everything set for art school. I just have a little more left to do at home, and then I think we'll be as ready as we can be.