Mimi's Homegoing

December 24: Christmas Eve began with some very sad news from home. My Mother, Evadna Swan went to be with the Lord at about 2:15 am CDT, 10:15 am Ukraine time. Our daughter, Ginger called us with the news. Ginger’s fiancé, Eric Kendrick, was with my Mom last night and had just called her to tell here that her Mimi had passed away. Our entire trip has been a bittersweet experience as we knew that she was slipping away a little more each day as the cancer spread into her kidneys and other parts of her body. She had insisted that we go ahead with our trip as planned so we know that she is now happily watching over us in Heaven along side my Dad who passed away on Christmas night 2005 after a long fight with Leukemia. I know that there are so glad to be reunited again for eternity with Jesus. Right now, we have planned her funeral for next Monday morning in order to be sure we and a lot of other friends and family can return from holiday trips. It is a sad time amidst a joyful time with the boys.
I will miss my Mother’s presence in my life, and I wasn’t ready to say goodbye. People have said you are never prepared to lose a parent, no matter how long you anticipate their passing.
Only the Holy Spirit can bring comfort and true peace at a time like this.

We got ready and went to the Internet cafe to send emails about my Mom and then to the Hotel cafe for some lunch. Valery had been running around from office to office with paperwork all morning and he arrived to tell us that he needed to go to the orphanage. We all got our coats and took a taxi together. After arriving, I went looking for the boys and finally found Sasha walking down a hall. He helped us find Vitya and Zhenya and I told them the sad news about my Mom. We then went into the library to download some pictures from Vitya’s camera to my computer. Soon after we began this, Nataliya Khomyak and her husband came in telling us about the little girl that they were visiting with and considering adopting. They invited us to go to the Christmas program for the second graders in the auditorium so we decided to go with them but the boys had better things to do with their time. The program was very colorful and festive and lasted about 2 hours. The children recited poems and lines, sang and danced and were dressed in all kinds of elaborate costumes. It was getting late so we tried to find the boys again to spend a little more time with them. We were successful in finding Sasha and Vitya but not Zhenya. We talked for a while and Sasha made us laugh. Then we decided to go to the computer classroom and check our email. After planning that we would come back tomorrow at 2:30 pm to play some basketball, we went back downstairs and were saying goodbye to the boys so that they could do their homework when Nataliya told us that they were taking some of the children to get some ice cream and asked if we would like to go with them. We told her yes and hugged the boys before loading into the minibus.
We called Valery on the way to The Potato House and he met us there shortly after we arrived. We had a nice supper while we watched the beautiful little girls enjoying themselves. Valery then told us that the hotel “was only 10 minute walk” so we believed him and started walking. It turned out to be more like a 20 min. walk. By the time we reached the hotel, we decided that we wanted some pastries to take to our room, so we went to one of the nearby bakery stores. After we got back to the hotel, I went to the ATM around the corner and then to the Internet cafe to check email and also check on possible flight for either Thursday or Friday (we will need to be home no later than Saturday night for the viewing on Sunday night). Just before bedtime, Valery brought us another revision of our paperwork for us to sign..