Reese Family

On Monday, March 21st, E. Reese and I flew to Kiev. After many discussions and debates it was decided that Kiev was the best spot for dealing with the bump on my nose! The mission doctor lived here and was able to be with me the entire time as we visited the dermatologist and had the bump cut out. (It is being biopsied - we'll know more in 10 days) This is our lovely room (check out the classy slippers!) and my 'before' picture!

This is my 'after' picture. I am recuperating after my traumatic ordeal - with my favorite comfort food - Popcorn!!!

Here it is without the band aid - wife of Frankenstein!

One bonus for coming to Kiev was being able to go to the new Kiev Temple. It was beautiful!

Another bonus for coming to Kiev - Lane Stienagel is the Mission President! He met us at the mission office right next to the temple and we were able to visit with him for awhile. FUN!

After visiting with Pres. Stienagel, we met up again with Dr. Mayberry and his wife. They are a great couple and have taken good care of us while we were here. They have only been here a few months and wanted to look around the city with us.

We started our sight seeing adventure at a memorial statue called Babyn Yar, which was dedicated to 100,000 Ukraines who were killed at this sight by the Natzis in WWII. It is a massive rock statue that shows people dying and mourning (on the top is a mother holding her child). It was very moving - an emotional and thought provoking experience.

Closer shot - very expressive - very sad.

Next we headed to downtown where we walked down the best known historic street -Andriyivskyy Descent, a cobblestone street with old buildings - I'm in front of St Andrews church and E. Reese is shown with a building he thought looked cool! We then went to a center square - more great buildings, including St. Sophia Cathedral and a men on horse statue.

Davids favorite part is always trying the new kinds of food. For lunch we went to a 'buffet' of Ukraine foods. You picked the items you wanted and then paid for them. We picked lots of different ones and then split them in half. The dumpling turned out to be cherries - a dessert instead of meat! Potato soup was good & E. Reese loved the beets. The plate closest to my belly has a little round cheesecake type dessert (thought of Ben!) and the triangle had apple inside - yummy! It did give our Georgian food a run for it's money!

We enjoyed most of our visit to Kiev - but as we were landing in Tbilisi - I thought - 'It's so nice to be home!'