Goodbye to Ukraine

We walked out of our Donetsk apartment locking those big metal doors behind us for the last time.  It was really over.  As we looked around at the concrete walls which had once been so intimidating . . . the finality of it all brought a knot to my throat and a heavy lump in my heart.  Home was ahead of us, with friends, family and grandchildren, but  behind us, we were leaving a locked door.  

We felt very special to have friends who would get up at 5 AM to go with us to the airport. 

The airport in Kiev was an experience!

I held down a bench (and took pictures) while my gallant companion retrieved and manipulated

 four very large pieces of luggage, two carry-on and two computer bags.  

He was amazing! 

We toured Kiev in the rain.  It felt unreal to actually be in that ancient city of literature and legend.

The Motherland Statue stands over two hundred feet tall at the Museum of the Great Patriotic War, in memory of the thousands of heroic men and women who fought or offered home front support to their country at the Eastern Front during World War II. 

We spent most of the day at the Kiev Temple.

Sister Подводова whose husband is counselor to our mission president, 

was working at the Kiev temple for a week.  She and her husband work there 

regularly.  They are a very special family who recently returned to Donetsk
 from presiding over the mission in Saint Petersburg, Russia. Her three teens
 had come with her.  While she works in the temple, the young people are
 able to help with baptisms. The family stays in the member housing adjacent
 to the temple grounds (bottom left.) where their father will join them

 at the end of the week

 Time at the temple is always rewarding, but after eighteen months without the opportunity, the experience was even more appreciated.  It was especially meaningful that we had ancestral names from our own family history research.  What a blessing it was to be able to spend our last few hours in Ukraine at the Kiev temple, adding a benediction to our service there.