Happy 4th of July!

I love this pic of our little Ukrainian/American boy and the American Flag! It was taken at church at the AWANA awards ceremony.

Speaking of...the kids had awards night for AWANA (the program the kids are in on Wednesday nights at church). They all have LOVED being apart of this during the school year and could not wait until Wednesdays for AWANA night:

Inna actually became a christian as a result of going through her AWANA curriculum and then asking us questions at home! She made it through the first starter part and one section of the book. It may not sound like much, but there are many scriptures and activities in just the starter part and for someone who had never even heard the name Jesus (that we know of) it was a lot for her to meditate on.

Vitali loved "Alana" as he calls it! He was very proud of all the scriptures he repeated after his teachers and proud of having his own book to work through and proud of the badges he earned! He asked every day if today is "ALANA".

Grant also loved this program and was so excited about it that he studied on his own all the time and actually finished the first years book in about half the time and wanted the 2nd years book to start on it early, but they did not have it yet! He has a tremendous gift to remember scripture! He was also so excited at the awards ceremony that he was presented with a special gift for raising the most money out of all the kids for the missions project for children in Brazil. He did not even know that there was going to be a gift for the one that raised the most, so he was pumped! He also had a little help from his Grandmother, Muh, who sent him some money to add to his when she found out he was collecting!
Now, they are in a VBS type program that last all summer long at our church and then AWANA will start back again when school starts.
Here are pics from the ceremony:


Vitali just couldnt get over his award...he was trying so hard to see what everyone else had in their hand until he finally got his!

Grant walking back from getting his award:

Inna before she recieved hers (when it was time for her class, she didnt like being called out and certainly didnt want to walk on the stage, so they had to bring it to her :)

To see how close our church is from our house....this is the kids standing in our front yard and that is our church in the background:

Kids getting ready to walk across the street to church:


Like always...so much has happened since last post...one of those things being Grant's B-day, so I will post those pics when I get em uploaded :)

Hope you have a wonderful 4th! We are going to go see fireworks on the River and we are anxiously awaiting the arrival of my brother, Caleb who is just hours away from arriving home from Texas and is coming home from the Army to spend time with us before he leaves for Iraq for 2 years. We will be sad to see him go, but thankful for this time to spend with him this weekend.....and on Independence Day...seems kind of fitting huh?

HAPPY INDEPENDENCE DAY!