Mark and Karina move into our house

Some of you may remember my neighbors who used to live next to us, Mark, Oksana and their little girl Karina. Mark and Oksana helped us find and contact our relatives in Ukraine. My mother and I travelled to Kiev and stayed with them. After our trip, Mark and Oksana thought that the dry air of Las Vegas would be better for Mark's health. They bought a house there and rented out the house next to us. As time went on, Oksana's health deteriorated and on May 30th, she died. Mark is 75 years old and has been planning a "final" trip to Kiev to sell all of his remaining properties. Unfortunately he has to also bury the ashes of his wife and he left to do that recently.

Now we are taking care of Karina till Mark's return and they will live with us until the renters are out of Mark's house in September.

Karina is a joy of a child and Hannah is sharing her room, her toys and her friends (and her Mom) with Karina. This is difficult for Hannah but she is doing a great job.

Karina has been registered for kindergarten in the fall. She will be in the afternoon session so that she can go there with Darcy.

For now, we are taking one day at a time. Karina seems to be adapting extremely well to living with us and the loss of her mother. We have visited a counselor to talk about how we deal with Oksana's death with Karina and that helped us. Mark should return soon and we'll be one big happy family, all six of us.