Apartment update

Last night we met with the apartment owners, and it was a great meeting. We really like the apartment; it's just exactly what we were hoping for. We have a verbal agreement with the landlords (a Ukrainian woman who grew up in the apartment and her American husband, the son of a missionary doctor who serves in Kyiv), but nothing's been signed yet.

As we've been looking for a place, I've appreciated the prayer in Proverbs 30:8 — "Give me neither poverty nor riches; Feed me with the food that is my portion." We prayed for an apartment that was neither too nice nor not nice enough, neither too big nor too small for the ministry that God wants us to do there.

It seems to us that the apartment we looked at yesterday perfectly fits that description:

It has four rooms (one big bedroom, one medium bedroom and one tiny bedroom, plus a living room) and a nice-sized kitchen, but is overall not a lot bigger than the apartment we have now.

It's in very nice condition with some very groovy wallpaper choices, a blue-and-yellow bathroom (those who have known me a long time know of my proclivity toward that color scheme; in fact, our towels are blue and yellow) and a long, covered balcony.

It looks out over the play area outside the building, which is also in good condition – better than the playground at our current place.

In addition to being at a bus stop, it's also right by a tram stop. I never take the tram because it's rather slow and there's a bus stop much closer to our current place, but I've got a feeling that a 2-year-old Dietrich might think a tram ride is something pretty special.

Eric and I both quickly came to love the place — no small feat for two minds that work as differently as ours sometimes do. So, we're thrilled and hopeful that, come August 1, we can start living our lives there.