Georgia on Our Minds

Today we bid farewell to our good friends Jani, Phil, and Thomas. Last night, we celebrated our friendship at the Chicken Place, sharing good food and fun with the boys. Carter and Thomas devoured juicy bits of poultry and french fries (chips to Thomas) while Thomas entertained all of us with his renditions of "Wild Things," a la Sendak.

Today, the boys had one last chance for some afternoon play. Carter got to significantly delay his nap so that he could see Thomas a final time. Lea, Jani and the boys coincidentally met at the Mary statue, where they had met the first time. They fed the birds (of course), blew bubbles, climbed on the Taras Shevchenko statue, and ran around in the snow until it was time to come up to the apartment and say all of our goodbyes. Carter promptly went down for a nap, but just before he went to sleep, he told Lea "I had fun with Thomas."

Phil's new job takes the family to Tbilisi, and they depart for Kyiv tonight and to Georgia in a couple of days. We were incredibly fortunate to meet such a wonderful family with a son who has been such a good role model for Carter. Our sadness at their departure is eased a bit by our inevitable trip home - in one week for Carter and Lea. It is rare that you meet people and immediately become fast friends. We were quite lucky and hope to encounter them again somewhere in the world!