Today we woke early and headed to the orhanage one last time to say goodbye to the kids. We are truly thankful for all of your prayers -- they were answered in big ways as God did strengthen us in our inner being and filled us to fearlessly proclaim His good news to these precious children.
As we said goodbye, there were some tears, LOTS of hugs and kisses. We also received from the kids some of their treasured possessions as gifts. It is hard to take something from someone who has so little, but we knew that the gifts were given in love and rejecting them would have been rejecting their hearts. The one girl in the group, Dasha, just kept coming back to me for more hugs. I held her tight many times. I felt God's leading to leave her with my favorite scarf and she smiled as I placed it around her neck. 
Alan gave each child a hug and we took one last group photo as we theft. It was hard to leave, yet it was time...just the right amount of time to stay. Alan seemed to be at peace with leaving.
We got in the car with Sergei, our friend and translator who spent the entire time with us in Severodonetsk. He came to visit us over Christmas for 5 days when he came with the children hosted through the New Horizons for Children group that brought us Alan. We are looking forward to seeing his home town of Kharkiv. When we arrive there this afternoon, we will see some of the city, eat dinner and then stay at an apartment he has arranged for us. We will then wake early at 5am to catch the train to Kiev tomorrow morning.
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