When we were in Ukraine, we began arrangements to bring Veronika to America to realize her "big dream". She had studied English relentlessly during school to the puzzlement of her family and friends. They said, "Why do you study English so much? You will never go to America." Our pastor and I both wrote letters to the embassy so they would give her a visa (the embassy must be "guaranteed" the person will return home). In fact, the day she had her interview, she was one of only two that was granted a visa the entire day. When she notified me, our church members donated money for her plane ticket and she arrived Sept 21. She left the day after Thanksgiving. In between, we took her every place we could, including Oklahoma, thanks to the generosity of my brother-in-law, Mike, who gave us 3 free passes on Southwest. Our church members also welcomed her with open arms and invited her to their homes and took her places. She arrived with about 20 pounds of personal belongings and left with 140 pounds. She also left with wonderful memories, 3 videotapes documenting her trip, and the love of a church family she doesn’t have at home. She is Christian (Eastern Orthodox) but they do not fellowship, they just go to church to worship and pray in a stand-up ceremony, then leave. They don’t talk to or interact with other the other people there at all. She expected people to be curious about her but was absolutely amazed at the way she was "taken-in" by everyone. She spent most of her weekdays at the church participating in various things or being taken places by some of our retired members. She also made numerous trips with Andy, our youth director, to various churches all over middle Georgia to talk about Operation Christmas Child. She did some media interviews and helped with this year’s collection (our church is a regional collection center). She also celebrated her 20th birthday with a big birthday party at church. She was very torn when she left because she loved it here (life is very difficult in Ukraine) but she missed her family. She will have to re-adjust to their very austere was of life and it will be difficult but she says it was worth it.