MOSCOW, RUSSIA

We home hosted a young couple (Eugene and Irina Kuvekin) and their 18 year old daughter (Anna) during an inbound Journey. Anna was the interpreter for their members who did not have command of the English language. We spent a wonderful week together. When it came time for them to leave, they made us promise to visit them in their dacha in Russia. We promised to visit if they invited us to Anna’s wedding . We remained in close contact with all three of them.

Eight years after their visit, Anna called to wish Ivan a happy birthday, and to remind him of the promise he had made. She and Diego, her fiancé from Spain (they met attending university in Munich) wanted to extend an invitation to us for their upcoming wedding in Moscow. A promise is a promise!

We spent a week with the family in Moscow. As “family,” we were included in their formal wedding pictures, the intimate wedding ceremony which took place in a registry, and the ornate wedding reception. It was wonderful.

The post-scripts: Three years later, enroute to a river cruise down the Danube, we spent two full days with Anna and Diego, staying with them in their apartment in Munich. And one year later, they visited us with their infant daughter, Sophia.

-Shelia and Ivan Ziegler