Josh and Zhenya: A Visit to Relish

The great joy of our Memorial Day weekend was a visit from Josh, Zhenya's fiance. His four days here gave me a number of opportunities to photograph the two of them.

Thursday night the whole family made the trip to the Omaha airport to pick him up.

The next afternoon, Josh and Zhenya went to the Recorder's Office to file for their marriage license.

When they were finished, they were happy.

The architecture of the buildings that surround the courthouse is some of the most beautiful in town. We took advantage of the scenery and a lovely afternoon to take a few engagement pictures.

Poor Zhenya, though. She was in pain. Just before the trip downtown, she'd visited our orthodontist. She went to get her retainers tightened, and left with braces back on her lower teeth to turn one of her front teeth which was twisting out of position. With each smile for these photos, she was scraping the inside of her lower lip over all that metal.

When Zhenya saw this picture that I caught of her grimace, she said, "You can post that. I love that Josh and I feel so comfortable around each other that we can be real with one another." I'm thrilled to watch a love that will need to endure many hardships and trials during their years together grow between them.

Zhenya was a trooper, though, and went right back to smiling.

Then yesterday, we returned to Omaha for Josh's return home. We had enough time before his flight for the family to enjoy an outdoor lunch at the Spaghetti Work restaurant in the beautiful Old Market in the downtown area. While we waited for our food I took advantage of an unusual sight in Nebraska -- a bright red British phone booth.

We started with a bit of fun suggested by Josh.

They then practiced a dance move with phone booth as a backdrop. Before they know it they will be "dancing through the minefields" together for life. God is so good!

And all too soon, it was time to head to the airport for Josh's departure.