Natasha and Nenad brought Jillann and I over to our hotel to check in and drop off our bags, then took us to Natasha's parents' home.

Their home is an apartment on the 2nd floor of a building in a pleasant portion of Skopje. The building itself was quite non-descript, but I enjoyed the apartment. They've made a home.

When we arrived, Roksanda immediately began to cry. This was deeply touching. We then chatted for some time, Natasha translating back and forth quite readily.

Other than the unexpected warmth we received, I wasn't too surprised by Natasha's parents. I expected to find a powerful, intelligent woman in Roksanda, and that's what I found. I like her.

Branco is quieter. We had to direct questions to him to get him to talk very much. Instead, he is a quiet host. He would sit in his chair, watching what was going on for a while, then pop up and do host things. Fetch drinks, make sure everyone was comfortable, and otherwise flutter around taking care of things.

I think everyone has been looking forward to this meeting for some time. I've wanted to meet Natasha's parents for such a very long time, and I think they wanted to meet us. I would have liked to have had a common language so we could talk more, but such is the reality.

By the end of our conversations, I'm fairly certain I saw smoke coming out of Natasha's ears. We had her working quite hard as translator, but she was very good at it, quite natural. But as the afternoon wore on, she was waiting longer and longer as we said something to translate, so I suspect we wore her out.

Natasha, if you read this, please forward again my thanks to your parents. Thank you for making us feel so very welcome in their home. Thank you for their friendship. And thank you for sharing Natasha with us.