Miracles happen...

So you know those days where you just have a bad feeling about something but normally they do not come true? Well, my bad feeling became a reality. On friday Anika needed to go and pick Annie up from the airport. We normally take a bus there and back. It is about a 4.5 hour trip. But she was getting in late and the last bus left the time she got in. Another bus would not come until 5am. We didn't think after flying for a whole day Annie would want to sit in an airport for 6 hours, and both Anika and I were not feeling well. So we decided to take a taxi, who was friend of a friend. He first did not want to take us because it was bad weather and he was afraid of the roads. That probably should have been our first clue. He had a very very old car that when we saw it couldn't help but make jokes about how we probably were not going to make it. The trip there was an adventure in itself. He drove from one end of town to the other just to find some specific gas station that ended up being closed. So what should have taken us about 20 minutes or so to get out of town took us an hour. Then he really would not go over about 40 miles an hour. So by this time we are thinking we are never going to get to Kiev pick Annie up. We get to the half way point in 4 hours which is about when we should have been to the airport. We keep driving and then his tire blows so we have to stop and he fixes it. After he gets that in order, it isn't too much longer until the police pull us over for his blinker or who really knows why they do what they do. We finally get to Annie 7 hours later. We set back out for Sumy. He needs to find a tire place because his spare is now gone, mind you its 2 something in the morning. But we find on and sit there for a while. We get going and I am sitting in the front but turning and talking to the girls. But I turn back around facing the front and all of sudden I see this huge maybe 4ft pile of snow/ice that we are going hit. It literally came out of nowhere. We hit it and go sliding across the oncoming traffic lanes. Then I see there are trees and am pretty sure we are going to go sliding into them. But we slide and then flip and roll into a ditch. We landed on the roof and stopped about 10 feet from the tree. I smell so much gas and the driver is yelling to get out, but I cannot find the door handle. All I could think was that we were going to blow up. I saw the windshield was totally shattered but the opening to get out was not that big. So finally I find the door handle and Annie finds the other door handle and we all get out. And what's amazing is that we were not hurt. We of course have some bruises and a few scratches. I think there are so pretty sore necks and backs but nothing major. On our way back home I prayed that angels would protect our car and its as if when we started rolling they picked up the car and set it gently. It could and almost should have been so much worse but it wasn't. Thank you Lord. Also, I think we were meant to meet the taxi driver. He was from the Sumy orphanage(a long time ago because he is now 26) and very interested in church and had a sensitivity to God. He was really nice and we feel awful about his car. We would like to do something to help him. So we are praying about how we might minister to him.We laughed after because we said how we had been praying that since annie had been gone for so long, that we would be unified again. And well there is nothing that bonds you better than a near death experience :)What a scary and cray ordeal. I have never been in an accident like that. I know there were a lot of people praying for us and I am so thankful.



One of our graduates Roman standing with the car right before we left for the airport.



All the guys that pulled over to help. They turned the car back over onto its right side.








The car looks pretty good considering what happened.




We were in the front so we had a lot of oil on us. We had been waiting for about 4 hours by this point for a bus back to sumy.

Graduate Ministry...

Wednesday was supposed to be our graduate ministry but only one girl could come so we had to cancel it. We told her we would meet with her the next day to just hang out and have some good fellowship. We called on thursday to touch base and told her to tell the other girls if they wanted to come they were welcome. She called back later and asked if a couple of girls from their class could come. We said of course and we would meet them at Mcdonalds (its the nice place in town). It was fun to meet their friends and we invited them to our graduate meeting for next week. It looks like they might come which is really great. We have wanted to branch out and start getting more kids from their school. We had planned to go to their school in hopes of getting more kids but they in turn came to us. What a cool blessing. Tomorrow we are going to Prelyki to visit a church who has a facility that functions somewhat like a community center. We are hoping to get ideas and make new contacts. I am really excited to see something like that and how it functions. We looked at places online the night to see how much they were. We need to start getting ideas of what costs are and if it would be better to buy some place that is already built or build something. It was a little overwhelming because things are expensive but someone recently just said, Do not worry about the cost, our God is not poor." That brought a smile to my face.

Crazy concerts and phenomenal kids...

Yesterday we went to the orphanage to start up our 8th and 9th grade ministry again. There were 9 of us all together. I fee so blessed to have that many people wanting to go and serve the kids. It went okay. We need to try and find a place where we can take the kids for a few hours because it would just better I think. Right now they have class and the teachers are not always helpful with making the kids go where they are supposed to and kids are coming in and out. There are a little of kids who want to participate and I think taking them away to a separate place would really be beneficial. But hands down the best part of the day was the Miss Youth concert the kids put on. It was competition between 5 girls from different classes. Each one had to do singing, dancing, talking, and cutting cabbage (thats right I said cutting cabbage) it was one of the things they got judged on. It really was so fun to watch and be a part of. Although, the girls took it really seriously. A few were crying when they were not the winners. I was so tired when I woke up yesterday morning and honestly I did not want to go to Pravda. I kept praying for joy and energy to love on the kids. After getting to the orphanage and being with the kids I didn't even need to try and be happy I just was. My kids were so fun to be with and I just love them so much.

But it did really make me want to find some family to host Yuroslav. I even talked to his teacher again about him last night. She kept telling me what a great boy he is. He really has the such a soft spirit and beautiful heart. I would love to him and Ura hosted. I of course would want someone in California so that I could be selfish and share in the experience with them. But at this point I do not care where it is I just want them to be loved on from a real family. So please please please, if you know anyone that you think would want to do this, have them contact me.

Dreams of my heart....

I absolutely LOVE all of our kids here in the orphanage and the graduates. Although, the graduates sometimes just grab my heart in a whole other way. So for sometime I have had this dream to start a community center here in Sumy. I look around the city and I see kids and even just people everywhere with nothing to do. I think about when I was kid and the things that kept me out of trouble. I had great parents and family to help me learn. My kids were not given that great gift. My dreams of the community would not be only for the orphans but for all. But of course my idea came from thinking about how to help them. I want it to offer classes such as: music, english, finance/money managing, sports, and etc. I want sports to be a big part of it. I know sports was something growing up that took up a lot of time and helps keep kids busy and out of trouble. And the kids here really love sports. If we could get organized sports set up that would help the kids here in the community and also we could train our kids when they leave the orphanage to coach little kids. I want this to provide job training for our kids and a sense of pride. I have so much I want it to be. I keep saying I but I know my team here wants these things too. It is not just my dream, God has just been putting it on my heart big time. I used to think it was not really a plausible idea because we are such a small organization. I would wonder how we could ever get the money. But a pastor in Texas has been super encouraging and just helped me to see that nothing is too big for God. The picture I have on here is the blue house that is right across from the orphanage. It has become pretty symbolic to us because before we moved here we would say we were gonna buy it and live there. We have loved it ever since. I want to name the community center The Blue House Community Center. But I am not sure I really love it but it would mean something to the 3 of us. We will see... So pretty much I am SUPER excited.

I am not always the best at keeping in contact so I decided to blog. I am going to TRY to be good at updating this. Writing is not by biggest talent so please forgive me in advance if its choppy or
boring:)

I have been back in Ukraine for a month now and besides it being freezing, I feel like God is moving big time. In April, it will be two years that we have lived here which is insane. I think back to when we first got here and so much has changed. I really think a lot is gonna happen this year. We have so much vision of what we want to do. We just recently added a new member, Sashko, to our team which is really exciting. For so long we have had many things we saw a need for but not enough people. We also have a really great team of Ukrainians that we work with and we feel so blessed to have them.

Going to the orphanage had been really great. I have been with my group there for almost 5 years now. I love seeing how much they have changed and are growing. I probably could love them anymore. It pushes me to have something set up for when they graduate. I have 2 boys Ura and Yuroslav that I am especially close with. I am praying that someone will want to host them this summer. Ura is already 16 so he is not eligible for adoption. But we have seen how much it helps the kids to go spend time with a family. Yaroslav will be 15 next month and is eligible for adoption. He has been in the orphanage since he was a baby. He knows nothing about his family. He is a kid that would do great and just longs for a family. So if anyone knows about someone who would want to host this summer please please let me know. The organization that does the hosting is New Horizons. Well I am new at this so I think this is it for the first one. But in the next one I will write about starting a community center something that is so on my heart.