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.