Ups and Downs...

What should have been a routine trip definitely turned out to be not be. They day I was leaving to return back to Ukraine I got up with plenty of time to make the trip to the airport. What should have taken about an hour and 15 or so took about 3 hours. Annie and I were flying together and so we missed out flight. We thought we would just be able to take the next one. First the guy told us we would each have to pay $250 and that there were no more flights until the next day. He ended up waiving our fee thank the Lord. So we went home and came back the next morning to do it all over again. We made it from SFO to Chicago only for them to tell us that we didn't have reservations to Zurich and then to Kiev. Needless to say we were a little worried. But again, God took care of us and the lady was super helpful and pulled some strings and got us on the flights. We finally make it to Kiev and get on the bus that takes us to Sumy. We maybe had been driving for an hour when a tire blows. It is raining outside and we have to stand out there for over an hour while they try and fix it. We finally make it back to Sumy in one piece. I think I may be cursed when it comes to traveling :)

It seems our beginning of the trip was a precursor for the way things would go here in Ukraine. In the first week being back we had 4 kids have trouble with the police. One of our kids Roman who I am really close with had some trouble almost a year ago and had been given community service. He missed a couple so he had to have court again. They told him that he could go to jail for a month and told him to come back again for another court date on the 14th (this was his third court date). So Anika and I went to support him even though we could not go in with him. No one really thought he would go to jail. He called me from outside the court room as I waited in the front room of the court house. He said the judge told him he was probably going to go for a month and he was waiting to go back in. We sat and waited some more and then a lady came out and asked who was there for Roman. Anika went back and they gave her his stuff. This was incredibly hard as he is a very huge part of our family. The prison system here is not so good. I have gotten to talk to him once and he is hanging in there. He says it is very cold as they do not give them much. We need to go and give a blanket, warm clothes, food, and etc. We went today to give stuff to another kid in the prison next to the one Roman is in and it was started snowing. I cannot even imagine how cold they must be. I just keep praying that God will protect them. I keep praying that this will soften his heart instead of hardening it.



We are also having another graduate camp this friday. I am pretty excited because most of the kids coming are from my group of kids that just graduated the orphanage. It is an exciting time in that way. Even in the bad, God give so much goodness. Such as on Sunday Sasha or S.P. as we call him got baptized. What an amazing moment to witness and be apart of. We have been through so much with him and seeing him show everyone that he wants to live differently literally made me tear up. So there really is so much good even amidst the bad.