A day in the life of...

For all of you who have ever wondered or not wondered what life was like here in Ukraine, I thought it would be fun to start a video series. I will post videos of daily life activities. Some days may be funny, some may be crazy, and some you may not even believe are true. It will be the closest way to experience what life is like here, so welcome to my life! I hope you enjoy my daily adventures.

To start here is a video that is a recap of our Fall camp. Enjoy watching some of the most awesome kids EVER! Well, I am kind of biased, seeing as I picked up and moved my entire life to Sumy, Ukraine. The reject city that some Ukrainians don't even know where it is. Enjoy...

Okay, so now I think I am forming a new addiction. Here is one more just to tide you over until the next one. Well, really just because I want people to start to see how life is here :)

Thanksgiving Celebration

Thanksgiving is obviously not a Ukrainian holiday but we decided to share with our kids and bring them into the celebration. We started the celebrating on Wednesday before Thanksgiving at our grad meeting. We had a photo booth set up where the kids could be anything from a pilgrim, to an indian, and even a turkey. They also did hand painted turkeys that later everyone went around and wrote why they were thankful for each other on. It may sound a bit juvenile but seeing as these kids have never done anything like this, they definitely enjoyed it. We shared about thankfulness and had a good time of  sharing what each was thankful for. On Thanksgiving day itself we used as a prep day. On friday we celebrated Thanksgiving. It started with the 6 of us who live in our apartment, getting up early and making a trip to the market. We then set out to find our turkey. This always an adventure, as I have never walked through a market at home where they have many animals that still have their feet attached with fur so you can know what you are actually eating. We then fit 18 people in our small apartment. Most of the kids were in awe of the turkey as this is not something they had eaten before. For many of the kids it was the first time they really got to celebrate a holiday in a big way. There was much laughter and joy in our house that night. I would be lying if I said I didn't miss my family, but I am honestly so thankful that I was able to be here in Ukraine celebrating with an awesome group of kids. There is much to be thankful for this year. I am so very thankful to all of the people in my life who support me and my ministry!

Turkey Hands.

Photo Booth

Meet Frank, our turkey :)

Turkey anyone?

Sash making his delicious mashed potatoes.

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

A day in the life of Ukraine

I am starting realize more and more that people have no idea what I do here. And often they think I don't do much. One of the most asked questions is, "what is a typical day look like." This is by far one of my least favorite questions because there is no typical day here. A day can be as simple as waking a kid up for school then doing things around that house that need done and making dinner for a house full of kids. Somedays, it is taking care of the business side of Open Arms. It can be preparing for graduate meetings and then having the graduate meeting and being with the kids. But no matter the plan there usually is some sort of crisis that takes place with a kid or something ministry wise that needs to be taken care of. We HAVE to be flexible. Everything here takes so much longer then I am used to from transportation(as we don't have a car) to getting any kind of documents approved. For instance, I will give a run down of how today went. Anika, Sash, and I got on a bus at 12 a.m. Imagine riding Indiana Jones for 5 hours straight then waiting 3 hours at McFoxy(which is a knock off of MacDonalds). We took this horrible bus because there were no more train tickets unless we could afford first class for 400 grevna per ticket. I needed to renew my passport so I can apply for a new visa. This was our whole reason for going to Kiev today. I had an appointment at 8:30 at the American Embassy. I was in and out in 50 min. But our train back was not until 3:30. So we had some more time to kill. Now mind you, it is already cold in Ukraine especially for this California girl. I am thankful that it is not as cold as is has been in previous years but regardless, it is cold. We finally made it home at about 9:40 p.m. For a 50 minute appointment we spent almost 24 hours with travel and waiting. I will say, this does give us a lot of time to make memories doing crazy things to make the time pass.
 Now while we were doing that the rest of the team was making a last minute trip to a village outside of Sumy looking for one of the girls from our orphanage who is supposedly studying there. There is a family who is adopting her brother and needed help finding her. They did not know if they would find her but they just jumped in a taxi and showed up at the school. This was not what they thought their day would look like but it is how it works here. Everyday is usually different than what we planned. Tomorrow is supposed to be a work day getting ready for our wednesday night grad. meeting and our Thanksgiving plans which will involve quite a few kids. Life sure is different here but, I am really thankful for the all that it teaches me. Wish I could say I always have a smile on my face when things don't go as planned but, anyone who knows me knows that is probably not true. :)

This is what happens at 5am after riding the bus for 5 hours.

At the American Embassy.

So proud of his American shirt with the American flag.

The trip was worth it just so Anika could find her wedding dress :)

So excited we got to eat Dominos pizza.

So sad we not home yet, as we wait on the floor in the train station.

Finally made it home and I think we all lost it :) 

Discouraging Days

Ever have those days where everything seems to go wrong or no matter what you do you end up feeling like the worst person ever? I do, and these days more often than I would like. I am sure it has to do with the fact that things ministry wise have been going so well and that is when the enemy wants to attack. I am sad to admit that when things are actually going well I am usually waiting for the ball to drop.

All my life, I have been riddled with insecurities. That is probably my biggest struggle and one of my biggest downfalls. It can consume me to where I am not doing the things I should be doing because all I can focus on is how I feel. I so do not want to be that kind of person. I hate that feelings can have such  power of me. Living in Ukraine and doing the kind of work I do here opens me up to all kinds of attacks like I just wrote about. I think I have written a little about this before. Today I am feeling discouraged. Things happen that should not be that big of a deal but it seems all the little things add up and then BOOM.  And to add to all of that we have an apartment where 6 of technically live  but there are usually at least 9 people here. So there never any time to just be. But I know one day it will not be like this and I will miss it. I am not even sure what my point of all of this is. I think I just really want to try and be thankful even in the times I am not feeling thankful. And I want to never stop working on myself because Lord knows I still need a lot work. I am super thankful He never gives up on us.I am not sure why He chose me for Ukraine but I am sure glad He did. What a cool life I get to live.

Girls Girls Girls...

Girls can be a bit intimidating.  Well, at least the ones from the orphanage.  But camp was an eye opening experience.  As there were 3 girls from a different orphanage who were so open to relationship. Don't get me wrong, I have met girls here who are wonderful and are very dear to my heart. One of my most favorite relationships is with someone that was in the orphanage. But this is not the majority of my experience.

I have and have had lots of girl friends but I have always had lots of guy friends too . Truthfully,  I always thought they were easier to be friends with . They are not as much drama(although the older I get the more I realize this is not always true),and love to play and talk about sports(as I do love to watch and talk about my teams). But over the past year, I have felt it on my heart that we need to do a girl's ministry.  This was something I was excited about but also not so excited about . I may be almost 30 but these girls sure know how to bring out every insecurity you didn't even know you had.  And for some reason they don't want to come around once they graduate the orphanage.  There is usually one or two who come around but that’s usually it. 

I wasn't really sure how to go about doing a girl's ministry when I'm not sure if they would really show up. But after camp we have 3 girls who desperately want to be loved on. They call, write, text, come to our meetings, and even want to hang out after the meetings are over. It took us aback a bit, but all in a good way. It is so fun to have girls who truly just want to have relationship and don't just want to hang out just to get something. I am just so excited to see what God has in store for these girls and how I will get to play apart in their lives.

Leaving a Legacy

We just finished fall camp and I cannot believe it is already over. We plan and plan for it and then in a whirlwind we are already unpacking. Truthfully, we never know exactly what to expect. We always have kids tell us they are coming then the day of they either don't show up or let us know they can't make it. This of course makes it really hard for planning. We always have to guess how much food and supplies we need. We even had leaders not be able to make it and let us know right before camp. I used to be SO frustrated by this but I have had to learn to be flexible.

Our theme was Leaving a Legacy. So often our kids do not think about tomorrow. They do not think about how their choices affect their lives in a positive or negative way. We wanted to show them that they all leave some sort of legacy whether they want to or not. We had 18 kids at camp and it was probably one of our best camps yet. The kids that came were so excited to be there and participate. We had 3 new girls from a different orphanage. Girls that we have worked with in the past have been, how to put it, difficult would probably be the nicest word. For whatever reason, once they leave the orphanage they don't always want a lot to do with us. But these 3 girls were unlike any girls I have met here in Ukraine. They instantly wanted to be friends. We had dance parties in the kitchen, they participated in group games, and even shared their thoughts in our small groups. There was a lot of prayer and support that went into this camp and I could definitely feel it. 

We found out about a week before camp that our main speaker couldn't make it. At first, we felt at a loss as it is probably one of the most important aspects of our camp. But God provided as He always does. We asked the boys floorball coach if he could fill in. He said he would and he, his wife, and baby came to camp.  He was really great with the kids and really spoke from the heart.The baby was a huge hit with the kids, and it was so good for the kids to see a family. Thank you so much to all of you who have prayed and supported us. We truly could not do it without you all.

The set up crew.

Unloading for camp.

Goody bags and Hygiene packs.

Lasagna soup.

No better way to get to the know the girls then a photo shoot :) This
pic caught us off guard.

Who doesn't love M&Ms covered in ketchup?!

Yummmm...

Craft time.

Ivan enjoying our ice cream sundaes.

Love them.

Popcorn and a movie.

My awesome dance team.

Sash and Solomia

Group picture

More about faith...

I just wrote a blog about how I so often lack faith. Then the next day I got news that someone who doesn't even know us, heard about our ministry donated a large sum and now wants to invest in ways I have dreamt about. Ummm I was shocked! I mean, seriously wants to invest in big ways that would totally give us resources to grow our ministry. Then I started thinking, why am I so shocked. These are things I have prayed for and now God is making them happen. Reminded of how I lack faith sometimes. But more than anything it just grew my faith. Not even because we might be getting something we want but because God moves in huge ways that can't be explained by anything human. All that to say, I am SUPER excited about what is happening in our ministry and am so grateful that this is my life. And then I randomly read this verse today :)
Matthew 17:20
He replied, "Because you have so little faith. I tell you the truth, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there' and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you."

And this verse I read and the same day got an email from someone I love dearly who read it and said they thought of me. I am pretty sure God was trying to tell me something.
Ephesians 3:20-21
Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us,to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.