Girl's night

The boys had a floorball tournament in another city which left us girls alone :)  We decided to invite Anya over for a sleep over. She was exited to come and hang out. One of our friends from church Ira, also came over. She is dying for curly hair, and mind you, she has the straightest straight hair. So we spend hours and I do mean hours, curling her hair. We painted nails, ate family dinner, made hot chocolate, her and Annie had a photo shoot on the roof. This consisted of Annie basically taking over 70 pictures of Anya. Then like any other teenager she spent hours on the computer chatting with friends and uploading her pictures. The next day we all got up and went to church. She came back home with us and it was a nice lazy day. It was fun to get to spend time with just Anya and shower some extra love on her.

Our own personal salon :)

Ira

Anya after hours of curling her hair.

A day in the village

A day in the village starts out with a train ride that is almost 2 hours. This is a small electric train and they cram as many people as you can. It is always an adventure. Our adventure this time was us speaking english and a drunk man getting very upset about it. Sasha asked what the problem was and at the man first said there wasn't one but then proceeded to run his mouth. We moved to the other side of the train so that no problems would ensue. He kept making eye contact with Sasha, pointing, and making other strange gestures. But thankfully, that is where it ended. Then we walked about 2 miles and stopped in the center of the village for our beloved coffee, ice cream, and chips. This is a tradition we have had for years. We then walked the rest of the way to Dusya's house.  Hanging out at Duysa's consists of running around with Vala (her 5 year old) and Andre (her 1 year old).  We also go over to the orphanage and hang out on the sports field with the kids. Vala and Andre's dad Sergei is away working, so Dus is pretty much a single mom. She often looks tired but never complains. She always has food for us even though I know she has little money. She is truly one of the strongest people I know. I am inspired by her and am so blessed to be in her life. I look forward to our days in the village with this little family whom I dearly love.

On our walk.

Our nutritious breakfast and sometimes lunch.

 


 

Vala

Andre

Dusya and Andre

Two loves of my life...

There are two boys, Ura and Sasha, that are probably the reason I came back to Ukraine after my first trip. Sasha was the very first little boy I saw and secretly hoped he would be in my group my first year at camp. And low and behold he was. Then there was Ura. That little boy stole my heart and I was a goner. We stayed at the orphanage for a month and those two boys were glued to my sides. They would get mad if anyone tried to even come near me. I met them when they were 10 and 11 and cannot believe that Ura just celebrated his 19th birthday and Sasha in a few days will celebrate his 18th. I am ridiculously grateful that I have been able to walk alongside them for this long. After my first summer I looked into adoption because I couldn't imagine them not having family and never seeing them again. Of course, this was a crazy dream and there was not a big enough age difference. They graduated the orphanage a year ago in May. And this summer they lived with us at our apartment here in Sumy. My dream had come true. I still am in awe sometimes when I see them here and we celebrate birthdays or even just have family dinner. I love these boys with an incredible love that I know comes from God.

Both boys graduated the orphanage and went to a trade school 2 hours away from Sumy. I of course, wanted them to transfer to Sumy so they could be close. They did transfer and now are attending different schools but both in Sumy. I could not be happier about this. This has been a journey as it seems nothing here is ever without adventure. But that story will be for another time. Right now I am just going to bask in having both boys close and in school.

Sasha when I first met him.

Ura in all his cuteness.

We did not speak the same language so a lot of tickling happened.

A couple years after I met them.

At their graduation. I was so proud.

Ura's birthday celebration

Back in Ukraine

Anika, Chelsea, and I have been back in Ukraine for a little over 3 weeks now. I cannot believe how fast the time has flown by. So many great things have happened in those 3 weeks that I am excited to share about. We got to be apart of Andre's first birthday celebration. Andre is the son of Dusya and Sergei, both are graduates of Pravdinska. They have another daughter Vala who is 5. Dusya has told us numerous times how we are family to her. She does have family, even though she grew up in an orphanage. And they were there at the party, but they were drunk and you could tell she does not always feel comfortable when they are with her kids. I know we all were so thankful to be apart of Andre's   day. They are very much family to me.

Sasha Peevniv is someone that is very dear to all of us. We have walked with him through the orphanage, juvenile prison, and now transitioning into everyday life. He is doing amazing and I am so incredibly proud of him. He has a little 12 year old sister that he had not seen in 5 years. He had it very much on his heart to go back to the village he thought his mom was living in and see his sister. This was confirmed for him when a pastor at a church, not knowing any of this, asked him if he had a sister. When he answered, yes, the pastor told him he needed to help take care of her. He came to find out that she has been living in an orphanage the past 2 years. He was heart broken as he did not want the same life for her that he had. We had the privilege of taking a train ride to go and meet her. We got to hang out with her for the day and then had the fun surprise that he got permission to take her for the weekend. She came and stayed with us this past weekend and it was such a blast. She was so very shy at first. But it wasn't too long before she was out of her shell. She got to experience many firsts with us. To name a few: riding in an elevator, riding an escalator, bowling, eating cereal, and pancakes. We are excited to continue to minister to Lena and help her and Sash in whatever way we can.We started weekly meetings for the graduates who are in the different trade schools in Sumy. The first week we had just the new grads come. It was a fun time of games, fellowship, laughter, and sharing. We look forward to this next week and all the weeks to come.

We also started weekly meetings for the graduates who are in the different trade schools in Sumy. They are like youth group meetings. The first week we had just the new grads come. It was a fun time of games, fellowship, laughter, and sharing. We are excited to have a weekly place for the kids to come and learn more about Christ and build good relationships with our Ukrainian volunteers. We look forward to this next week and all the weeks to come.

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Camp update

Thank you to all of you who in some way
supported camp. We had 25 kids come
which is our biggest group yet. Of course,
a week before camp the location became
unavailable. But it was a blessing because
God provided a different location that was
much better suited for our needs. It was a
little farther from Sumy but we were all by
ourselves and it was much nicer. It was a
little more expensive as we needed heat
this time of year. But it was completely
covered by all that sponsored.
We had a big chunk of older kids and then the newly graduated kids. I was a little anxious that they were not going to mix so well. But they really did and we had no problems. Our camp theme was freedom in Christ. And many of the older kids were very intent on listening. It was also very personal to me because the new group of kids that just graduated were “my” kids. They were just finishing 3rd grade when I first went the orphanage and I have walked beside them. I still cannot believe they just
graduated.

Our days consisted of worship, morning bible meetings,
small group discussions, crafts, free time, sports, capture
the flag, and just good fellowship. One night we talked
about sin and how God forgives us and wants us to let it
go. So the kids wrote down some sins they had been
holding on to. We had a bonfire and they burned them.
We then had worship and s’mores. The kids who had
never been to a camp with us before, this was their first
time even seeing s’mores.

Our last night we had a man from our church come and share his
testimony. When he was younger he had been to prison
for 5 years. While in prison, he became a Christian and
is now living for the Lord. It was really neat to see how
much the kids listened. This really applies to their lives
as almost everyone has someone close to them that has
been in or is in prison.
We were able to reconnect with kids that have not been
around as much as well as minister to the ones that are
fresh out of the orphanage. We have even done some follow up trade school visits to some of the kids
who are just out of the orphanage.Thank you all so very much for all the prayers. I know I truly felt God
working through this camp.

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.