The Visa Situation

So here's the scoop: we bought visas in the states but right before we left, Ukraine decided to change all its visa laws and policies, and there's a lot of uncertainty about what to do. It's complicated living in Ukraine because nobody ever knows what's going on. With the visas, for example, the Ukrainian government is saying one thing, the US embassy sent out an email saying something different, Manna's Ukrainian lawyer said something else, and the head of the school Suzie works at went to a meeting and they said something that condradicted everything already said. So what do we do? We can't register our visas, and so we will most likely have get new visas the next time we leave the country. After hearing this news, our team decided to dig a tunnel to Poland to get these new visas (there's plenty of good shovels at Smile House)! Please pray that everything works out and that God's hand will be in this!

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The power of a hug

Three weeks ago at church, Masha sat next to me. Masha is ten, has Downs Syndrome and is a fantastic hugger. She just loves hugging. So I try to always stop and hug her back. During the service, she came in and sat between me and her dad, for a while she loved on her dad and then she leaned her head on my shoulder, so I leaned my head over onto hers, and she looked up at me with this big smile. She reached around and gave me a shoulder hug, and then patted my head, and then rubbed my back for a few minutes. I didn’t move the entire time because it just felt so good. It was just simple, innocent affection, and it sent tingles up my spine. If you don’t know what I’m talking about you need more hugs and back scratches. Human contact is so important. That’s why I try and hug the kids when we go up to the orphanage. These are just a few stories of some of the hugs I’ve given and gotten this past month, and why hugs are so imp...

The rain in Spain falls mainly on the plain: Why shopping is a pain in Ukraine.

I used to like shopping. I thought it was fun. I love closure, and so nothing was more satisfying than crossing items off a list. I enjoyed the experience of checking out new stuff, looking for bargains, and of course everyone knows that buying stuff feels good. That was then. This is now. Shopping here is a pain. Let me explain (hey, I’m a poet and I don’t even realize it)! First, we don’t have a car. That means we are at the mercy of public transportation, and so we have to keep that in mind when choosing what store to go to. Is it close to a bus or metro stop? Do we have to transfer metro lines? When we lived in the city center, we were really close to two metro lines. We like this store called MegaMarket, and it was only a few stops away on the metro. So, we would grab our backpacks, walk a block to the metro, go down a ridiculously long escalator, then hop on a metro and ride a couple stops down. Then we would walk a few blocks and there it was..…Megamarket! Second re...

The Costs of Dehumanization

Our friends, Marina and Ira, have family in Russia. Not long after the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion, they spoke with those family members. Those in Russia expressed their disgust that people in Ukraine were eating children. Marina and Ira’s reaction was naturally surprise and horror. In the early days of the war, back in 2014, state-controlled Russian news agencies had started to run a story about a young boy that had been crucified in Ukraine’s eastern territories. The narrative was that this was what Ukrainians were doing to Russian speakers. It didn’t take long for the story to be debunked. But this was primarily outside of Russia, most people within Russia kept hearing this story, and stories like it. Over the years, the stories grew to the point where Russian citizens were hearing that Ukrainians were regularly eating babies. This is why Marina and Ira were having this conversation. They told their r...

The Voices of Ukrainians

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