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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Anya’s operation “The whole story”

Brace yourselves: This blog is 3309 words long. Honestly, I cut a lot of information out and simplified it so much to keep it short. But the story of Anya’s operation is a monster and I wanted to tell it start to finish so that you have one place to come learn about Anya and what she’s been through these past months, as well as what it has taught us about the lives of orphans here. The core problem: Our helplessness to help Anya A few weeks ago a friend from the states wrote me a few emails asking about Anya’s situation. At that point Anya had been in the hospital for almost four weeks … waiting. Her operation was first scheduled for the day after she was checked in, but it kept getting pushed back again and again. It was incredibly frustrating, mainly because no one in Kiev had the authority to check her out of the hospital, and so she had to stay there for four weeks..four very boring weeks. I would have gone crazy. Normally, the par...

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...

Christmas in Ukraine Part VI: Nat and Tiffy come to Ukraine

A few weeks ago we had the pleasure of hosting two sisters here in Kiev, Tiffany and Natalie. When they came to Ukraine from America, they brought 280 blankets to give out to children in need! The blankets were awesome! Natalie and Tiffany go to Liberty College, and they had decided to do something for kids in Ukraine. They chose to make blankets. With the help of many prayer groups at Liberty, they came up with 280 beautiful, colorful, warm and fuzzy blankets, and each one had cards inside with Bible verses and notes from the people who made them. What a wonderful idea! We spent three days going around to different places to hand out the blankets, and it was precious! First we went to our orphanage, Komarivka. The majority of the kids had gone home for the holidays, but about 30 kids remained. You should have seen their faces! Such big smiles all around! One of my favorite pictures ever of two giggling girls, Luda and Vita! Some of the older girls, Larissa, Natasha, J...

The Voices of Ukrainians

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