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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Freedom in losing

The last day of our summer camp, I told the kids about my first tennis game in high school. It was a game that skill-wise I should have won, but I was so nervous and afraid of messing up that I totally blew the game. It was only after I was one game away from losing the match that I relaxed and just played, after all, in my mind I had already lost, there was no stress. And then I started winning. But after winning four games in a row, I thought, “Wow, I might actually win this game.” Then the stress returned … and I lost. I focused on that time in the game where I had pretty much lost, but the game just wasn’t over yet. There was an awesome freedom that comes when you know you’ve lost and you just get to play. You can experiment, and if you mess up; who cares you’ve already lost. If you do good, it feels good and you can enjoy it without worrying if it’s good enough. Life is a lot like that tennis matc...

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...

Anya’s Russian Dad

How war and propaganda have been affecting families across Ukraine, Russia and the world. On February 24 th , 2022, Anya, like millions of Ukrainians, was woken up at 5 o’clock in the morning by the sounds and reverberations of missiles striking in and around Kyiv (where she lived) and all over the country. She spent that morning rounding up her very large family, including a 13 year old son who was at a sleepover more 30 minutes from their home. Imagine being separated from one of your children in a situation like that. They did get all of their family (18 people) together, but it was a lot of work and stress. While getting everyone together Anya and her family had to pack up not knowing how long they would be gone. Then, they joined millions of people on the road who were heading West. It took them 3 days to make a trip that would typically take 7-9 hours. As Anya sat in the car, she started thinking about her parents. ...

The Voices of Ukrainians

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