The Voices of Ukrainians

As you may remember, Anya was able to leave the hospital and be home for the summer. She had a cast on her leg, but it was a light cast and she could walk.  Before we checked her out of the hospital, the doctor said to bring her back a month after she left, which would have been July 4th. If there's one thing we have learned about dealing with the medical system in Ukraine, its that you always call before you do anything. Sure enough, we called just before July 4th and the doctor was sick and wouldn't be back for awhile. We waited, then called again two weeks later. The doctor said to bring her on Monday, which was yesterday, and so we did. Though its frustrating dealing with this crazy system, I am glad this one time that the date got pushed back. The reason is because July 13th was Anya's birthday. It would have been a terrible way to celebrate turning 16. At least this way she was able to be with her family and friends, not some stuffy hospital. Since we didn't see A...

My second trip to South West Ukraine to help a family finish a children’s home for the orphans of Ukraine. The last time I was down in Chernivtsi helping Slavic work on their house, LifeBoat, I asked Slavic what his plans were for the roof.  He sheepishly told me he didn’t have any, he was just going to build the walls to a certain height and hope that every thing came together.  That night I called Janna and asked if it was ok for me to plan another trip so that I could build the roof for Slavic.  I recruited Petro to come with me again. He, like most kids who graduate from the orphanage system, has had a really hard time finding a job, even though he’s a hard worker.  I also got Vova and Dima to come with me.  They are both college students but don’t have any summer work.  They live in a transition home for kids from the orphanage here in Kiev, and their house “mom” told me that it would be a big help to her if I could take any of her boys to help me....

This past Christmas, we gave out photo albums of all the kids in the orphanage in Komarivka.  It took a lot of time to sort through photos for 100 kids, but we did it, and a bunch of the albums had 25 pictures (that was the max).  A lot of people we told us that this was a really good gift, because most of these kids never get any pictures of themselves.  . Sasha, Zhenya and Alina right after they got their photo albums. But something happened with the pictures that we didn’t expect. A couple of weeks ago, Janna had the kids help her make a “We miss you” card for Andre.  Andre used to visit the orphanage with us every week, but now he is working with a different ministry north of Kiev.  A few of the kids really miss him.  While we were working on the card, Artyom brought us a picture of himself that we had given him for Christmas, so that we could give it to Andre.  And he asked us if Andre could send him a picture in return.  Vita showing me ...

Until two weeks ago, I had only been to visit the parents of two kids from the orphanage in Komarivka.  One of them actually lives on orphanage property and isn’t too bad because the orphanage staff are trying to help this family.  But the home is far from great. We’ve also been to visit Anya’s home when we’ve picked her up and dropped her off from the hospital. But there I never actually saw inside the house.  I didn’t expect much because we knew her mom was an alcoholic.  But there are three kids in the orphanage from one family, Yana, Diana and Artyom, that  live just a few blocks from Anya.  We went to visit them last week when we dropped off Anya.  It is the beginning of summer so everyone was home. Meisha and Diana.  Everyone loves Diana because she’s super sweet. These kids are really good kids, even though Yana can be a little bit of a pill (She’s a teenager, so that’s her job).  But I kind of expected that their living situation...

This winter and spring, Anya spent six months straight in the hospital, except for the two weeks she got to go home for Easter break.  They stretched her leg by 4 cm (1 1/2 inches) and now she is in a soft cast while they wait for the  bone to strengthen.  The doctors check on her progress every few days and she gets water massages about the same. Other than that she has nothing to do.  She just hangs out with the other kids in the hospital. So last Saturday, I staged a prison break.  We called her doctor and asked if she could just leave for the day, he said yes.  So I showed up at 9 in the morning so that we could check her out.  She had never been to a movie theater, so I thought, We can change that.  There is a nice theater about 10 minutes from the hospital and shows started at ten.  We missed them because it took us an hour to get the nurse to show me the type of note I needed to write.   But Kolya and Halya met us at the the...

Graduation was today up in Komarivka for 14 ninth-graders.  They are now off on their own. We’ve been getting ready for graduation for a couple of months.  Janna and Meisha put together presents for all 14 graduates.  Duffel bags, towels, a Bible, watch and a few other essentials as well as some pictures from their last year in school.  We’ve all been working towards getting a house ready for some of the girls so that they can live in a Christ-centered home, finish high school and get the life-skills they need to actually gain independence in life.  The graduating class on the last day of school. But two days ago, Meisha told me that I had been elected to say something at Graduation for our organization.  My Russian is ok, and its getting better, but I’m not ready to really be doing public speaking.  I’ve only been trying to speak Russian for two years.  But how to speak wasn’t my biggest dilemma, it was what to say.  Graduation is act...

I got to spend last week down in Southwest Ukraine helping our partners Slavic and Tanya make an addition to their house so that they can provide a Christ-centered home for more kids in the social services system in Ukraine.  It was a great trip.   We spent two whole days doing nothing buy haul bricks up onto the second floor.  It rained every day, and leaked all over both the new and old parts of the house.  I found out that Slavic didn’t have a plan for the roof, he was going to try and make it work some how.  I was the only English speaker the entire week.  The new and old parts of LifeBoat House It really was a great trip, I didn’t move to Ukraine so I could lead a boring, easy life.  Petro, a kid from Komarivka who Doug has been working with since he was just a kid, went with me, and we rode the train down Sunday night and started work as soon as we arrived.  We started moving bricks.  Hauling the bricks wasn’t my favorite par...

We are spreading the word about our new project, the starting of a transition home called Second Chance. God has opened so many doors already; we have a couple that have agreed to be house parents, Kolya and Galya Terovets. They are totally amazing. We did some training with them recently, and were impressed with how much they had already thought things through, such as house rules, finances, and everyday activities like chores and dress code. I'm not sure anyone can be fully prepared to do this ministry (would you be willing to take in at-risk teenage girls?), but I think they are as prepared as they possibly can be!  The other good news is that we have a house lined up, and we have two girls that want to live there! These two girls, Tanya and Marina, graduate from the orphanage on June 12 th . That is one week away! After they graduate, we will bring them back to Kiev to live at Second Chance. Tanya is on the left; Marina is wearing the black shirt. These girls a...

A week ago, most of the kids from Komarivka came to Kiev on an excursion.  They were doing a concert and then having a tour at the Lavra, one of the oldest monasteries in Ukraine.  We got to watch the show and hang out with the kids the whole day which was great.  So I just wanted to share with you videos of their performance and some pictures of the kids on their tour.  For many of the kids, this was their first time in Kiev. The show started with a song and then the younger girls did a dance, which was pretty much the cutest things we had ever seen. After that, the older girls did a more traditional Ukrainian dance. They didn't get to use the stage, not sure why, but the dance had been choreographed for a much larger area.  The week before, the staff at the orphanage had asked us if we could buy some traditional socks for this dance. So the socks the girls were wearing are a gift from us, thanks to our awesome supporters. The show ended with a group...

I was thinking back and I realized that for the most part I write two types of stories.  I write stories about the kids in the orphanages.  I write about how they touch my heart.  The struggles they face.  The special moments with them and the heartbreaking moments with them.  I try and help people understand how much I love the kids in the orphanage and hate the orphanages.  I write about how much I wish I could change the life they live.  I try as hard as I can to convey how heartbreaking it can be to work with the kids, not because I’m trying to play on peoples emotions but because it is really heartbreaking.  I always feel like these stories are depressing, because, well, it depresses me. And then I write stories about what I see God doing through his people in Ukraine.  I write stories about thkids from Safe Haven and how they help us.  The joy and the growth I see in them.  I write about how what we see Anya and Bogdon doing...

Safe Haven has been working with the orphanage in Khanev for over 10 years.  Every Spring and Fall break they put on a camp for the kids who don’t spend the break with family.  So last week, Janna and I got to go with them and a group of American who came to help put on the camp.  We aren’t allowed into the orphanage in Komarivka, so we thought this would be a great opportunity to see what Safe Haven does and try to learn from them.  Anya and Bogdon, house parents at Safe Haven, have told us that camp is when they develop relationships with the kids that eventually come and live at Safe Haven when they finish school.  So I expected Anya and Bogdon to be in the middle of everything all week long.  But they weren’t.  Bogdon emceed during the talent show, and Anya said something to the group the very first day and the very last day.  Other than that, they stayed out of the spotlight.  (Except when Anya played the beautiful girl in a skit with 5...

(I’m going to write more on our experience at camp, but this is just about my relationship with kids who were in my room. ) Vlad was sitting on my left.  His head resting on my chest.  “You’re my new uncle.  You’re a good uncle.”  Man, that made me feel great. Valerie who was sitting on my right, head also on my chest, said, “You’re my new papa. You’re a good papa.”  That brought up more complicated feelings for me.  I felt great because it was only the second night of camp and Valerie already trusted me, but I felt terrible because I knew the only reason Valerie was saying that was because he wanted and needed someone to be his papa.  I squeezed both of the boys as I held back tears.  I hate what these kids have to live through. Me with Vlad and Valerie ******** This past week, Janna and I were at camp with Safe Haven.  We were told we couldn’t visit the orphanage in Komarivka so we took advantage of the opportunity to see how Safe H...