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I miss those kids.

So we haven’t been able to go into the orphanage in over a month.  It started out as a quarantine, which was planned a week in advance (I wish I could understand how that works).  Then, apparently, some group brought some food into another orphanage and kids got sick.  So every orphanage in the region was closed to visitors apparently.  I think part of it is the director, he wants to flex his muscle.  He’s also afraid of his superiors finding out so many people visit his orphanage (I’ve heard that is a very soviet thing, don’t draw attention to yourself).  And so on.
But we haven’t seen most of the kids for over a month.  We’ve seen some of the kids when they come out and talk to us on the street just outside of the orphanage.  We’ve seen some in the hospitals, which is always a great time.  But I haven’t seen Sasha, Misha, and so many other kids in a long time.
Yulia day 044
Me and Nadia, hanging out just outside the orphanage
I miss them.  This past week it hit me just how much.  We’ve been working on getting Children’s Hope Ukraine going.  Writing brochures, building the website, contacting people, working with Kolya and Halya to get our new home started.  But this week, I really started to lose motivation.  Why can’t I focus on what I’m doing? I thought.  It slowly clicked with me that the kids are my motivation.  I need to go to the orphanage every week.  I need to see the chaos, and the anger that is latent in a lot of the kids.  I need to have one of them pick today to be my buddy and hold my hand all day.  I need to look at Misha and Toma, or Roma and Dennis, or Nastia and Luba and wish that I could take them with me and give them the love and attention they need.  I need that constant reminder of why I love the orphanage (the kids) and why I hate the orphanage (the orphanage itself).  That’s why we do what we do.  That’s why we are building homes for them.  We want them to not be neglected any more. 
The good news is, we are going to the orphanage this week.  We have permission from the head of all the orphanages in the region.  We also have permission to do a camp with the kids during spring break, which is a great time to spend with the kids and share the gospel with them.  I've even been writing a couple of stories so that I can do a short Bible lesson or two, in Russian, solo (that's a big deal, you have no idea).  
And I am gonna hug the heck out of some kids.  I cannot wait.
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