The Voices of Ukrainians

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...