Missing the Kids

When we were in Ukraine my heart would just break everyday when we went to the orphanage.  I came to love all these kids so much and I just couldn't shake the fact that we couldn't help all of them.  I couldn't understand why I was so drawn to them and why I couldn't just focus on the two children we were there for.  I have thought about and prayed for these kids everyday.

Today as I was driving down the road listening to the radio, I heard Brandon Heath being interviewd about his new song  Jesus in Disguise.  He explained that Mother Teresa had said when serving the poor in Calcutta that each one of them was Jesus in disguise.  Wow, that really hit me.  These orphans that my heart breaks for are Jesus in disguise.  They are the ones that Jesus talks about in Matthew 25:35-40   -

For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.
“Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’ "
“The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’ "

The reason why I was so drawn to the others and couldn't focus on the two children we were there for is because these two are no longer the "least of these", they have a family and a place they belong.  The other children are still waiting and need us to love them and shout out for them.  I am praying  that the director of this orphanage will allow us to advocate for these children.  Please get on your knees and join us in praying for these children and that the director's heart and mind would be open to allowing us to help find their families. These children deserve to be in loving families and I just don't know how to explain what it is like looking in to the eyes of an orphan.

~Tina

Final Day This Trip

Today was our final day in Ukraine.  Not sure when we will be returning but we sure hope soon.  We have come to love Bogdan so much and we are going to miss him so.  We are, however, looking forward to getting back home to our other 3 boys.  I probably won't post again until I know when our return date will be.  Thanks to all who have followed and for your comments and prayers.

~Tina

look, no long sleeves or tights!

 

 

 

Memories

Today was really the same as the last several days.  We are so ready to be done and go home with our children.  Although that is not meant to be at the moment, time will fly and this time here will be just a memory.  

We are so thankful to be staying in a nice, clean hotel with people that have been so kind and patient.  We are thankful to have warm water no matter what time of day it is.   There is a restaurant attached to this hotel that serves great food at an affordable price.  This we are thankful for because if this restaurant were not here we would have to walk about 40 minutes one-way to get to a restaurant in Berdychiv.   We are thankful that the orphanage is close enough to walk to and we don’t have to take a taxi twice a day.  We are thankful for the children we have met at the orphanage that have truly changed us.  We are thankful for a little boy who always has the biggest smile for us every day when we get there to see him.  But most importantly we are thankful for God because only He could have come before us and prepared all of this for us.

~Tina

the restaurant at our hotel caters parties and
this was out front for a wedding reception

this is a beautiful grape vine that is over
a driveway that we pass everyday

 


what a heavy load - this man was hauling
potaoes on his bike

 



giving papa a high five



 

Change of Plans

Today, after talking to our facilitator, we decided it was going to be best to stick with our plane tickets and come home on Monday.  It seems it is going to be a few more weeks before we will have court.  And, so that means we will not get to see sweet girl until we come back for court.  I am so very sad and I am sure she will be also when she returns to the orphanage and we are not there.  Our facilitator will be talking to the orphanage director who will explain the situation to her.  I am praying that God will give her a peace in her heart so that she knows without a doubt that we are coming back for her.  No matter what any of the other kids say to her, that she will be strong and courageous and know that she has a family now.   

Speaking of sad, our little guy was so very sad to see us go after our afternoon visit.  He gave us each hugs and said paka (bye) and sat down with the nannies and started to cry.  Through the tears he waved good-bye and I just couldn’t believe this little guy that we met only a week ago has already captured our hearts and attached to us so well.  How are we ever going to leave him?  Will he understand where we have gone?  I am praying for God to protect his heart and mind until we can get back to him.

~Tina

running up the slide

blowing bubbles with papa

saying please for another piece of candy

 



eating his candy

 

Our Day in Pictures & a Video

swinging with mama

pretending he is asleep even snoring

picking up berries that fell from the tree

teter-toter

Do you see the cow in the trailer?  This was parked in
front of the market where we go and get our ice cream.

little guy running to see us

~ Tina

Another Day Closer

Today started out the same way, walking to see Bogdan.  As always, he was happy to see us and ready to go swing and slide and play with the ma shi na (car) that we brought him.  He is so content being with us and has started to push the limits a little bit.  We have been trying to learn a few words to get him to stay with us and listen instead of running way ahead.  I have taught him to say please when he wants something out of my bag.  We also bring a bottle of water for him to drink and I think he would drink it all if we let him.  The workers are always nice to us and seem pleased to see us there.  They try to make us go off and play with him instead of being around the other children.  I can understand this but it is just so hard not to hug and love on the other children also. 

One thing that did happen today that caught us off guard was, a couple of the older girls came up to us and they were holding a little mouse.  They wanted Gary to pet it but he told them nyet (no).  They kept holding it and petting it and Gary tried to tell them it was going to bite one of them.  And, it finally did.  They didn’t seem too concerned about it though.  They just laughed and off they went.

These kids seem to be able to make anything into a toy, whether it is a stick and a string or a plastic bottle, they have quite an imagination.  There is an orchard of apple trees behind the orphanage and all day long you will see a kid or 2 eating an apple.  The kids really work around here, sweeping, mopping, painting, and trimming hedges.  Sometimes I just sit in amazement at how thankful we need to be and how little we could live on if we chose to. 

Our afternoon visit went well and when it was time to go, this was the first time that he seemed sad for us to leave.  He just sat there on the bench and waved bye with the saddest face.  Oh, little guy if you only knew how much you have come to mean to us.

~Tina

 

Hair Cut

Today we visited Bogdan at 10 am and had to cut our visit short to go in to Berdychiv and sign the paperwork to petition the court for a court date and for our facilitator to pick up the paperwork from the social worker.  Yes, she got it done in a day!!!  So now we wait to find out our court date.  Our facilitator headed back to Kiev to turn in paperwork to the SDA and that will take about a week to process, which is needed for court.  We will continue to visit Bogdan two times every day until court. 

When we went to visit him this afternoon, the door to his building was locked.  So we walked around a while and then on the way back we saw one of the workers walking with him.  I called his name and his little face lit up but the worker didn’t know who we were as we had never seen her before.  She must have asked him because he said mama and papa.  She started talking to us and of course we didn’t understand and so we started charades and figured out she was taking him to get his hair cut.  We asked if we could go and she said yes.  We have missed so many firsts in his life and I know this isn’t the first time for him to get his hair cut but it is the first time we have seen him get it cut.  He sat there so well but there were a few times that he started to cry because the stylist pulled his hair.  The worker got after him for whimpering and so he just took it.  So brave!  He looks like a little man now.   This kid pretty much has a permanent smile on his face when we are there.   There are things he does that we are working on correcting but for the most part he is just a great kid who is going to flourish once he has a family.

Enjoy the pictures.  Some are from our walk to get snacks at the market .

~Tina

cleaning day at the orphanage

the market where we get snacks

before

after

blowing bubbles

Busy Day

We left our hotel today at 9:45 to go and see sweet girl at the hospital in Zythomyr.  We road in a van with the social worker and picked up our facilitator and the orphanage director on the way.  Sweet girl is at the hospital for an evaluation and will not get to come back to the orphanage until Aug. 29.  We got to see her for about 10 minutes and she was happy to see us and vice versa.  We were not allowed to take pictures or give her anything except some candy, although I did manage to give her a pretty, bright pink hair tie that had shiny sequins on it.  No one objected to that.  When we saw her last time her hair was so long and now they cut it off to shoulder length.  She still has that wonderful smile and sparkle in her eye and that is the important thing.  Her hair will grow back.  When the orphanage director asked her who we were she said mama and papa.  Then the director asked her if she wanted to be adopted by us and come to America and she said da (yes).  Sweet girl then had to write down that this is what she wanted, for us to be her mama and papa.   We were then told it was time to leave.  I was thinking, wait a minute, we just got here.   I wasn’t finished looking at her, sitting by her, hugging on her and just letting her know we are here!  Finally, we are here to bring you home, to a family where you belong, a mama and papa that sees your worth and they are taking you away.  I am thankful to God that He made the way for us to see her for those few minutes as we will not get to see her again until she returns to the orphanage.     

We then left the hospital and went back to orphanage to drop off the director and get some paperwork.  It took a while for the paperwork to get done so we were allowed to go see Bogdan, although our morning visiting hours were already over.  He came running out the door as fast as he could jumping in to my arms.  We got to play with him for about 15 or 20 minutes and then it was time for his lunch.   After leaving him with his worker, we sat outside on a bench and watched some of the older children.  A little while later our facilitator came out with the paperwork and then we were off again.

We dropped the social worker off at her office and headed to the notary’s office.  We were there about an hour early so we waited and waited.  Finally 3 pm came and our facilitator turned in our documents to the notary and then we waited another 45 minutes to an hour.  We then signed 4 different documents and waited just a few minutes out by the street for the orphanage director to drop off the documents that she had to prepare.  Normally, the orphanage director does not prepare the documents in just a few hours as she/he is allowed a certain amount of days.  This is such a praise God moment.  And to add to that, the social worker is trying to get her documents done and signed by the person that she needs to have sign so that our facilitator can pick them up tomorrow.  Praise God again and again as the social worker also is allowed so many days to do the paperwork.

We made it back to the orphanage at 5 pm and Bogdan’s group was playing outside.  Anytime they hear a car come to the orphanage entrance they all look up.  As soon as Bogdan saw it was us he came running down the trail and down the street and jumped in to my arms.  He just smiled and just looked at me and said mama.  Ok, this boy is just melting my heart.  We played with him and loved on him for about an hour and then our time was up.  He waved goodbye and off we went on our walk back to the hotel. 

This has been a very emotional day for us.  We want so badly to get these children out of here but we also know that God’s timing is perfect.   He’s got this and we will need to be patient.  We are just so very thankful that He is allowing us to be their parents.

~Tina

Happy Boy

Thankful

Today has been an eye-opener day; so much to take in and think about; so much to be thankful for.  Oh, how blessed we are and how much we take for granted. 

At this orphanage there are kids ranging in age (just guessing) from 4 to 16.  Depending on the age as to what building you are housed in but they all play together at the playground.   We got to play outside today and therefore we interacted with several children.  Bogdan was very protective of us when the other kids would come over to talk, look at us or to just see what we had brought to play with.  He would say nyet (no), mi mama and papa.  He was also very protective of the toys we brought and when he saw the other kids coming he would get a little nervous and get busy hiding all the toys so they couldn’t see them, funny guy. 

We got to see some of his playmates today.  I don’t have any pictures of them because I wasn’t sure how the nanny felt about me taking pictures.   Some of them do have special needs and they were so sweet.  They would come up and want to hold our hand or just lean in to us to get a hug.  They would sure chatter away but we didn’t understand.  One thing I did understand is that these kiddos need a mama and papa and I just feel so bad.  I know we can’t help all of them but there are people out there that can make a difference to one more.  God doesn’t call everyone to adopt but I think he calls more to adopt than actually do.  Listen to what God is placing on your heart.  You have no idea the blessing you are missing out on.

We also got to interact with some of the older kids.  One girl in particular followed us around most of the visit.  You will see her in the pictures.  She is wearing pink.  There is another beautiful girl that sat with us some and talked with Bogdan.  She is wearing green in the pictures and has 2 kittens in her bag.  As soon as some of them saw we had a camera, they wanted their picture taken.  So we got lots of pictures today.  These children want to be acknowledged so badly.  I know it takes a special person to adopt an older child but God does equip the ones He calls.

Enjoy the pictures.  The first few are from the road we walk each day to the orphanage.

~Tina

In front of our hotel by the highway.

Enjoying Bogdan

Today we visited Bogdan at 10 and 4 for about 2 hours each time.  He melted my heart when we got there at the 10 am visit.  He was playing outside and when we said his name he looked up and said mama.  He had to run and hug me.  It is taking him a little while to warm up to Gary.  He is just used to being around women.

Wow, trying to fill up 2 hours of time inside with a few toys is a little hard when we can't understand each other.  But he is such a good boy and so patient with us as we stumble through the language.  It is amazing to watch his face as we get the toys out of our bag.  The crayons make him smile and he is so excited to see them each time.  He loves for us to draw pictures for him.  He likes throwing a ball back and forth.  He has a pretty good throw and can catch well.  He also looooves candy, yes he actually says candy.  Not sure how he knows that word but he expects a piece (or 2 or 3) each time we come to see him.  We had some with us at the 10 am visit but they were going to eat lunch after our visit so we had to tell him nyet (no).  He took it very well although he did ask a few more times.

We are hoping that once we get to see sweet girl that she will get to come back to the orphanage.  I think that when they get together, he may feel more comfortable talking.  I can't wait to be able to visit them together and see how they interact.

Hope you enjoy the pictures.

~Tina

our hotel

entrance to the orphanage

the building Bogdan knows as home

Papa and Bogdan

Papa bouncing Bogdan

Mama and Bogdan

putting a puzzle together

with his best friend