Home.

"I have learned along my journey that if I really want to follow Jesus, I will go to the hard places.  Being a Christ follower means being acquainted with sorrow.  We must know sorrow to be able to fully appreciate joy.  Joy costs pain, but the pain is worth it.  After all, the murder had to take place before the resurrection." -Katie Davis, Kisses From Katie

 

We read this paragraph from Kisses from Katie aloud one evening while all three of us were laying in our beds talking about our day while in Ukraine.  We had been to the "hard place" that day.  By no means, the hardest of the hard places in the world (because even though I shudder at the thought, I know there are worse), but a place where children are laying in beds, for hours, days, weeks and months.  Where children are wet, soiled and care is sometimes minimal.  Knowledge of how to care for a child with special needs and the resources to do it are limited.  A dark place where children do not have a mom or dad to hold and comfort them.  It was hard, and it was beautiful, and I can't wait to go back again.

During our trip we had several opportunities to share why we go and do the work in these orphanages. It was such a blessing to us to be able to tell caregivers and doctors how special each of these children are and that we know that God made and loves each of them. 

For you created my inmost being; 

    you knit me together in my mother’s womb. 

¹⁴ 

I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;

    your works are wonderful, 

    I know that full well.

And I can not even believe the trip has come and gone and I am sitting back here at my computer typing about it already.  We were extremely blessed with health, safety, travel grace and most of all favor with the orphanage and permission to work with ALL of the children.  Meaning those laying in their beds 24/7 were available to us.  God really put us in the right places at the right time and worked out every detail.  There is so much to say about the week, but one specific example is, we really wanted to see the laying down rooms while the children were being fed.  Randomly on Tuesday while Kate had a sweet little guy in their therapy pool, I said, Allison, let's go to group 8 and check it out while Kate is busy.  We walk in and they are all eating.  Perfect timing.  They were being fed from large bottles filled with a thick soup while laying down flat, and there was evidence of choking and spitting up on their beds.  We immediately were able to begin educating about safe feeding/swallowing practices, how the swallow works, and the importance of propping the children up during feeding.  We asked permission to position the children and did so right then.

I had the privilege of traveling with two amazing ladies, Kate and Allison.  Kate is a physical therapist and Allison is an occupational therapist, this trip made the second trip to Ukraine for each of them.  There were many times I sat back and just listened and watched them both in action.  They were both such beautiful example of God's love by the way they loved the children, worked with them gently, and educated caregivers, therapists and doctors with patience and kindness.  Our week brought laughter and tears, and I'm so thankful I got to spend the time with them. 

And sometimes after a long week, you need to wear your fanny pack and do a kick line on a stage in Ukraine.

Other than the day time work related stuff, traveling in Eastern Europe is such an experience.  I love just having my backpack with my clothes, and just having less.  I want to post on each of our days, the travel, THE FOOD, the stories of these children....and I intend to try.  So if any of that interests you, come back in the weeks ahead, I'll try to stick with it.  

Here are a few random pictures from the week:

Our room at the Health Sanatorium mid-week, organizing the supplies!

The beautiful and delicious lunch fixed for us by our "home base" orphanage we visited during one day of the trip.  And it was as good as it looks.  

Goodbye orphanage, goodbye Ukraine, goodbye sweet kids, until we meet again!