Today was a day like no other.  I’m not even quite sure what to say or how to say it.  Today was wonderful, horrible, beautiful, ugly…and everything in between.

Today we visited Romaniv Orphanage with Mission to Ukraine staff.  The staff of MTU along with some volunteers from local churches have been visiting Romaniv weekly for 4 years now.  Romaniv is an orphanage for 78 boys ages 7-30.  It was much like we expected it to be.  What you can’t account for when you read about or hear stories about places like this is the real people that make up that story.  I have been dreaming about, praying about, talking about, and crying about places like Romaniv since we first discovered Reeces Rainbow back in the Fall of 2010.  Today we got to see the faces, look into the eyes, hold the hands, hug the necks of the children we have dreamed about.  It was unreal.  It was also a very sad reality.

When we arrived we were met by the Director of Romaniv and one of his staff members.  The staff member gave Jed and me a tour of the facilities.  There is a building for laundry and bathing, a building where a nurse is available, a cafeteria/kitchen building, a recreational building that is under construction (no roof yet), and then there are 2 buildings where the boys sleep and spend their days.  These are one-level buildings with one long hall and rooms off to the sides.  In building #1 live the boys who are more high functioning, meaning they can go the the bathroom themselves, dress themselves, and feed themselves.  We entered the building and there was first a bathroom, then some bedrooms lined with rows of beds.  Then there was the room where the boys spend all their time.  This room is a square room lined with benches.  That’s it.  No toys, no books, no nothing at all.  Just boys on benches.  When we walked into the first room with boys in it (they are divided into 2 rooms, one for younger boys and one for older) one of the MTU volunteers was playing worship songs with his accordion.  Some of the boys absolutely loved it!  They grabbed our hands and tried to dance with us.  They rubbed my long hair, they hugged us, they touched us, starving for attention.  That was to be expected and it was precious.  What I couldn’t look past and I hope I never forget is the boys on the fringes.  Many little boys, too busy self-stimulating looked like they were on another planet, appearing to be completely unaware of the happenings in the room.  They shrank away from our touch.  They rocked, they fluttered their hands in front of their faces, they drooled, they rocked some more.  These sweet, sweet little boys are so isolated and without attention that they don’t even know how to receive touch when it’s offered.  This is what killed me.  Here they sit in this room day after day, year after year.  While I go about my life, they remain.

This is their childhood.

This is their life.

We left that room and moved to the next group of boys.  The accordion had moved along with us so the party continued.  It was so beautiful to see the MTU staff interact with the boys.  They called them by name, touching each one that would accept their touch.  Teasing them, rubbing their heads, looking them in the eye.  God was so present there.  The boys’ eyes lit up.  Beautiful.

The next building was for boys that are lower functioning, and not as physically capable.  Here we met Misha, who loved to sing his guts out.  I’m not sure anyone could understand what he was singing, but boy oh boy he could belt it out!  Slavik, a little boy smaller than my Ezra, wandered the hall alone with a vacant look in his eye.  We met Vladik, a sweet boy with Apert Syndrome.  I felt partial to him of course, since our first Ukrainian love had the same condition.  🙂  Vladik desperately needs his fingers separated, but that didn’t stop him from building a pretty sweet block tower.  Jed and Eugene, a boy who looked about 10, crawled around on the carpet pretending to be animals and a vacuum.  One little one sat in a wheelchair, his face red and scarred from his self-harming behaviors.  So loved by God, so precious in His sight.

Some of the higher-functioning boys got to go to the cafeteria where some of the MTU staff taught them a Bible story and did a craft with them.  How proud they were of their craft!  The Romaniv staff says the boys start asking on Monday “Is it Friday yet?”  MTU’s visits give them something to look forward to.  That feeling of having something to look forward to is such a human emotion.  It has changed these boys’ lives.  Jesus is changing this place by His power alone.  Praise God.  One of the caregivers told us that years ago the death rate at Romaniv was 5-10 children every year.  Since MTU started coming 4 years ago there has not been one single death.  God is having His way.  He WILL win the day.

As Jed and I have started to try to process today we were struck by how many things would have to be done at governmental levels for the big changes to take place that is needed in places like Romaniv.  How many different “Romanivs” are there?  How many children are hidden away without people like MTU bringing the hope of Christ to them?  How many tucked-away institutions?  How many overwhelmed, underfunded directors?  How many exhausted, underpaid, unappreciated caregivers?

As we pray and consider how we are to help it can be overwhelming.  We can so easily move to that place of guilt.  Why them and not us?  How can our lives be so completely opposite?  How can I move on with my life knowing little ones sit rocking and drooling, merely existing, not truly living?  What can we do that can possibly make a difference?   The need is absolutely enormous.

In those moments I just hear God saying “Do the next thing.  Listen, obey, and do the next thing.”  We were so humbled by the obedience and faithfulness of MTU.  They have not let evil overcome them.  They have listened, and obeyed, and God is overcoming evil with good.  It is making all the difference in the world to the boys in Romaniv.  It is literally saving their lives.

God, speak to your people.  Show us how we should respond.  Help us live lives that say, “Yes Father. When you call, we will answer and say yes.”

Give us courage, Father, to say yes.

1.  I’m not sure if this is widely known, but Ukraine is being overrun by hot pockets.  Let me explain. There are at least 1, usually 2 notary offices on each block.  Why so many notaries?  The word notary in Cyrillic looks like “Hotapiyc”.  This of course makes us think of “Hot Topic” and skulls and crossbones on backpacks.  Well, of course then we think of “Hot Pockets”, which makes us think of Jim Gaffigan.  Now every time we see a notary we have to sing about hot pockets.  Our Ukrainian friends have been made aware of this problem.

2.  Confession.  We’re typing from the 3rd wifi hotspot we’ve frequented in the last 2 hours.  We are official wifi hoppers.  We go to a restaurant, order something so we can use the wifi, leave, and go somewhere else.  We don’t want to wear our welcome in any one place.

3.  Confession.  We are at a chocolate shop.  No big deal, you’re thinking.  This is the second time we’ve been at this shop today.  We just may be wearing out our welcome.  At least now they know to bring us the English menu.  🙂

4.  Ukrainian high-heel-wearing skills are RIDICULOUS.  How do they do it?  I am in awe. 4-inch heels, rain, cobblestone streets; enough said.

We had a great coffee date (chocolate shop trip #1) this morning with a really cool couple.  Oleg and Tanya are fellow Vineyard peeps.  They are super cool.  They are also in a time of transition and we are excited about the plans God is working out for them.  Like us, they found Vineyard at a time when they were hurt and really needed a place of healing and the Father’s love.  It was cool to talk and see how the Body of Christ is so much the same all over the world.  People are people, and God is God.  His love crosses all cultures and He knows just what His people need.  We will get to see Oleg and Tanya again at the conference at the end of our trip.  Please pray for this precious couple that God would continue to lead them and guide them.  Thanks!

 This blog has a couple of purposes.  One of them being a way to keep friends and family informed of the process and journey God’s had us on, and the other purpose is just to have a place to document our thoughts, what God is saying, what God is doing, so that when the going gets rough or we have doubts we can look back and remember.  Today is one of those days I need to read back and remember what God has done and what He’s said to us in the past.

I hate to be a downer, but today has been pretty emotional for me.  One of our contacts we were supposed to meet today ended up having to reschedule for Sunday, and that’s totally fine, it just means we had another day to wander.  We ended up heading to the spot I wanted to see the most here in Kiev.

After much searching, a coffee break, and uphill, downhill trial and error we located the Adoption Authority office.  That is the infamous building where families who are here to adopt receive the file of the child they are here for.  At your appointment at this office you officially get permission to go visit your child in the orphanage.  This whole crazy journey we’ve been on started with the dream of going to that office and picking up a referral of our own.  Even though we aren’t here to adopt I just knew I had to find that office.  I just had to give the statue a rub.  I guess I didn’t realize how I would feel being there.  I wasn’t expecting it.  I felt sad, a little confused, a lot aimless.  I mean, there is a little boy in this country right now that I would adopt right this instant if God gave the go-ahead.  He’s mere hours away, sitting in a high chair with no stimulation, no Mama to love him and I’m here, not sure at all what God has in store.  I’m a “doer”, so I guess I feel like if we were here to adopt I would know what to “do”.  But, we are here at this point just to “be”.  That is super hard for me.  Of course later in the trip we’ll have a chance to “do”, but a lot of our time will be just “being”, eyes and ears open to what the Father is saying.  If we get too busy doing, we may miss His still, small voice.  A friend gave us a Word just yesterday that we are to be “Kingdom Observers” here.  We are to observe what is Kingdom work here and bless it.

Today as we were out and about I was looking around at all the people and thinking in this very city there are babes wasting in cribs.  Are the people here aware?  Do they know?  How can we help?  What would God have us do?  I’m desperate to know.

I know we are here for a reason.  I know it.  It just feels a bit sad today that we are not here for the reason we originally thought.  I think I’m mourning that a bit today.  I just have to trust God that He has a great purpose for us here.  His plans are pleasing and perfect no matter if they look how I thought they would look.  Today I need to remember that and trust.  I did tell Jed to take note that we will be returning to that office someday.  And when we do, we will have an appointment of our own.  BAM.  Take that!  🙂

(From Jed’s point of view)

Today has been great.  I just spent all day walking around Kiev, a beautiful city full of history, with my beautiful wife, who is full of passion.  When I watch her I’m reminded of the calling on our lives.  See, I have no problem resting and taking in the sights because I know that we have, and will, spend most of our lives pouring out of the overflow of God’s goodness in our lives.  Today was not that day.  Today was a day of fun.  God loves fun.  He is happy to watch us be happy.  “Happy are the people whose God is the Lord.” -Pslam 144:15ish.

As Americans, we are emotionally tied to pursuing happiness.  But, our diet of happiness has left us empty in the Purpose department.  Kim does not lack purpose; she is ready to fly.  But, God is not quite ready for us to take off.  He has us here to see what He is already doing.  We are here to notice His Kingdom breaking into the present.  And I see His Kingdom everywhere.  I see it in Daria and V as they talk about what God is doing in the Churches.  I see it in Eugene’s eyes.  I hear it in the voices of Nastia and Oleg.  I see it as young men give their seats to elders on the metro.  I could point out the oppression we see, but today I am seeing His Kingdom and I am praying for more.

“Holy Spirit you are welcome here.  Come flood this place and fill the atmosphere.  Your glory God is what our heart longs for, to be overcome by your presence Lord.”  -Bryan Torwalt

We were walking down the street, looking at paintings for sale.  It was so nice to see actual paint on canvas.  I mostly just see prints in America (probably says more about me, I’m sure there is plenty of paint in our fine country).  Anyways,  there was a painting of a girl in traditional Ukrainian clothing and she was harvesting wheat.  I was so moved by the picture.  I was reflecting on all of the Ukrainian people who are ready and searching and harvesting.

If our life was a war movie and God was a Captain, today He said, “Smoke ‘um if you got ‘um boys!”  Today I was smoking and Kim, like a Sargent was planning for what we would do after the rest.   We all knew she had rank on me anyway.

-puffing away,  Jed  (not really puffing, Glen.)

Here are some pictures from our adventures!

Today we ventured out to explore some of the city and get our bearings.  It was a blast!  The pictures above are of Independence Square.  Beautiful, right?  We were there super early since we woke up so early this morning.  We were a bit surprised when we were looking around, there was no one else nearby, then all of a sudden…BAM!  There was a man in a gorilla costume.  Where the heck did he come from?  He insisted on taking our pictures and then asked for $10.  Ha!  Scammed on our first morning out.  Oh well, it’s all part of the experience.  We ended up only giving him $5 since he really wanted USD and that’s all we had on us.  Darn.  🙂  Well, at least we got a picture of the two of us together out of the deal.

After getting scammed we moved on to explore more of the city.  The first order of business was getting a cheap phone.  This next picture shows our great joy after making contact!  We felt human again after talking with a couple of people who were expecting to hear from us.  Yay!

I have to say, it feels really strange being in a foreign country without 15 or so teenagers tagging along.  I mean I feel weird enough being without my babies, but I’m not used to traveling abroad without a bunch of other people waiting for me to make a decision.  I keep feeling like we’re forgetting someone, but nope, it’s just the two of us. It’s so weird!

We saw some beautiful cathedrals that I had seen in so many other people’s pictures.  It felt surreal to actually be standing in those places myself!

 Next, we were off to meet with Vitaly, our friend from a Vineyard Church in North Carolina.  V is originally from here but has lived in the US for the past 12 years.  Jed’s been talking with him on the phone for months now, but we’d never actually met.  He flew in today to get ready for the National Vineyard Conference and agreed to meet us at the train station to help us buy train tickets.  God bless him!  When we got up to the ticket counter we ended up short on money.  Little did V know he’d not only be translating, but paying as well!  🙂

V and a pastor friend Eugene made a ton of phone calls right there on the street and hooked us up with friends from all the different towns we’ll be in.  We found out when we’re in Odessa next week the Odessa Vineyard church will be doing a few outreaches to the orphanages they work with, and we get to come along!  We are so excited about that!!!

It was great to meet V and Eugene face to face.  They made us feel very welcome and at home.  They were on their way to Kremenchuk, so we only had a few minutes together.  We look forward to spending more time with them later on this trip.  As we were leaving them one of the guys from the Kiev Vineyard called us and asked if we wanted to meet for coffee tonight.  He told us Eugene asked him to call.  🙂  What a guy!

Thanks, everyone for praying for us.  We are healthy and just taking it all in.  Tonight we will meet a guy for coffee, tomorrow we will meet with some Kiev Vineyard folk, and then Wednesday we are off to Zhitomir to visit Mission to Ukraine!

Kim here, coming to you from our cozy little hostel room.  Yes, we have arrived!  I’m a little…or a lot jet-lagged, but I want to try to stay awake for another hour or so, so I guess I’ll write.  (Jed pooped out on me and is already asleep.  Lame.)

Our hostel is nice and clean.  We share our 10-bed dorm room with some Polish guys and a Polish girl, and I’m not sure who else.  Picture it now, I’m sitting on a bunk, and right across the room are 3 men with laptops on their bunks, and one other bunk is completely covered with different varieties of alcohol.  This should be interesting!  🙂

Our flights today were perfectly uneventful.  Once we landed we changed our money, then decided to make our way to the hostel.  I had some printed directions from the website, but they were a tad vague.  Thanks to the kindness of strangers we navigated the subways and arrived in one piece at our destination.

My brain is fuzzy, so I’ll just leave you with some pictures of our journey thus far.  Sorry, I’m a little boring…but I can feel my brain turning to mush as I type.

Alright, I must sleep.  Tomorrow begins the real fun.

Night!

PS.  Jed’s snoring now.  Stinker.

Oh my goodness this has been an AMAZING week!!!  God is showing us again that we are heading in the right direction and He’s got it all under control.  I’m amazed by Him.

Back up to August when we first decided to head to Eastern Europe for a “scoping it out” trip, we decided that the best time for Jed to take time off work would be in April.  April became our aim.  
Our local church here is a Vineyard Church, so we thought it would be cool to see if there were any Vineyard churches where we are heading.  We googled it, and low and behold there are 5!  We saw that there is a Vineyard church here in the US on the East Coast that has a partnership with those churches overseas to help shepherd them and send mission teams and such.  Cool!  We contacted a man named Vitaly, the church leader on the East Coast who is in charge of the partnership, and found that he’s a native of the EE country and has lived in the States for 12 years.  Jed and Vitaly have been playing phone tag and email tag off and on since September! Jed wanted to find out from him if any of the churches there are doing orphan care and if there’s any church, in particular, we should try to visit.  


Well, time passed and we were never able to really connect with Vitaly.  So, we booked our tickets and decided to just find those churches on our own once we arrived.  We knew of one particular city that looked like it had a thriving Vineyard church, so we planned to make that the last stop of our trip.  Fingers crossed someone there speaks a bit of English, right?  🙂  We already had our appointments set with orphan care organizations, so it wasn’t imperative that we find the church, but it would be pretty cool.  


This is where things get GOOD.  On Thursday Jed gets a call from Guess Who?  Vitaly!  They talked for a while and totally connected.  I love that about the Body of Christ.  Strangers are instantly brothers when they share a common heart and passion.  Vitaly shared his heart about the local church in EE taking ownership of the orphan issues.  He shared that mission teams are great and do amazing work, but if the local church doesn’t buy in the work doesn’t continue.  We totally agree!  Jed and I are local church people all the way.  We understand that we can bring our gifts and talents, but until it’s culturally relevant it’s only partially effective in making a long-lasting difference. 
So, Vitaly asks what dates we will be in EE, and guess what??  He arrives there the exact same day as us!  SHUT UP!!!!  Yep, he’ll be visiting from the US because starting the last day we are in county they are having a nationwide Vineyard conference -get this- in the exact town where we planned to be for the end of our trip! 
WAHOOOOOOOO!!!  God amazes me.  Apparently, all the churches there have orphan care as their main outreach as well.  Sweet.


I contacted our travel agent right away to find out if we could change our departure date so we’d be able to be at the conference.  She said yes, there is availability, but it will cost about $640.00 to change our tickets.  Ummmmm never mind.  Jed says if God wants us there, He’ll let us know.  What’s $640.00 to Him when He’s provided so faithfully for the rest of the expenses for this trip?  


Then yesterday I got a text from a wonderful friend: “Change your tickets, I’m going to fundraise for the extra money, oh and if I can’t raise it all I’ll cover the rest myself”.  Bingo!  We have such a wonderful group of friends around us.  God comes through once again.  Seriously, how many signs and reminders do we need to show us that He is up to something big?  Just when I was starting to panic “What are we doing?  We don’t even know anyone in EE!  I don’t speak Russian!  We are really leaving our kids for over 2 weeks while we fly across the world to ‘check things out?’  We are nuts!”  Just then, God kicks in with awesome acts of faithfulness.  


He’s just plain good.  There’s no ifs ands or buts about it. 

Mildly freaking out here.  

Yep, we are officially going to Eastern Europe.  We aren’t just talking about going, we forked out the cash and have 2 non-refundable tickets to show for it. 

The version from The Message is pretty cool too:

So, this is our act of thinking big, stepping out and not holding back.  Should be (already has been) and exciting ride!!!

I am so happy today.  It’s a bittersweet happiness, but less bitter and more sweet.

Last year at this time we had no idea about the orphan crisis in Eastern Europe.  We had no idea sweet precious children made perfect in the sight of God were alone in cribs forgotten by the world.

Then “by chance” I ran across an adoption blog that mentioned Reeces Rainbow and my eyes were opened.  I thought about those sweet faces all the time.  One face stood out among the rest.  No matter how many others I looked at, there was something special about this one.  So we prayed.  We prayed and prayed and God spoke.  He told us to go for it- this was our boy.  We were so excited!  We had prayed for this little one for months.  His picture was up on our wall, he was the child of our hearts.

Well, most of you know it wasn’t long until we found out he was being adopted by another family.  You can’t pre-select a child from that country, so another Reeces Rainbow family that was already there to meet their daughter met him and fell in love.  God totally paved the way for them to add him to their adoption.  Oh boy, the emotions that followed!  We grieved and we rejoiced.  We wept and we smiled.  It was totally confusing and horrible and wonderful at the same time.

Shortly after that time, God started leading us in another direction.  I know I’ve said it before, but I believe God led us to our boy to turn our hearts in the right direction.  He used our sweet one to open our hearts once again to the plight of the orphans.  He knew it would take us fully investing our hearts and saying “yes” to get us to the point where He could then show us the next turn in our path.

Not long after that all happened the situation in our boy’s country changed.  He was safely at home with his forever family when the office of government that handles all the adoptions in his country closed down to switch to another system.  People who are in the middle of their adoption process are right now just waiting for things to open back up so they can go rescue their babies.  If we would have proceeded with adopting our boy, if he had not been rescued by the family God had chosen for him he would be sitting and waiting for us.  Worse than that, he would most likely have been transferred to an institution and possibly lost forever.  Does our God know what He’s doing or what!!!?  This just blows my mind how perfect His plans are.  His ways truly are higher than our ways.

Now we are embarking on our grand adventure and he is safe at home with a loving and wonderful family that God destined for him.  I am amazed.

I see “my” sweet boy’s face and I know God has an amazing plan for his life.  I cried when I saw pictures of him this morning, but I can honestly say my tears are tears of thankfulness.  Thankfulness to our God who holds everything in His hands.  Praise God!

You can see pictures and a beautiful post about “our” boy here.  I will always love him.  🙂

Seriously, God amazes me.