I left a piece of my heart in the Ukraine

No words can describe the numerous emotions I felt felt over the past few days staying in teh Ukraine... There were times when I was happy, sad, shocked,overwhelmed, and extremely angered... In this entry I am going to do my best to describe my weekend to you in as much detail what I saw and felt, but what I write will not do justice to what I really truly experienced over the past 4 days.

Friday- We arrived in the Ukraine at about 7pm after having travelled in the van since 7 am... it was a long day! We were able to make some stops, and visited a famous Romanian authors home which had been turned into a small museum, so that was fun. When we arrived in the Ukraine we were greeted by Vira and she took us to the facility that we were staying at for the weekend. We stayed at a Young Life center. I had never heard of the organization Young Life, but apparetnly they are all over the U.S and have open centers in which High School kids can come and hang otu and participate in weekly youth group type meetings... its an amazing ministry. So after we put our stuff in our rooms we went out to eat at this Turkish pizza place.... best pizza I have ever had.. end of story! :) After that we went back to the Young life center and planned for Saturday.

Vira is the woman we went to support and encourage. She is in her mid thirties, and has such a wonderful ministry. She has travelled teh world, and even lived in the states fora while. She is a trained opera singer, and that is what she went to school for. About 5 years ago she really felt the Lord tugging on her heart and telling her to go back "home" and do work. So.. she stopped singing because she realized that to really make it big, she would have to be Russian... so she felt that God was pulling her away from that and she was okay with it. So.. she left where she was living at the time and went back to the Ukraine. She was working and became involved with a church and helped otu there... then she felt the Lord telling her once again, " go HOME." She then went back to the city in which she grew up to start a new ministry. She runs a group that meets twice a month. It is a group for children with disabilties and for their mothers. It is 4 hours each time they meet. The program offeres a place and at ime for the childrent o get together and learn, and listen to a bible story, and to play or do a craft. It is wonderful for the kids, and it is also fabulous for the parents! In the beginning of the time, there is an hour for the kids adn mothers to do an activity together then they split up.. the mothers go upstairs and have a sort of support group/bible study. It is a time for them to talk to each other without shame, and they are just wonderful to each other. They can talk about life, and their situations very openly without judgement from anyone else. Both the kids and the mothers really enjoy their time every two saturdays... Vira is now in the process of raising money to actually buy a building- they are currently renting the space from Young Life, and it is wonderful for the time being but it would be amazing to have their own place and offer occupational therapy and other services on top of the the club that meets. She really has wonderful vision about the program, and about these families in General. She is a very spunky and fun woman of God, and it was such an encouragement to meet her and get to know her better. She is a person that belives in Love.... all you need is love... all these kids need is love.... all these mothers need is love....

Saturday- This is the day that we were actually able to interact with all of these clients Vira was telling us all about !! I was soo excited and so nervous! I wasnt sure how the children, and their parents would take to us because so often parents put up guards about their children and who they are in contact with whether the child is diabled or not. Both the parents and the kids took to us very well. We played bingo with the kids, and colored, and made this really cool craft.... but most of all- we loved them , and hugged them, and tickeled them, and smiled and laughed with them. We each kind of took a kid under our wing for the few hours we were with them. The little boy I stayed with the whole time was named Ruoma. He was so beautiful and he had the biggest, boldest, happiest eyes. When he was carried in teh room i fell in love, my heart just absolutely melted. Ruomas mother is probably in her early to mid 30's and has 3 children. There is Ruomas oldest brother who was about 11, Ruoma who is about 6 or 7 and his youngest brother who is a little over a year. All three boys are beautiful. Vira told me that the mother was thinking about aborting the third boy after she found otu she was pregnant because she was fearful of having another child with disablities. Vira prayed with her and advised her not to give up the child, and she didnt... the baby is perfectly healthy :) Ruomas older brother has been such a blessing to his mother... He came to the program as well, and was such a huge help. Ruoma loves, and relies on his brother alot. It made me so happy to see such a wonderful and mature 11/12 yr old helping out with their younger brother... but then it also saddened me because he has had to grow up so fast, and has to help out with so many things that other 12 year old boys will never have to deal with in their whole lives.... The program was great... i have so much more to write, so I wont go any further about Saturday but I would love to answer questions if u have any :)

Sunday- Sunday was probably the hardest day for me... yeah... definately the hardest. This was the day that we visited a nursing home and a facility for boys ages 5-35 who had mental and phsyical disablities. Yeah... here goes...

Nursing Home- So we walked into the nursing home.... the floors were still wet from the "quick mop job" the workers had just done to make the place resemble cleanliness.... The director of the facility greeted us, and is a great individual. He really ahs truly worked so hard to try to turn around the way this facility is run. He has only been around for a short time, and is trying to correct all the awful things the previous director put in place. He took us up to the 4th floor of the facility which had just been re-done. It was beautiful! Amazing walls, beds,.... everything was perfect! It was even nicer than some of the "nice" faciliites back in America.. I was thoroughly impressed.... then I found out that this floor would only be for temporary rehab patients and it wouldnt be opened for a few more months... so that was disappointing... Then we checked into reality once we got to the third floor.

The staff at the facility was clearly not very happy that we were there to see what their "work" or lack there of, was like... We ended up splitting into two groups... Bekah, Elena, Jess and Shannon stayed at one wing, and Dorothy, Mel, Maggie, Vira and myself went to another wing. Dorothy and I went room to room... and Mel&Mags worked ont eh bathrooms. We cleaned every room we went in and listened to the people even though we couldnt udnerstand a single thing... and we loved them and smiled, and hugged, and held their hands. We also sang to a few- i think they liked that alot :) The rooms were filthy and smelled horrible, and most of the people living in this facility hadnt had a visitor in years... and it was noticeable.... So as Dorothy and I were going room to room we came to the next room we were supposed to clean, and the woman who was in that room was standing their half naked with her dress pulled up over her head, and a worker chekcing her diaper and was starting to undo it as we wer standing there... so we walked away for af ew moments, adn teh worker walked out of theroom so we thought she was done... she wasnt.... she left the patient standing there leaning over her bed soiled and exposed with her door open to the world... It broke my heart... I cant imagine the feelings of embarassment she must have felt, and how embarassed If elt for her.... the worker eventally came back with a new diaper and changed her so we proceeded to go to differnt rooms... When we came back to this womans room she was in shock that we actually came back bc she was so humiliated...Vira asked her how she was, and was trying to have simple conversatin with her, and teh woman said she just doesnt care and basically was saying that shed rather die than be in this place. She didnt have any family, and you could see the sadness in her beautiful blue eyes. I went over and hugged her and sat with her foa while just holding her hand and smiling at her and making eye contact with her and she started crying. She didnt want me to leave, but I had do... in those few moments we shared together I felt sucha connection with this woman, and did not want to leave her...It was really a life changing experience going to that nursing home... I will never forget those 4 hours of my life.... ever

Boys Home for disabled boys 5-35~

I will finish this tomorrow or at some other point when I have time... I have to go now, but i promise to Finish this entry eventually!!! :)