sunday

It was a dreary, wet, cold and depressing day!  We went to see Sasha and was shuttled off to a little tiny room immediately.  We spent about 30 minutes with him, they wisked him off to lunch and when they all returned, the orphanage workers.yelled at us for spending too much time there.  Also, they told us not to take photos.  It was hard because we wanted to go outside to talk to Sasha and said we could for a minute, but then he went to grab his coat and they said NO! We said good bye and left there extremely depressed.

We have felt the spiritual, physical and emotional battle everyday, but today we crashed.  It was so upsetting today that we came home and climbed into bed at about 3:00.  Our bedroom is the only room that has heat, so we quickly got  under our one little blanket and watched movies until we got hungry.  Then we went with our sweet Ksenia to dinner and came back home and got into bed.  We are so discouraged and disappointed. There truly are no words to describe all of this.

When we said good bye to Sasha, he was very standoffish.  He is trying to play the game.  He has to "not" be excited to see us and "not" be excited about anything while we are there.  The place these kids live is truly like a prison.  It reaks so badly and they are stuck inside in these tiny little rooms with very little to do.  They go to a different building for meaels on Sunday and then back to their rooms.  

It is overwhelming to think about all these kids.  We would sell everything we had if we knew it would help them.  We are wanting to  "save" them all.  Life in America is so easy!  Life in Ukraine is hard, but life at the orphanage is downright aweful!  We want these kids to feel a sense of worth and be loved. It is total oppression here.....and many of these kids have never had a normal childhood or anyone to careand love for them.

We appreciate prayers...as this is one of the hardest things that we have ever endured.  Our devotion was on love today.....Love conquers all!  Lack of love is complete misery and pain!

Please pray for Sasha....he has a long way to go.  We hope to have court Friday, but if the documents don't get back here from Kiev in time we will have to wait until the following Monday.

We miss our sweet children and friends.  My wonderful parents cared for them in our absence and now Jeff's wonderful parents and sweet sister Laurie are there..  God has been so good to us, yet, we feel weak, weary and worn down!  So much sadness and pain.

Sasha is so strong and continues to amaze us.  He is in "survival" mode.
Thanks for prayers....love to you all,
m and j