For my thoughts are not your thoughts....

I am nervous, excited and scared!!  When I asked if we could host Lidiya again, I was then asked, "She has 2 brothers, do you want them, also?"  "Whaaaaaat!?!"  That was the last thing I expected to be asked!!!  Quick...do the math...$2950 times three!!  Well, I can't multiply that number that fast so let's round up...$3,000 times three = $9,000!!  Plus about $1,000 in additional fees and costs associated with having them here.  YIKES!!!  I did all that compilation in about 30 seconds and quickly realized there is no way we could do it.  Of course I said, "Let us pray about it, I'll talk to Danny and then we'll decide".  But I just knew the answer was "no".  We could never afford that, so we would have to raise every dollar and who in the world can raise $10,000 in 2 months?

Well....over the next week or two, we tossed the idea around but reality says we can't do it.  So, we decided that we are just going to host Lidiya.  Then, if the Lord prompted us to adopt, we would.  Ummmm...we can't adopt either!!!!  Helloooo!?!  That costs about $40,000!  But Danny kept saying, "We just have to rely on God.  We can't put him in a box".  Ugh...I know that but we also have to use our brain to realize we can't afford to adopt three kids.  So then it hit me........if we have to rely on God and we can't put him in a box (regarding adoption).....why can't we 'host' three kids for Christmas?  I asked Danny, "What is the reason we aren't hosting all three?  Is it because we can't afford it?"  "Yep...that's it".  "Well....then, let's host all three and let God handle the money!"  Oh crap....did I just say that?  Out loud?  Yep....I sure did.  Sooooo....here we are...planning on hosting all three kids for Christmas.  New Horizon's For Children has to get permission from the director of the orphanage to host all three but they were the ones that asked if we wanted to....so it shouldn't be a problem.

"For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways," declares the LORD.  Isaiah 55:9

So, here goes my first attempt at fundraising.  This one is HUGE because we need HUGE money.  So, will you please help?  We do not have a lot of time....three precious lives are counting on this.

Drumroll please.........................

drumroll again...........................

one more time..........................

We are raffling off an iPad!!!  For a $25 donation, you will be entered into the drawing once, for $100 donation, you will be entered into the drawing 5 times and for a $300 donation, you will be entered into the drawing 20 times.  Anyone can donate........even if you live in another state.  We will just purchase the iPad and have you pick it up locally.  I'm not quite sure yet exactly which iPad we will be raffling off but more than likely it will be the 16gb wifi model.

Our goal is to sell a minimum of 100 tickets.  If we get enough donations for 100 tickets, then that will be $2,000 towards our $10,000 goal.  If we sell 500 tickets, we will be able to bring all three kids here for Christmas.  Here is how you can help:

1. Pray.  Pray for God's Will, our patience and for the money to be raised to bring these kids here.
2. Donate.  Every bit helps.  You don't have to donate $25, if you don't have it.  
3. Share.  Post our blog on your Facebook.  Email your friends.  Please.  Yes...I am begging.  :)

In as much as you have done it unto the least of these, you have done it unto ME.  Matthew 25:40.

Family photo taken by Kim Sharp while Lidiya was here this summer

Lidiya and her younger brother, Andre

Lidiya and her older brother, Vlad

Lord, we hosted Lidiya as "Host Only" for a reason...don't you remember that?

I must rewind about a year in order to explain the title of the blog.  I'll make it brief but for those of you who don't know or don't remember...this is an important detail.

Danny and I had talked about adopting for quite some time.  In October of last year, I went to a Women's Retreat with our church that I did not buy a ticket to attend.  I wanted to but money was tight and I just didn't feel that it was something I should spend the money on.  Well, someone in our Sunday School class had sent an email out saying that she bought a ticket but could no longer go and asked if anyone wanted to go, in her place, for free.  I wasn't even supposed to get that email but just 4 days earlier, I had written a little note on our class' sign in sheet that I wasn't getting emails and asked to be added.  I was added to the class email list on October 12 and she sent the email out on the 13th!  Soooo....I ended up going on this retreat and that is where I met Nicole Dewberry.  She was sharing with the group about New Horizon's For Children and how she planned on hosting a child from the Ukraine with plans to adopt him.  I looked through the list of available children and found a sweet boy from Estonia named Kirill.

I immediately emailed Danny his picture and asked him to pray about it.  When I got home, I went onto New Horizon's website only to find Kirill was gone.  Estonia had been pulled from the hosting program because of some kind of processing issues.  A couple of weeks later, Danny decided to check the photo listing again and found another precious boy from Russia named Sasha.

Well, we went ahead and paid the fees for hosting him (after receiving the financial support) and expected him to arrive for the Christmas 2010 hosting.  We also were highly considering adopted this precious boy.  About a week before he was set to arrive, I received a phone call stating that he was not coming.  Russia decided to pull the hosting because of some issues regarding adoption.  I don't really recall all of the details but really, the details don't matter.

After all of this (and some other details that I won't go into), we really felt the Lord telling us to "wait" regarding adoption.  So, when the new photo listing came out for the summer 2011 hosting, we purposely picked a "host only" girl...meaning she could not even be considered for adoption.  Perfect!  Now we won't even be tempted to try and adopt because "we always know better than the Lord"!

Well...that is when we met Lidiya.  A 13 year old teenage orphan from the Ukraine.  Did I mention that she is 13?  We hosted her this past summer........and did I mention that she is 13?  Haha!  She was definitely all a teenage girl is expected to be!  But nevertheless, we fell in love with her.  We knew that she had 2 brothers, Andre who is 11 and Vlad who was getting ready to turn 15 in August.  So, then I went on this mission trip and I got to see Lidiya again and meet her brothers!!  Oh and guess what I found out while I was there?!?!  She IS eligible for adoption WITH both of her brothers!!!  WHAT?!?!?  Well....that sure puts a new spin on things.  Do we hear the Lord saying, "OK...........now?"  Well, we aren't quite sure exactly what He is saying yet but what we do know is that we are going to try and host all three children this Christmas (so long as their director approves it).  Our initial reaction to that was "no, we can't afford it" but "We can do all things through Christ who gives us strength" Phil 4:13.  We surely can't turn away three orphans simply because "we can't afford it"....we are giving the Lord no room to work.  Sooooo...we are going to do what seems completely and utterly impossible........we are going to host three orphans for Christmas and with that we need to raise approximately $10,000.  Ummmm....yeah....that is not a typo.  There is not an extra zero on the end of that.  The comma IS in the correct place.....$10,000!!!  So we definitely have a lot of work.

I absolutely hate asking for money.  Despise it.  It makes my stomach hurt just thinking about it.  But that is prideful.  There is nothing more humbling than asking for money and receiving it.  When I was asking for money to support my mission trip, I had people that I had never met deposit money into my Paypal account.  I had friends who were in another country trying to adopt with money they had to raise themselves, deposit money into my Paypal account!  I also had people that I had never met, who are on a long term overseas mission trip deposit money into my Paypal account.  Those people are living on monthly support themselves, yet they felt the need to help me!  Talk about humbling.  Humbling yet very encouraging.  So, thank you to those that have supported us in the past with hosting and missions and thank you to those that will support us during this hosting.

Will we end up adopting these three children?  I don't know.  The Lord knows and all I can say is that we will do whatever He asks of us.  If He asks us to adopt, we'll adopt.  If He asks us to let them go for someone else to host/adopt, then we'll let them go.  We are just on a journey to serve the Lord Jesus and we aren't sure what that looks like beyond right now.  However, I can't wait to see where He takes us!!

The day we picked Lidiya up at the Charlotte Airport

The day we had to say goodbye to Lidiya...very tough day!

Even Danny was emotional!!

Lidiya actually broke down and cried a bit, too.

This is when I saw her in Ukraine on my birthday!

Lidiya and her younger brother, Andre.

Lidiya and her older brother, Vlad.

The day I will not soon forget...

On September 7th, my 36th birthday, we went to the Orphanage in Kherson....the orphanage where Lidiya lives!!  Of all the days that we could have went to her orphanage, it happened to be on my birthday!  Not the day before my birthday, not the day after my birthday by on-my-birthday!!  I've had some unforgettable birthday's in my life...spending my 18th in basic trainining, 19th in a mission field, in the Army, in Korea...but this one tops them all!  I got to spend my 36th birthday in a Ukrainian Orphanage with the girl that stole me heart during the past summer!!  She was so excited to see me!!  She didn't know we were there!  I had to go to the bathroom, which was upstairs.  So, I was walking up the stairs and much to my surprise, I hear Lidiya yell, "Ohhh....April!!!"  I ran up the stairs to meet her and give her a big 'ol hug!!  Of course, I start to get emotional and Lidiya does not like emotion!!  Not to mention, all of her friends stopped and were staring.  So, she kinda shut down.  But that's OK because I finally got to see her!!

I got to spend about 3-4 hours with her and it was just awesome.  I gave her the gifts that Danny I bought for her and she read the letter than Danny wrote to her.  At the end of his letter, he signed it "Your American Dad" and she giggled!  When I asked why she giggled (even though I knew), she just shook her head!

Here she is reading Danny's letter

I also got to meet her brothers, Andre (11) and Vlad (15) and I got to spend some time with them as well.

This is Andre (left) and Vlad (right) looking into the 

classroom where we were interviewing children

I think Lidiya and her younger brother, Andre look soooo much alike!!!

Not quite sure where Vlad gets his blue eyes!

We played UNO and I also tried to talk to them the best I could, in the very little bit of Russian that I can speak.  The best thing I know how to say is "Do you like ________?"  So, I kept asking:

Do you like strawberries?
Do you like milk?
Do you like onions?
Do you like tomatoes?
Do you like peaches?
Do you like cucumbers?

I'm sure they were sick of me asking "Do you like" but that's really all I know to say in a Russian conversation.  I did learn how to say "Stay" and "Do you understand?" when the little boy we hosted was here but that really didn't seem appropriate this time!  Haha!  I asked most of the things I actually knew how to say in Russian.  Andre was very giggly and every time I asked him a question, he just giggled at me.  Then, he would say yes or no.  I would ask, "Why are you laughing?"  And he would just giggle more!  Vlad was more serious and seemed very reserved.  I actually got to speak to Vlad's teacher and she just confirmed what I kinda felt.....she said he is very reserved and quiet, he doesn't associate with anyone including friends or siblings and just keeps to himself.

We were playing UNO and Lidiya was trying to tell her friend 

how to play "the right way"  Haha~!

This is a perfect picture of the personalities of Vlad and Andre!

 I asked Andre to put the UNO cards back in the box...

He was having a hard time!  But he did get them back in there!

After we were done playing UNO and the team was finished interviewing children, Lidiya got to take me on a tour of her orphanage.  Just me and her!  That was sooo awesome!!  I was really disappointed when we got to her room and it was locked.  She said the teacher has the key.  There were other rooms that were open, so I am not sure why hers was locked.  I was hoping to see what "her space" looked like and of course I was very interested to see if she got to keep any of the things that we gave her.  Oh well...at least I got to spend the time with her.  That was more important!

This was the outside of her orphanage...the building where she lives.

This was one of the "living" areas...she was so happy to show me around~!

This was her bathroom!!  I couldn't believe it...totally not what I expected!

I figured it would be a huge bathroom with many sinks, toilets and open showers.

This was a little kitchenette!  Wow - I was really surprised

at what these kids have available to them!

This was another sleeping room.  I believe there were only 4 beds 

in this one.  It was very nice!

This is another one of the rooms.  They had a couch and this entertainment center.

Very nice!  Again...just not what I expected at all!

This was from the 4th floor of her orphanage, 

looking down outside through the window.

This was  also from the 4th floor of her orphanage, 

looking down outside through the window.

This was outside, looking out at the grounds behind her school.

After we toured her orphanage, I called Danny on the phone so that she could talk to him.  Of course I knew there really wasn't much they could say but at least he got to hear her voice and she got to hear his.

One of the important things I found while on this trip was that Lidiya and both of her brothers ARE eligible for adoption!  Wow - that really puts a spin on things.  I will be writing up another post on my blog explaining what that means for them, for us, regarding hosting, etc. because this is really important!

I can't even begin to share the emotion and feeling I had on this day!  It was by far THE BEST day of my entire trip and one of THE BEST Birthday's I've ever had!  I thank the Lord Jesus for the sovereignty He has in our lives every day....He knew where I was going to be on my 36th birthday long before I was even born.  I am just glad that I had the opportunity to be blessed!!!

 I sure do love this girl

Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world. James 1:27

This verse is a recurring theme in my blog because it is the reason that we hosted Lidiya, the reason that our hearts are in this to take care of the orphans and the reason that we ask for support...we can't do it alone.

My Mission Trip Update, including pictures!

So, I don't even know where to start!!!  I wish I had access to blog while I was in the Ukraine so that I wouldn't have this overwhelming feeling of trying to get 15 days worth of stuff in one blog!!  Haha!!

I think I am just going to give an overview of the trip, with a few highlights and some pictures!  Then, if something in particular comes to mind later, I'll post again.

My journey from Raleigh to Kiev was looooong!!  I traveled for about 15 hours and part of that was over night on a plane to France.  It is so hard to sleep on a plane, especially when you think you are going to be smart and ask for an exit row and it ends up backfiring!  I had a window seat on the exit row (of course because I asked for it) and the emergency exit door had a slide in it.  Well, the door stuck out to half of my seat because slide was in it.  So um...it wasn't very comfortable.  And that was the flight from Boston to Paris!  Learned my lesson on that one!  But it was made up for on my flight from Paris to Kiev because I was traveling in First Class baby!!!  AND I had the entire row all-to-myself!!!  So, I flipped those armrests up, layed on my neck pillow, covered with a blanket and slept for about 2 hours!!!  Yes...I was very excited about 2 hours of sleep!!!  BUT I waited until I was served my six course meal because you all know that you sleep better on a full stomach.  Holy toledo...when he brought my food, I almost fell out of my seat!!  Doesn't it look awesome?!?

And yes...you heard that right....this was airplane food!!  Mmmmmm....it was yummy!!

The Paris airport is the most asinine thing I have ever seen!!!  When the plane landed, it passed all of the terminals and parked out in the middle of the...of the...I don't even know what it is called!  Then, we wait for about 15 minutes until a bus arrived.  We all cram on this bus like a bunch of sardines...just when you think you can't possibly get any more people on the bus, 20 more people cram in!!!  Then the bus passed all of the terminals going back the same way the plane came in!  We get to this one terminal where we get off the plane and load into this "room" where we look at the TV screens and find our next flight.  My gate is B27, so I have to get to Terminal 2B.  I ask one of the "french" employees which bus is for terminal 2B and she tells me the "yellow" bus.  Well, the buses show what terminal they go to but what they show isn't accurate, so you just have to ask...."2B?"  "No, no 2B".  Next bus...."2B?"  "No, no 2B"  By now there are about 50 people waiting and the next bus pulls up.  She says...in her french accent..."2A, 2C, 2F" and everyone moves like a herd of elephants to get on the bus.  I look at the lady and chuckle.  She looks back at me and chuckles, also...then says in her 'french' accent..."No 2B".  I just started cracking up!  Of course not 2B!  So finally, the "yellow bus" pulls up and she says, "Now 2B".  Oh thank the Lord!  And guess what?  That bus passes all of those terminals yet one more time to almost go back to the same place the plane stopped the first time!!  Ridiculous!  But I made it to my gate...B27.  What a joke.  The gate was in an area all by itself...as a matter of fact, I had to pass through security to get to the gate.  The security checkpoint was for that gate only!!!  But the gate was small and I was just waiting to see what kind of plane pulled up imagining that a little Cessna was going to be taking me from Paris to Kiev!!  Haha!!

When I got to Kiev I was super tired but I forced myself to stay awake so that I would sleep that night!  We walked around Kiev for about 3 or 4 hours and I had my first meal in Ukraine............take a long, hard look at this picture and see if you can figure out what I had!!

OK - so I DON'T even eat McDonald's in America BUT my first meal in another country on the other side of the world was McDonald's!  Something is just sickly wrong with that!!!

But anyhow, I slept good my first night and woke up the next morning feeling great!  No jet lag
what-so-ever!!  Wish I could say the same for coming home!  I've been home one whole week and I am still not up to par yet!!

We visited about a total of about 12 orphanages and I went to 7 or 8 orphanages and we drove about a total of 57 hours in a matter of 8 days.  At least we had a large sprinter and there was plenty of room!!  But my tailbone was so sore all of the time!  We saw a lot of precious kids and there were several days when I left an orphanage and just cried.  Their living conditions weren't really that bad....but just seeing those kids thrive for our attention, longed to be hugged and want to hold your hand was so sweet!  There was one 15 year old boy that wanted me to go outside with him so that he could show me his back flip!  Then there was another orphanage where I was giving an "English Lesson" to the kids waiting for their interviews and they were teaching me how to count in Russian.  1 - Adeen, 2 - Dva, 3 - Tree, 4 - Cheteeree, 5 - ?, 6 - shest, 7 - ?, 8 - Vo-syem, 9 - ?, 10 -?.   OK - so I remembered half of what they taught me...not too bad!  They were sooo excited to teach me, too!!!  When I thought we were done, they kept going!!  Another orphanage we went to was a "special needs" orphanage for children with Cerebral Palsy but the handful of children that we interviewed didn't seem to have CP!  Most had scoliosis and flat feet!  Not quite sure why they are in a special needs orphanage for that, tho!

Here are some pictures of the orphanages...inside and out.  I have more to update because the BEST day on trip happened on my 36th birthday but that will have to wait for another post!!

Besides, I've probably lost most of you already as this post is soooo long!  Sorry about that but I figured it would be better to have one long post and give a good overview of the trip than 10 smaller posts!!

I love you guys.  Thank you for praying for me and my family while I was gone!  They did much better with me being gone than I did with being gone!

Now on to the pictures!

This was a set of lockers in one of the orphanages...totally cute!

This was one of the sleeping rooms...12 to a room.

This was the music classroom

Another view of the music classroom

The outside of the orphanage with the music classroom

The sign on the outside of the orphanage telling which orphanage it is

The outside of another orphanage

The children made this homemade toilet paper stick to go through the 

toilet paper so it stays on the holder!!

We went into this orphanage only to find out it was the public school next door!

The kids in these orphanages are very artistic!!!

Outside of an orphanage

The "New Horizon's" mission team from left to right, starting in the back...

Jim, Stephanie, LeAnn, Nicole and Jenelle

I am obviously behind the camera!  :)

Dining hall

Outside of an orphanage

Outside of an orphanage

Some of the many trophies we saw.  Their soccer teams travel and win lots of trophies!!

Gymnasium

English classroom

Sinks outside of the dining hall to wash up

Library

Outside of the sleeping quarters

Inside the sleeping quarters