Day 4 - T-shirt Day

I am utterly amazed throughout my time here how each day can be the same routine, but yet at the same time each day is very different experience. Today was a high activity day. I don't know if it's because it is Saturday or if it's because the boys had some visitors. Either way everybody was excited and happy at the same time.

My contribution to today: the T-shirt activity. Oh this sounds excessively silly and your mother would never approve, but today we made Vova a one of a kind homemade T-shirt. I went to the market this morning and scoped out the best non-black solid T-shirt I could find and a set of permanent markers. Then when I got there, I explained in my best Russian (they actually understood :)) that we were making a T-shirt for Vova and that everybody had to sign it. They were all into it and everyone put something on the T-shirt, even the custodian happily put her name on the shirt too. Before leaving I held up the shirt for Vova to see, and asked if he like it. With a big smile he said yes.

One pretty amazing blessing occurred while I was there. I wanted to take Vova out of the orphanage to meet a friend during one of our remaining days, but I knew I had to clear it with the staff (since they are still officially the caretakers). For two days now I have been working on what to say to the custodian to ask if I could do this. Well today I had to do this and I was a little bit nervous. So here is the blessing: the visitors I mentioned above were actually 3 young ladies who volunteer with the orphanage and also help adoptive parents. Between the three of them, I think they spoke about 6 or eight languages. All of them spoke English and Russian (and most likely Ukrainian), and then I think each had a different specialty. I know one of them was Italian because they were talking about Italian when I got there. Well anyway, I asked if one of them could back me up in my talking to the custodian and they agreed to help. First, I asked the custodian if I could take Vova out by myself (in Russian), but then her response was not one that I really expected. She was cool with me taking Vova out, but we also had to clear it with her boss. Wow, if those volunteers hadn't been there, this would have been a serious challenge, both her explaining this to me and also me again talking to the head teacher (custodian). I was very grateful for these volunteers helping me because the outcome was very positive and everybody was in agreement.

I love how God is working in this arena here. He leaves me out here all alone to grow and stretch beyond my comfort zone, but then He reaches out and throws me a bone when I really need some help. No matter how alone you may feel in any certain situation, He will always be with you. His presence may not be obvious, but when He needs to show Himself, He will.

Day four has come and gone; Now on to day 5 with hope, happiness and many prayers

Jeff