Ready or not...

...here we come!  For those of you who know Samuel and his mommy Amber, you know about Booty Camp.  It is some hardcore potty training that has led him and his 2 year old sister to be potty trained in one week!  So, starting this Saturday, we are going to do it.  Amber has been nice enough to share all of her knowledge and training with us.  So, goodbye pull-ups!  I know this isn't going to be a walk in the park, but I think it is going to take something a little more intensive for Lance to fully be potty trained.  He honestly, just does not care at this point.  For those of you who are not familiar with Booty Camp, don't worry.  It is never harsh or mean.  You never yell or show any anger during the training.  It is just very intensive and you stay confined to the kitchen until you start getting with the program (obviously not when he is sleeping).  It is one hard week for a grand reward!  Whenever Lance goes on the potty he will earn time out of the kitchen for fun things like Easter Egg hunts, jumping on the trampoline, swinging, etc.  It should be pretty motivating!  So, please say a little prayer that this will be as painless as possible and that God will grant me patience as he learns.  I can not say how excited I am that this could be our LAST box of pull-ups EVER for Lance!!!!  Okay, I guess I have perseverated enough on that.  ha!

He is truly growing up though.  Lance is interacting so much more and pointing out all sorts of things as we drive in the car.  Half of the time I have no idea what he is talking about, but I love that he is trying to tell me about whatever it is.  We are now struggling to figure out what our plans are for Lance this coming school year.  He will be old enough to start kindergarten, but he is very delayed in academics.  There is a school I really want him to attend, but for us to be able to afford it they need some grants to come it.  We are all hoping they will show up any moment, but it isn't guaranteed.  So then the question is, what are my options?  We are thinking, but primarily we have to depend on God to lead us.  It could be a very exciting year ahead, but right now it is daunting.

Okay I will finish on a positive note.  I am going to attach a precious photo of our son.  Unfortunately, his collar makes his neck look like a turtle, but I still think he is handsome.  (Family members- you will be getting some copies, just trying to figure out the best way of doing it right now)  :o)

Update with pictures

Alright, so I am having some technical difficulties.  The pictures are all out of order and my writing somehow became a link. Please enjoy and forgive me for being so scrambled on this post.  I tried to post pictures that were different from Carmen's blog.  It is really hard to narrow them down.  We have over a thousand!  If anyone is interested, I can post more or send them to you personally.  Or if you are local we can look at them over coffee.  :o)

This is a precious little girl that was in the infirmary of the orphanage.  We didn't get to spend much time with her because she became upset with the strangers around.

We adore this little guy.  He has also been at the orphanage all the trips we have taken.  Here we were demonstrating some massage techniques.

I couldn't resist the stereotypical Russian hat this time.  I have passed them up several times, but it was freezing and I got a great deal on it...$12  :o)

Sorry but I had to share part of the scary bathrooms on the 15 hour train.  You can't really tell, but the floors were pretty bad, there was no soap or water and the toilet opened to the tracks to flush.  Ha!  The next picture is Kym getting prepared to go in.  She had the pants tucked in, the toilet paper and a germ-X wipe ready to go.  It was a very comical moment, yet it was really helpful to be that prepared.

This was our team with a few of the doctors in the hospital and a couple of the orphaned babies.  They were so precious.

This is a little boy we have seen every trip, but this time they were very pround to show us how they had worked with him.  He is now able to walk in a walker with some control.  hee hee!

This was us packing our ten bags.  They were full of donations and our personal items all fit into our backpacks.  At the end of the trip we had completely emptied all ten bags!  What a fun thing to be able to do.

We have been home for two weeks tomorrow and I am just getting around to blogging...yikes!  I definitely don't win the blogger award.  I have to say that this trip to Ukraine was the best one so far (as far as a therapy trip).  The team was great together and all the people we worked with in Ukraine were so receptive to us and our suggestions.  We are hoping to slowly fill a crate to ship to Ukraine in the future so that we can take larger therapy supplies and be able to offer them to the hospital, orphanages, and families.  We also trained the director of therapies at the orphanage we visited how to cast for braces (AFOs) so hopefully we can continue to help them get braces for each child that needs them as well as update them as they outgrow the previous braces!  All of the people we met were especially interested in the information Carmen, our speech-pathologist, had to offer.  It was completely new to them and they wanted more.  Working with the hospital, we will be able to help orphans as infants to prevent some of the delays as well as families with children with special needs.  They really don't have any support over there.  So the future is looking really bright for upcoming trips.  (I am sorry if I am repeating myself from former posts.)  

  

A day at the hospital...

Wow, today was tiring, but so encouring! We went to the hospital ready to help, not sure of what we would encounter. The doctors first took us to the babies. We saw several with feeding tubes who seemed to be doing well. We were able to share proper positioning techniques, swaddling, and massage. Then we gave them the NICU items we brought. They were very fascinated with those. Afterwards, they took us to a room in the neuro ward and had about 5 or 6 mothers in there with their children for us to examine and give our recommendations. It was really fun and more and more doctors starting gathering in the room to observe. Although we were so busy that we hardly had time to notice them. At this point we had been working from 10-2 or 2:30. They asked us to rest and have hot tea, chocolates and cookies. (That was lunch) Then 30 minutes later we were back at it. We visited the orphan rooms. There were about 7 babies in one room who were waiting on their official papers so that they could be transfered to the orphanage. One with CP and one with Down's syndrome. They were adorable. We were about to share the same techeniques with them as the previous baby room. We also mentioned the need for mobiles, mirrors, music, talking to them, rocking, and rattles. We are hoping to get a baby swing for them tonight. The next room over was three older babies- 1 year and a ~3 year old boy who had been taken away from his parents after being burned with cigarettes. He and his sister were about to be transferred to the orphanage as well.

Each room received toys and positioning aids, some recieved books and therapy balls. They were so intrigued by what we were doing although it was so simple...which they said made them so much more interested! No rocket science needed here. Only time, attention, and love. I believe it was almost everyone's favorite day. The doctors want us to come and do a make shift clinic there next time with PT, OT, Speech stations for parents to bring their children and get home exercise programs. There is no such thing in Ukraine at the present time. Wow. This connections might mean huge changes here!!! Then our goal will be to help them set up a school for children with special needs. At this point they are not welcome in the schools if they can not go up several flights of stairs. When the children get old enough that people can tell that they have special needs they get ridiculed on the streets. The families pretty much just stay at home. This is why so many are given up for adoption here. Although the people we have met all have seen the pictures of our children and our story. They see how every child can be raised as a 'typical' child.
One poopy piece of news. A visitor of our lectures in the orphanage tried to turn us in for lecturing there. Praise the Lord, we had made sure to have legal documents made and legalized prior to our arrival. The person's complaint was that we were approved to work with children, not orphans. This it the mentality we are fighting against. But God is doing amazing things and softening a lot of people's hearts here. They can not wait to learn how to help more.

Tonight we will be going to celebrate Carmen's birthday...a little belated. :o) Please remember to check out the pictures on her blog at www.theharphappenings.blogspot.com. It takes too long for both of us to do it. Although I hope to put some on when we are back at home. Tomorrow will be our final day in this town prior to heading to Kiev. We will finish delivering all our donations, teach one doctor how to cast for braces, play with the children, and say our goodbyes. I hope to have time to write tomorrow, but no promises. We get on a train tomorrow night that will be 15 hours long. Whew-hew!

Presentation Day 2

Draftstoycha (My spelling of hello in Russian) :O)

Today is our third full day in Ukraine. It started with our demonstrations in the orphanage from 9-12. We were able to demonstrate therapy techniques on several different kids about 30-40 min. a piece. It went pretty well. They appeared to really like it and took numerous notes. The swing does wonders for the kids here. We are going to have to get more swings. Ideally we would have one for each room (11). They need them so bad because the kids are seeking movement and vestibular input.

At 11:30, Kate and I snuck out to see a little girl who had come to visit us before. She lives at home and her grandmother works at the orphanage. Mom and grandmother came too. The last time I saw this little girl the mother had brought x-rays. It was the time I was the only PT here so I got pictures of the x-rays and had Kym's husband take them to a doctor in the US. The doctor said it looked most like bone cancer. Of course that is not what we wanted to hear, but it was kind of what I expected. Then today they had a new x-ray, it looked much worse. My heart completely broke when I saw it and knew at some point I was going to have to tell the family what I had been told. I asked numerous questions and it seems as though the doctor just told her there was nothing wrong and eventually the child would have to have a leg lengthening. Argh! When they asked what treatment a doctor would do in the states I had to tell them. I made sure to say that I am not a specialist and that the doctor only had the x-ray to look at so they would need to have a specialist look at her and do some tests before we could say she truly had cancer. But that there is a good chance that that was what was happening. We talked about possibilities, ideas, and I just tried not to cry the whole time. I have never had to tell anyone a person they love as much as life itself most likely has cancer that has gone untreated for years. So, my mission today is to find a good specialist for them to go to and find out more. Hopefully there is someone good in Ukraine. I am scared for them and my heart hurts so bad. She is a beautiful 4 year old that walks, runs, plays, talks everything as she should. Please pray for her recovery and the family to be supported during these times. Even if it comes down to her having her leg removed to save the rest of her body that is about as bad a death here. Society does not accept people with special needs very well. I just want to take her home and get the care there.

Well, after that we went to the orphanage for 3-7 year olds in this town. It was very surprising! The place was very organized, clean, and warm. The caregivers had pictures of the kids up everywhere and showed how they wanted all the kids to feel as though they were in a family. They even had photo albums of the kids for them and lots of group picts as they play. They had dress-up stations, play stations, tons of art work that the kids had made on the walls. We were extremely impressed. The had buckets for the kids' tears, bags for them to yell into when they were angry, stuffed animals for them to talk to when they can't say something nice. It was great. We discovered that we most likely will not go back there because they do not need our help near as much as other orphanages. That was some good news after the morning, although, I have to say my heart wasn't all there.

We went to eat lunch around 3 at the 'Milky Way'. That is the American nickname for some reason. It is an authentic Ukrainian resteraunt. We had a nice lunch and will be skipping dinner tonight. Tomorrow we get to go to the Children's hopsital. The director came to visit us quickly yesterday. She was very nice. We were told that it is the regional hospital for children and that there would be tons of things for us to do. That we would not run out of work. The director was so excited that we were coming and I can not wait to help the children there. Please just pray for my heart to be protected and strong in Christ. I love these children and can not always help as much as I would like. I am glad that I have a great team to work with, though. Kate is my roommate just because we have one room of 3 and one room of 2 and we just happen to end up together. But we have had some great talks at night and her spirit is truly amazing. I do not want to imply in any way that others would not be, I just have enjoyed her company this week. Also the car alarms and sounds outside in the middle of the night are always a fun topic of conversation. This morning it helped/made me get up for a longer quiet time. I don't think that was a coincidence. :o)

I love you all and hope you are having a good day!
Love,
Karen

Great

Whew, this will have to be quick. I have 7 minutes. Today went great!!

All of us were able to teach our parts without rushing with 30 SECONDS to spare! It was perfect. Although, while we were talking it was very hard to tell if anyone was appreciating the talk since in the culture here everyone keeps very serious looking faces without much expression. Then afterwards we had several questions and then they had a little lunch for us (with food we bought for them and food they made from home). At the lunch a doctor said such kind words about what we teach, our hearts, and all the help that we have given them that Kym and I were crying. It was a great feeling. There were some funny parts during our speeches as well. Especially Carmen.. she was fabulous!! Kept me smiling with all her energy the entire time. I will have to go into more details later. Anyway, it was great.

Then we went to various rooms of the orphanage to work with any kids they asked us to. They are all precious. We asked to go to the infermiry (sp?). There we saw several more kids and some that broke our hearts. The last portion of our time was spent with two 4 year olds...one with spina bifida and one with down's syndrome. Wow, they were both really smart and interactive. What breaks my heart is that if we do not find a home for them by the summer they will be sent to the institution. It completely breaks me down....completely. They could live independently. Please help us find a home. I will have information for anyone interested. Seriously, they are really high functioning.
Okay, everyone is waiting on me. I have to run.
I love you guys!

From Ukraine

Hello everyone,
We have made it here safely and things are going fairly smootly so far...
We left NWA Saturday at 12:30 and headed to Chicago, there we spent about 6 hours and headed to Munich. That was a quick layover of 45 minutes and we were off the regional airport, one more leg...an hour drive to here. All of that went very smoothly other than Kate and I having very full bladders on the car ride and going over some roads with numerous pot holes. ha! We made a b-line to the bathroom as soon as we reached the hotel. We arrived here around 4:00pm Ukraine time. Due to the time change I think that would be 9am there. Then we went to eat, get a few groceries for our room (primarily water) and headed to bed. I had a hard time adjusting to the time and was awake from 2-4am, but hey, it could have been worse.

This morning we awoke and ate at the little cafe in the hotel (the restaurant is no longer here). It was a little funny since we had to try to figure out what the food was and order it without any english. I picked out a danish, thinking it was going to be sweet. ha! It was filled with cabbage like saurkraut (sp?). Yumm. Afterwards we were able to go to the orphanage!! I love it there. For some reason, it is starting to feel like a very comfortable place to be. I have to be honest. I have not felt nervous about this trip at all, THEN when we were waiting in the Munich airport to board the plane here it started sinking in. I was thinking, what am I doing again?! Ahh! But by the time the plane landed and everyone was so calm I felt fine again. Then today we toured some of the rooms and the caregivers where doing so many things we had taught them. It was fabulous!!!! We were excited, but realized a lot of the material we had planned for tomorrow was going to be way too simple. There are doctors coming from this orphanage and two others locally. They expect there to be about 30 total. Okay, so the nervousness has begun again! We are all going to have to alter our talks somewhat to challenge them more and not talk down to them. What a miracle! And an unexpected challenge. God is showing us that He is really using us here. Group 4, where the children with special needs live was completely different. Before, we were teaching them to have the children sitting to feed them, then we were encouraging them to have the children feed themselves but it seemed like a long shot. Today we walked in and all but three of them fed themselved with a spoon independently! Please pray for us to have the wisdom on what they need to hear and how to teach it effectively!

This afternoon we ate at DaVinci and had a great lunch. Then we unloaded all of our bags and organized. Amanda and I went to the store with Olga and Alex to buy food for everyone tomorrow while the rest continued to work. We also found out our timeline will not work due to the children's lunch and nap time, so we have changed to teaching two mornings and rearranged our schedule at other locations. It's all about being flexible. :o) So, I guess I should go soon to get all my talk finalized. We are still trying to figure out how to download the pictures onto the computer using our card reader again. The lady helped Carmen save them onto the computer but she is having to pull each one up and look prior to posting. So for now I am going to refer you to her blog...www.TheHarpHappenings.blogspot.com

I love and miss all of you, but am excited about the possibilities here. I hope to write again tomorrow to let you all know how the teachings went.

Also, I want to lift up my in-laws in a difficult time. My mother-in-law's mother passed away in the middle of the night before I left. So, I am very sorry I am not there with you all to help, listen, hug or just be there. I pray for your healing and peace that only our Heavenly Father can provide. I love you!
Karen

One more week!

Hello friends,

It has taken me a while to write once again. :o) The last few weeks have been slightly insane with my normally busy schedule and getting everything prepared for Ukraine. Our team is fabulous! I am looking forward to ministering together. Everyone has worked so hard on their parts and the preparations will soon pay-off. It will be great to see the children's and caregivers' faces when they see all the great things we are bringing for them. Donations have really started to pick-up this week! We have a huge box full of bright colored toys, exercise balls, teethers, pacifiers, etc. Then we have another large box of items for the NICU. Thanks to those of you who have given so much! Although there are still items we need, and our funds are still below our hopes, we feel great knowing we have a lot to give away now. Our presentations and photo albums are almost prepared, clipboards for all of the attendies (with milestones chart in Russian), Bibles (child and adult), and devotionals are ready to go! I will try to take pictures of all our bags of donations once they are packed. Now just one week left, whew. Dear Father, please bless us with what your children in Ukraine need. We ask for your guidance every step of the way.

I have to admit that while I am getting very excited, I am completely drained. John Michael has had a very unusual work schedule, I have had three nights of after work obligations, and now JM is at an overnight men's retreat. I don't want to complain about that. I know he needs fellowship with other men. I just hope that Lance can tolerate my craziness for one more week. :o) Tonight, I have chosen to finally stop for a moment to update everyone on the trip. If you have any questions, I would love to talk about it. I feel completely blessed to have the opportunity to do just that. This trip I will also get to brag on Lance to all of his former "moms" and show them how much he has grown. That should be fun!

If you can see the light yellow line by his shoulder that was marked a month after we were back in the United States. He has grown quite a bit as you can see!

Jumping like a pro

Lately, Lance has been working hard to trace his name and say the letters. Before, we would throw a huge fit when we tried to get him to write anything.

Please join me in praying for:

- Wisdom when teaching the caregivers/doctors

- Safety

- Ease for John Michael and Lance while I am gone

- To be filled with the Holy Spirit and that it would radiate throughout the orphanages and hospital, so that others may feel Christ's love and want that relationship

- Change for the orphans

Thank you so much!

I am going to try to get to bed now. There is no telling what time Lance will be bright-eyed and bushy tailed tomorrow...almost certainly before the sun comes up. Goodnight!