All good things must come to an end....

So here we are.  January 12th and Zhenya's been gone for 2 days.  We miss him so very much.

I apologize for not posting more during our hosting.  I had high hopes that I could get lots of things done in the evenings, but by the time 8:00 rolled around, I was pooped!  Keeping up with 3 active boys is tiresome! 

Our visit with Zhenya was amazing!  He is such a fun, hungry, athletic, hungry, loving young man!  Did I mention hungry?  This kid can eat!  Oh my!  His absolute favorite food here was hot dogs.  He would eat 4 at a time, with chips or whatever else we were eating.  He did NOT like my chicken brocolli casserole that we ALL love here in the south.  One night he offered to cook a dish for us.  So, I'm thinking....Oh, this is awesome!  We get to eat a Ukrainian dish.  So as he's chopping and stirring, I ask where he learned to cook this dish.  His reply?  Spain.  This is a dish from Spain!  (He's been on other hosting programs to Spain.)  He had fun cooking and we enjoyed the dish :)  I was just amazed that a 12 year old boy could actually do something productive in a kitchen!!  (besides eat)

Thank heavens for the YMCA!  We frequented the Y to play indoor basketball and swim.  Zhenya never could get the letters in the right order for Y M C A, so I always got tickled when he talked about going to the Y.

He also loved Plaza Fiesta!  We went one afternoon with Grace Bevilacqua and her boys.  He had so much fun, he literally begged to go back.

Okay, so now I'm going to get serious.  Can I just say how much this child blessed our family?  He brought so much laughter and sunshine into our home.  It is so evident how God orchestrated this whole hosting time.  Just to name a few....Zhenya could understand English really well.  We didn't have to rely on google translate the whole time.  This was one of our prayer requests, that we would be able to communicate well.  Through this process, we met a missionary that lives 5 minutes away from Zhenya's orphanage. She volunteers some of her time there and knows Zhenya.  She's from the US, so speaks English :)  We talked for over an hour one day and still communicate via Facebook.  What a blessing!  A family in Columbia hosted a 12 year old boy that was from the same orphanage as Zhenya.  We were able to get to know them and the boys were able to talk on the phone a few times.  Another blessing!  I could go on and on about how everything fell into it's perfect place.  This was not a coincidence.  This was God's perfect plan.

We took Zhenya to the airport Tuesday to head back home.  It was much harder than I expected.  We were able to hang out together for a few hours before the kids had to go through security.  I wasn't sure what to expect from him and I hadn't prepared myself for how he would act in those last few minutes before we sent him off.  He hugged and kissed, but never said a word and never got emotional.  (He probably thought I was a fruit loop, with my red, splotchy face.)  My thinking is that he's built up a protective wall around himself, so that he won't get hurt.  That breaks my heart.

We do plan to communicate with Zhenya.  We have requested his orphanage address so that we can mail packages to him.  We also plan to use Ukrainian Facebook.

Again, we thank you so very much for your prayers and support!

Mandy

Encouragement from a child

I remember when Mandy first approached me about hosting an orphan child from the Ukraine during Christmas. Many thoughts ran through my mind and I started to seek reasons NOT to proceed. As September led to October, Christmas began to loom.  When Mandy mentioned going to an informational session in October, the date was one I was going to be out of town. Had I found an opening?  As the date drew closer, I soon realized that I would be in town for the informational session... it was around this time that I finally decided to stop running from the idea and to start embracing it. God has a funny way of working...


Mandy is an amazing person, a true Godsend. I probably don't tell her that often enough, but I am continually reminded of her gifts. She has a profound love to help others, giving selfishly of herself. It is a blessing to call her my wife and to be able to walk along side her. God has truly blessed me, our marriage and our family.  I realized that hosting was something God had laid on her heart and He was working on me.


After leaving the informational session, I knew we were about to embark on an adventure.  I started to embrace the idea of having someone stay with us during Christmas as I knew this would be something we would always remember;  it would make a lasting impression of God's love for others on our children; and it would demonstrate God's love to those we interact with. More importantly, we would be able to demonstrate God's love to us by pouring out our love on Zhenya.  As I started to share with others what we were doing, I felt as if I always had a "goofy" smile on my face!


As Mandy has mentioned in other posts, getting Zhenya was an adventure in and of itself. Of course, God's hand was in everything and his arrival turned out for the best. We were concerned and apprehensive about how we would communicate, but God has provided a universal language - laughter. Zhenya has brought additional laughter to a family that has never been in need of laughter itself! 


We have spent countless hours playing basketball, both on our patio in our back and at our church's gym. Sports are another universal language and a have proved to be a great way to communicate. Zhenya lights up when playing any sport!  During his first few hours, he and I played basketball (me in dress clothes for work) and finished the afternoon with some american football.


Christmas was a very special time - spending time with family leading up to the celebration of Christ's birth and then the day itself. Zhenya was overwhelmed with the gifts and outpouring of love on him!  The boys gave Mandy and I a gift - a 2 hour nap! - after an early morning! Zhenya, Jeremy and I then enjoyed basketball with the Byars!


Philippians 2:3-4 says "Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others." It is my prayer that we live this out daily and that Zhenya comes to know the love of the Lord through the outpouring of love received daily from us and friends. Many thanks to those who have walked along side us with prayer and gifts. Your contributions have been a tremendous blessing.


God Bless.

It's been a week since I've last written and we have done so much!  In addition to "normal" errands that we all must do around Christmas, we have had lots of fun as well.  We've enjoyed a Winthrop basketball game, a UNCC basketball game, watching movies, playing putt-putt, shopping, spending time at the YMCA, and lots of playing at home.  Mike and I were able to squeeze in a date night to eat dinner without kids :) and to finish up our Christmas shopping.  As you can see, it's been a busy week!

Yevgen (aka Zhenya) is still doing great!  His English is much better than we expected, so it's been pretty easy communicating with him.  He can even read the beginner reader books (Level 1) with no trouble!  He continues to amaze me at how much he knows.

Zhenya also continues to eat really well :)  He gained 3 pounds the first week!  For those of you that know me well, you know that Chex Mix is a staple around our house.  Well, he took one bite and said, "Ooh, this is good!"  My kids love it too, so my huge red bowl is getting pretty low.  Zhenya loves pizza, so he definitely fits in well at our house :)  He loves fruit, too!  I wish I ate as much fruit as he does.  He also loves Cheez-Itz.  He found them in the pantry one day and ate a ton with his sandwich.  He's also a big fan of sandwiches, which is great for me!!

We plan to show Zhenya the "Jesus" film tomorrow in his language so he can understand it all.  Please pray that his heart will be open to hearing and learning more about Jesus.

Through Facebook, a family in FL contacted us regarding Zhenya.  They are a host family through New Horizons as well.  They are hosting a boy also named Zhenya, who is also from the same orphanage as our Zhenya.  Not only this, but the boys are best friends!  The boys were able to talk on the phone with each other this week.  That was very interesting for me, to sit back and listen to Zhenya talk in his own language and have no clue what he was saying!

Zhenya is so excited about opening gifts!  He keeps peeking under the tree and shaking boxes.  Too funny!!

Thanks for checking in....

Laughter

Today has been a day of laughter.  What a blessing!  Yevgen's awesome personality is shining through!  Since the boys had school this week, Yevgen's been hanging out with me.  We visited the dentist, the eye doctor, had a hair cut, shopped and visited the school.  He was such a trooper going with the flow of getting things done that needed to be done.  During the office visits, we spent lots of time using google translate to learn more about each other. 

Last night, Mike and all 3 boys went out for pizza and ice cream with 2 other dads and their kids.  Yevgen loves pizza, so he fits in well at our house :)

Today, we visited Tiger World as a family.  This is when his personality starting shining!  We laughed all day long!  My family came over for dinner tonight and my brother said, "He even acts like Mike!"

We are having a ball...

He's finally here!

We picked Yevgen up this morning at the airport!  He immediately gave us a hug, which made us feel great!  He is soft spoken and seems to have a really kind, gentle personality.  He speaks a little English, so we've been using Google Translate a lot!  He also speaks Spanish pretty well, in addition to being fluent in Russian and Ukrainian.

We had lunch at Chick-fil-a where he ate very well, including a chocolate milkshake (my kind of kid!)  He and the boys had a fun time playing outside this afternoon.  Apparently, he's been taught a few skills in American football and soccer :)  He's really good!

We hope to have a very restful night tonight.  Tomorrow is a busy day, buying new shoes and visiting the dentist. 

Thanks for checking in....

How did this happen?

Our family is hosting a child from Ukraine for 4 weeks over Christmas.  Many of you are wondering how in the world we came to this decision!?!  So, let me begin....

This past summer, I helped with VBS at our church.  Two of the children in my group were from Latvia.  I learned that these children were orphans and they were spending part of the summer with a family in our area.  I thought this was really cool and tucked the idea away in the back of my little brain :)  In September, I dug a little bit and discovered New Horizons for Children.  I got the basic information and knew I was interested in pursuing this for the Christmas hosting.  Once I saw the pictures of these sweet children, I knew we had to do this!  So, here we are!

We initially picked a Ukranian boy named Sergey.  We talked with a past host family and were able to get lots of information on him.  Everyone raved about Sergey, so naturally we were really excited and felt like we already knew him.  But, we received news almost 2 weeks ago that his orphan director was not going to let any of her kids come to America over Christmas.  This was a decision she made, nothing that NHFC did.  Our family was very saddened by this news because we had already come to love Sergey, before even meeting him.

The good news is that there were a handful of kids left that needed a family to host them.  Mike was out of town on business, so the boys and I chose Yevgen.  He is a really cute kid and we are so excited to meet him!  This will be his second trip to America, but the first through NHFC.  So, we do not have as much information on him as we did Sergey.  

Our kids are so excited about Christmas, but even more excited about getting to share it with a child who has possibly never experienced Christmas, opening gifts, or the love of a family.  We will also get to celebrate his birthday while Yevgen is here.  Again, this is such a special opportunity as most orphans are not celebrated on their special day. 

So what do we do now that all of the paperwork, background checks, home visit, training, etc is done?  We wait until December 13th when we finally get to meet this special child!

How you can help....Pray for the safety of all children traveling to the US.  Pray for the language barrier to just work out!  Pray for the transition of adding another child to our family for a month.  Pray for Sergey to have a safe place to go for winter break (I'll give more info on that later).  

Until our next posting....