Mother's Care: 2006

Thursday, June 29, 2006

Marina in America

Marina is in America! She is growing stronger every day. She is learning new things, and experiencing all sorts of new things she never experienced, having lived her whole life in a hospital ward. Here are some of her firsts:
First balloon and boy does she love it!
First ride in a car and was she fascinated!
First ride in an airplane and that was not fun! Ten hours in a car seat breathing dry air. No fun.
First dinner party. It was somone's birthday, but Marina was the hit of the party! She is winning more hearts in America every day!
First time to have a bath every day! Yuck! She does not enjoy it yet, but she will more when her feet are all healed up and she can splash around in the water. We can't do that yet.
First taste of something strawberry, and many other new flavors she is really enjoying. No more just having milk kasha three times a day. She is addicted to Pedia Sure! She loves it!
Please pray that the hospital situation will be worked out soon so she can have the cleft pallat surgery done and other problems taken care of. Two hospitals are interested in helping her, one offering a full grant if they examine her and think they can help her.
Pray also for Oleg, Nikita and other children from the orphanage who are still waiting for their chance to be in a home and receive the care they need.

Sunday, June 04, 2006

Fighter Pilots

Ready to Fly

Marina is tiny even for a three year old and she may not resemble even remotely your idea of fighter pilot, she does not even have feet. Nevertheless, she is getting ready to fly and for her to be alive in her condition, proves us that she indeed is a fighter.

Marina has spent her entire life in a hospital, but now she is making headlines all the way in Texas and Arkansas; People all over are coming together to support this fighter. Marina has a cleft pallet, four fingers in one hand and sort of five in the other. The reason she is making news is that she is very ill and right at this moment loosing her limbs for some mysterious disease. Her feet were already amputated earlier this year, the stubs of her feet never healed and now the same deathly stuff is creeping up her little hands. The tip of her left pinky fell off few weeks ago, rest of the fingertips in her left hand are already dead (black and shrunken). The hospital has done all they can, except amputated again. This will possibly happen on Monday, June 5th. They have given up on her ever being able be healed of this disease.

Already since Marina was ten months old Rebecca and Andy Smith, our ministry leaders, have been trying to adopt her. There were long brakes in the process due to political changes in Ukraine. Then, as the situation grew more critical, the Smiths tried for the custody, in order to get her to America to see some experts. Still they ran into great amounts of red tape here on Ukrainian side. Nobody really seemed to know reasons, but after knocking on several doors it was clear that they were not trusted enough, because they were foreigners. Finally our Ukrainian team member Sonya Yakovenko stepped up to take Marina in her name and if all goes according to the script, Rebecca, Sonya and Marina are leaving to the States on Saturday next week. The Smith’s supporting churches have arranged for them a place to stay, payments for the hospital visits, and plain ticket for Marina and Sonya.

Marina is a pilot in a sense that she is the first one, hopefully in a long line of children that we can help to get the medical attention they need and would not get here, because of their poverty or their status as orphans. Please be praying for traveling mercies for our pilot flight, and for her stay in the States and plans to be made what comes next in a story of fighter pilot Marina.

Wednesday, April 19, 2006

Fearfully made

Katarina, body stiff, gasping for air, hands reaching towards me. All I can do is to rub her back, sing to her, pray for her and assure her that the God of the Universe is in control of whatever scary things may be happening in her little body. He knows, He cares for her and He loves her. He hears her cry, however weak. "The angels are around, just for you my baby…" I sing over and over.

I turned my back to the bare and white room and rested my head on the side of her crib. There are no monitors to tell if this child should loose her battle with death, if she should get tired, if she should close her beautiful dark blue eyes forever that are now so filled with terror and pleading. There would be just six beds with five little sleeping bodies to witness. "But the angels are around, just for you my baby…" All the noise in the world is her breathing. All the world is Katya and me in the hands of the Almighty.

Gently I twist one of her short brown curls, matted with food and saliva. I begin anew the verse, telling of the work of the angels when my child is ill. My child is very ill. This is my child. I slide my finger down her hugely swollen cheek. If she really knew what awaits her in this world, would she fight? Her body may always be stiff. She may never walk or talk, she may never see more than this white, bare room. And there is nothing I can do about it. Am I being selfish wanting her to fight?

I came to Ukraine excited and with grand plans of what I wanted to do for these hurting little ones. I wished I could deliver them the best there was of everything and I knew I was called by God to do so. I wanted to make connections, tell the world of them, rescue them. But at this moment of helplessness I realize I cannot do anything. It is in His hands. I have to trust Him to tell me His plans, this day, trust Him with Katarina, trust He is good. He had made her and He had made no mistakes.

Katarina's Song (taken from Psalm 139)
You hem Katarina in – behind and before;
You lay Your hand upon her.
Such knowledge is too wonderful for me,
it is so high that I cannot attain it.

For it was You who formed her inward parts;
You knit her together in her mother’s womb.
I praise You for she is fearfully and wonderfully made.
Wonderful are Your works;
that I know very well.

Her frame was not hidden from You,
When she was made in secret,
intricately woven in the depths of the earth.
Your eyes beheld her unformed substance.
In Your book were written
All the days that were formed for her,
when none of them as yet existed.

How weighty to me are your thoughts O God!
How vast is the sum of them!
I try to count them – they are more than the sand;
I come to the end - I am still with You.

Search me, O God, and know my heart;
Test me and know my thoughts.
See if there is any wicked way in me,
And lead me in the way everlasting.
(adapted from Ps. 139:5, 6, 13-18, 23, 24)

This does not mean I will give up dreaming big for these little ones. My God is super-sized and I am asking for His dreams for them! As I reluctantly get up to go home, I whisper , "Fight, my baby, fight!" And I am sure all the heavenly hosts are joining my quiet cheer.

Thursday, January 19, 2006

Who are we? Our staff:

The Mother's Care team is made up of volunteers from several countries.
Rebecca Smith and Andy Smith are from America and have lived in Ukraine for seven years. They have two children of their own, Sarah, 17 years old, and Joshua, 7 years old.
Inge Skjolstrup is from Denmark. She has a heart full of love and compassion for abandoned children and has ministered to them faithfully in Ukraine for three years.
Sonia Yakovenka is the newest member of the team. She finished her Discipleship Training School with Youth With a Mission last year and came on Mother's Care staff in the fall. She is from Kyiv, Ukraine. Her joy and energy are a blessing to the children, as well as to the whole team!
We also have many volunteers from Kyiv, and from America who join with us in ministering to these children as they can. We are so thankful for them. We couldn't do this work without them!
Our partners and volunteers: Marcus, Joke (pronounced Yoke), Oksanna, Ludmilla, Rachel, Leslie, Julie, Elaine, Pastor Hart, Cynthia and Rev Russell Griffin, Elaine, Lillian, Nadia, Tanya, Kristina and all of our sponsors.
We are a large family from many nations joining together to be family for children who don't have one. Thank you!

What is Mother's Care?

We are a small team of YWAMers living in Ukraine for the purpose of mininstering the love of a mother and father to abandoned children. We regularly visit and help two hospitals where abandoned children are cared for, as well as a baby orphanage where children with Down's Syndrome or other challenges live.
We provide love, play, affection, and compassion for children who are sick in the hospital and don't have a mother to comfort them.
We also provide diapers, powders, food, clothes, and other much needed items that the hospitals and orphanages just cannot afford to buy.
Why do we do this? Because we know that each of these children, no matter what their situation, is valuable to the Lord, and we deeply care for each one of them.
As much as we give to them, these little ones also bless our lives each time we are with them.
Our goal in the up coming year is to purchase a home where we can care for children who have been abandoned until they can be adopted into families or placed in a long term foster home.