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.