The One

It has been 10 weeks since the children went back to Ukraine.  I have had some communication with Tanya at Schotova, as well as the guardian, Vita.  Tanya is doing well and wants to come back to America.  I think she means for good.  Sasha K.  has already been adopted by a family here in the Birmingham area and now goes by the beautiful name of Eli Tucker.  Two families have submitted their dossiers to the SDA in Ukraine and are waiting on appointments so that they can ask  permission to adopt  Sasha S. and Valya.  Another family is in the middle of the homestudy process, seeking to adopt Zhenya.  It is my prayer that any of the others available for adoption will find families soon.

It is a sad fact of ministry to orphans that not all will find families.  We cannot understand why some do and some do not; we can just continue to minister to each one we meet.  I am reminded of a quote I read the other day:  The only thing you can do -  the only thing - is to try for the one who's in front of you.  Act as though this one....is the only person in the world - because to do otherwise is to lose that one, too. One at a time, that is all you can do. And you learn not to despair over all the ones you can't help, but only to do what you can."  Dragonfly in Amber (Outlander)

As we prepare to travel to Ukraine in 7 days, this is the cry of my heart:  Lord, may we do all that we can for those you place in front of us.  The bed-ridden child in the special needs orphanage; the Director who might have never met a Christ follower; the village child who still has parents but who is hungry and cold; the orphan graduate who is despairing of his future; the orphan who longs for a family; the “social orphan” who wants nothing more than to be returned to her “real” family.  No matter who we meet, may they feel like they were the most important person to us in that moment.   And may we have the opportunity to share with them their worth to the God of the universe.