SUMMER 2019

Thank You!

        Now that things have settled into more of a routine, I’m able to dedicate more time to the photo project, and preparing packages for some of the orphan grads.  

     Right now there is a girl who has left the orphanage and is working in food service.  She wants to be a baker and I’m preparing a package of baking supplies and a letter giving her suggestions to get started and telling her how proud I am of her accomplishments, stick close to God - He will help you in your future.  Your prayers and support have made it possible for these grads to feel loved and supported.  You and I know that the contents of the package will one day rust, wear out or get left behind, but our love will remain with her the rest of her live – this is God’s love manifesting through us. Thank you.

Going “Home”

     Hi!  Please accept my apologies for the long silence.  I haven’t travelled much as Drew and I have been in an adjustment period figuring out life together.   We’re “finding our groove” and it’s feeling good. ☺

     As I’m typing, I’m leaving for a short trip to the orphanage.  After fifteen years, it feels like going home.  While I’m there, people on the streets are always surprised at my level of comfort and local knowledge.  It’s been a year since I’ve seen the children.  I’ve never been away that long and am curious to see how they’ve grown, how they’re doing, what they’re up to, if relationships I’ve worked on are still strong, if two of the teen boys’ voices have changed yet, and how the “grandchildren” are doing.  I am so excited!

Photographs! Photographs! Photographs!

    Since the orphanage’s beginning, fifteen years ago, I’ve been taking photos of the children as they’ve grown, graduated and returned to visit.  

     As I’ve mentioned several times, when I started working with orphans in Russia I discovered most (if not all) don’t have photographs of themselves when they were little.  Or maybe they have one tattered photograph of their mother holding them as a baby, and maybe one from when they were four.  Having been raised in a household where my every move was documented on film I was shocked to discover that these children only have one or two photos of themselves.  I have deliberately taken many pictures of the children, doing crafts with them, in the back mind thinking one day I would do something special with them . . . when I had the time.  Well, now I have time and 66,000 pictures of just the children from the Central Asian orphanage.  

     I’ve made a folder of photographs for each child with photos of interest as well as all the good photos of the child.  It’s been quite a project as most pictures have several or many children, and now 90 children have gone through the orphanage.  I’m also separating out the best photos of each child, and will choose from them to make printed “Shutterfly” photo books for the adult orphan graduates, and for the children who are just leaving the orphanage.  

     There is a reason only the graduates are getting these.  Most of the children do not keep up with the many photos I have given them through the years.  I have given them photo albums full of their pictures, we have decorated picture frames with large pictures of themselves, and have done lots of other photo crafts.  I find random photos and albums behind bookshelves, in kitchen cupboards or folded or crumpled up in drawers.  I don’t know why it didn’t dawn on me, but of course most children won’t value the photos while they are little – they’re children!  They appreciate them when they’re older.  However, I must say it warms my heart when some have shown me pictures I gave them ten or more years ago. 

     Each orphan grad that I can locate will get a photo book of themself and a thumb drive with all their photos.  Some were only at the orphanage a short period and I don’t have many photos of them, but I have decided to try to find them and give them what I have, along with photos of the orphanage and the animals at the time they lived there so they can remember that chapter of their lives.  I know some will be really happy to receive these, as, since I have started the project, grads have asked me for photos of themselves.  I can’t wait to see their faces, and have been trying to come up with different fun ways of giving them their photos and books.  The anticipation is exciting.

     I discovered the sheer volume of photos has made this a much more time-consuming project than anticipated.  I do have a prayer request along with this project.  It’s been a whole year since I changed from a PC computer to an Apple and I am STILL having trouble working with pictures on the new system.  For example, today as I was trying to delete 1000 pictures, somehow all those pictures ended up on my desktop instead of in the trash!   I’d really appreciate your prayers that I’d suddenly get a great brain shift and miraculously understand it.  Thank you!  I know I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me!