"Beeeeeel!" "Seeen-dee!"

We pull through the front gate, music blaring, in our Mercedes Benz taxi. We pay the driver 40 hrivna, gather our stuff and hop out of the car. There's Constantine. "Katya?" he asks. "Da," we say. He points toward the back.

The kids have been raking leaves and smoke swirls around us from the burning piles as we walk behind the building where the kids eat, go to school, sleep, play ... "Beeel!" "Seeen-dee!" the shouts go up as word spreads that we are here. We're not that great. We know that. But for reasons we don't understand, they trust us.









Hugs, kisses on the head. And a special big hug and up into the arms for Katya. "E-dee-su-dah!" "Come here!" They have something to show us. The kids have rigged some kind of a swing and they show us "gym-nas-ti-ca" that they can do on this contraption. "Brass-a-let," Paulina insists as she tugs on me. Last night at dinner, I told her that I would bring beads and string for us to make bracelets.

With the teacher's permission, we go inside to her classroom and set up shop. The kids LOVE reading Usborne's "First 1000 Words in English" pointing out words they know. "Dog" and "Cat" are favorites. They leave, at 4:15, for "lunch" but are back quickly and Paulina insists on "Brass-a-lets." A group of the kids elects to play "Uno" following rules that I don't understand. Bill continues playing English games with a group, and I get a gaggle of girls AND boys making "brass-a-lets." However, we quickly figure out that we don't have fasteners, so most of them get their backpacks and we make strings of beads for them to attach. However, a few are committed to "brass-a-lets," and so we plunge ahead.

An hour-and-a-half later and it's time for "taxi" to take "Beel-e-Seen-dee" back to the "a-part-a-ment-ay."

We love these children. We have learned that many of them have guardians in their lives, at least on paper. Some have mothers who are in mental institutions and will never come out. But, barring a miracle, they will never be released for adoption. Some of them have parents who just can't get their lives together, but they still want to nominally be "Mama" or "Papa" for these children. Life has been hard for them. Vodka has become their best friend when they've lost their jobs, their apartments. Some of them have parents who have disappeared, but because they are still on the books as guardians, their children continue this life of having parents, but not having parents.

Meanwhile, there's this one ...



Whom we love. Whom we're fighting for. Tomorrow we're hoping ALL Odessa documents well be signed and sent to Kiev. We have seen God win battles already and are looking for Him to show Himself powerful, bring glory to Himself, and place Katya in a family.

Would you pray for Katya, for us, for the six at home, but also for these flesh and blood children whom we have come to love?

"Beeeeeeel" "Seeen-dee!" Such sweet, sad music!