Lifelines of hope

It’s hard to write the update today.  Not that I don’t have uplifting news to share, because I do, but Sophia is still not well.  A little background on the weather here in Simferopol.  It is gorgeous.  During the day it can get up to about 90-95 degrees and down to 70 at night.  The great part is the humidity, it’s mild.  Today it is about 25%!  By comparison, Raleigh will experience the same temperature, but have humidity in the 70-80% range.  Big difference in how “cool” it feels outside.  When we arrived today and got our hugs, Sophia was covered in goosebumps and shivering slightly.  She was cold.  I was sweating.  Her color also looked warm and it appears as if she has not broken the fever yet.  She went inside to see the doctor and came back out a little later.  We found a spot to sit in the sun to help her warm up.  It kills me to see her like this.  Tomorrow we are taking extra clothes and a blanket.  We left her with a bag of fresh cut oranges, I pray she eats them.

Today’s visit was supposed to be braiding hair and letting them have a little fun and be able to be a girl for once.  That did not happen.  A couple of things beyond seeing Sophia needing bed rest, medicine, and nourishment, derailed our day a bit.  First, and I don’t know why, but they cut Yulia’s hair.  The poor thing was not happy and was wearing a hoodie today.  How can I learn to braid her hair when they go and cut it?!  The other thing to happen was Anya’s mother was visiting her and so she could not help or participate.  Sophia is the only other one who knows how to braid and she’s out of commission.  So we shared with them the items we bought to use today.  Little compact brushes with mirrors, hair things with flowers, bejeweled hair things, hair clips, some cute little rubber bandy things that will pull the hair off their face and behind their ears (with a flower on it), oh and some ribbon to braid in too.  I have no doubt they would have been beautiful, maybe tomorrow.  We left the items with them so hopefully they don’t get confiscated or someone absconds with them.  With all this, I did not feel in the mood to take any pictures.

Side note, the children here have their own hierarchy.  More often than not, it is built around age and size. We had a bunch of boys come over to us first thing and we passed out all the bookmark crafts we had prepared so they would have something to do.  It is not uncommon to see hitting and kicking between the children.  Today though, we’d had enough and got a little upset with a couple of the boys for taking it too far.  It escalates quickly from a kick and a punch to grabbing big rocks to throw.  Language barrier or not, I think my tone of voice made it clear that you won’t get away with it in front of me.  Now once they get around the corner, I’m sure they went right back at it.  We experienced some of this last summer during hosting.  We were firm in our rules, but we made sure the tone in which we explained the proper behavior was done out of love.  These boys, and girls, don’t have that loving role model. The younger boys are learning to be a man from an older boy, who himself does not know how to be a man.  This is the perfect place to practice our church’s mission, love people where they are and encourage them to grow in their relationship with Jesus Christ.  Well since my Russian minister card has not arrived in the mail, I will focus on loving them where they are.  And they need it.

Now for the uplifting part of the day.  It was mixed in with everything else, so it was a rollercoaster of a morning.  Natalya was able to swing by yesterday and deliver letters from families back home.  She probably delivered the letters and the kids probably smiled when they read them and maybe said a few words, but I always like to look at people’s actions.  Much more telling than words.  For instance, when we showed up the first day and gave Sophia the photo album of our family, we got a smile and a “Sank you”.  But it’s the fact that she showed Natalya the following day and was happy to share what she had learned that warmed our hearts.  Same thing here.  Luda and Yulia were both excited to share the letters from families back home and let me read them.  Mind you they were in Russian at this point, but I did get to see some very key points and they were very happy to read them to me.  Plus, it really helped reinforce what I’ve been telling these girls.  I have friends back in the states who see their pictures and read stories about them and want to help them.  The smiles on their faces were priceless and I got some pretty cool hugs as we went through the letters.  So for the families that sent letters, thank you, ‘cuz I got hugs.