Children's Hospital in Chop

I had the opportunity to go to another Children's Hospital today in the city of Chop- about a 30 minute drive from Uzhhorod.
The hospital was much smaller than the one here in Uzhhorod. The team of people I went with brought medicine and much needed supplies for the nurses and children and babies.
This place was much harder to be at- emotionally- than the hospital I visit regularly here in town. The reasons behind some of the little ones being there were heart breaking.
One mother chose to leave her newborn baby there because she already had a few children and did not want any more. Another mother came to the realization that her growing toddler had mental and physical disabilities and decided to give her up 2 weeks ago. A little baby lay in a cradle, eyes wide open, crying, with a head the size of a watermelon.
The feelings of pain, sadness, rejection were almost overwhelming.
But, despite the decisions that people make that lead to this suffering, there is still a God who loves and adores these children. A God who can trade beauty for ashes. A God who provided a caring team of nurses to watch over them. A God who provided a small, Roma church to visit and bring medicine and toys and diapers.

I am hoping to visit often and be able to provide some OT where needed.

Children's Hospital Pictures

Photo Update

I wanted to post this last week, but we had been having so many problems with our Internet. Today, a guy came to replace our cable-thing that goes from our computer, out the window, up the outside of our apartment building, to an unknown location on the roof. Seems to have worked!

Pictures:
- my little Alyosha from the Children's Hospital (his parents officially gave up their parental rights and I want to take him home so badly)
- newborn girl: Madonna
- Oksana being silly

- crazy sunset that looks like an explosion

- silly Solomiya (and a Solomiya that did not feel well); we took her to see Dr K and it was a very emotional time for her that included screaming and crying
- after the doctor, we took Solomiya to a to a shopping center on the way home where she enjoyed window shopping for toys; we saw some little birds in a bush on the walk home and then S passed out after her action-packed morning

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One of the projects I worked on this week for a patient: making a seat cushion.
I work with a man (mid-60's) who had a stroke over a year ago. The left side of his body was affected. He is pretty much home bound due to his condition and spends his days either lying down or sitting. He has a lot of pain when sitting, so I made a special seat cushion for him with some memory foam.
My sister had sent us a foam pad for our bed last year (thank you, Chrissy!) and it was a little too big, but I just left it as is. When I was thinking about making a cushion for Ludvic, I had no idea where I would get the right materials here.
Then, I had the idea to trim the foam pad to fit our bed and use the scraps to make a cushion. I also has some leftover material from a previous project and sewed a cover for it.
Below are pics of:
- the work in progress (finished it around 12:30am last night)
- my faithful helper
- a pigeon that was spying on us

Visit to Morning Star

Went to visit Josef & Tanya Yesenov's place a couple of weeks back. It was amazing to see and hear about the work they are involved with and compare it to the first time we met with them in 2007!

Josef and his family have worked with "at-risk" children and teenagers for many years. I think their beginning story goes something like this: Josef used to work as a police officer. When he worked during the night-shift, he would always see children and young teens living on the streets either because they had nowhere to go or because they had a rough home life and did not want to go back.

After Josef gave his life to God, he and his family committed their lives to helping these kids.

When we met them in 2007, they were based out of a Methodist church in a busy section of Uzhhorod. In the basement of the church were living quarters for 5-7 young teens, as well as a kitchen. Josef & Tanya poured so much into these kids: teaching them about God, mentoring them, helping them get back into school, providing shelter, food, medical attention and also mediation between them and their families. Each week, they would also cook a hot meal for about 40-50 children who lived with their own families, but did not have the best home life. Josef & Tanya provided a safe place for these kids to go to. Over the years, these same kids became leaders within this outreach.

Fast forward to 2013: Josef & Tanya, through donations, had a home built just outside of Uzhhorod for these kids. Currently, there are 5 girls living there. Josef also said that they now are registered as a foster home and receive some government support.

He is also looking for a new location within Uzhhorod so they can continue their weekly feeding program to the other children.

 

This is probably only 1/8 of the entire story. There is a video about this ministry- I'll try and find it/post it soon.

 

Solomiya introducing herself to the littlest girl that lives at Morning Star.

L-R: Laurie, Jim, me, Solomiya, Josef, Volodya. Josef cooked lunch for us and updated us on the latest news.

Solomiya trying to sneak a banana.

This is the main room in the house used as dining room, living room, meeting room, school/craft room, prayer room, tv room.

Part of the kitchen.

Two of the girls who live at Morning Star.



Morning Star: front view.