Sorry its been so long without an update. It has been a wild and wonderful holiday season! We were blessed to be the 1st set of house parents for the group of 9 orphans visiting Bridgestone this month. They flew into Atlanta Airport around 8pm Tuesday, December 20. They didn't make it to Bridgestone til about 1:30am. When we arrived at the Millbrook YMCA at 6pm on Wednesday, December 21 to meet them, one was already totally asleep and the others were extremely tired. It was quite different from our 1st experience as house parents, very sedate. And this group has girls and boys! I didn't realize how much difference that would make. The kids range from 8-15 yo.
After bible study at the Y we returned to Bridgestone. It was probably around 8pm. The little boy who was sleeping when we 1st arrived continued sleeping through dinner, bible study, & the ride back to the house. We put him to bed, went and set up our room, & when we returned to the main room there were NO kids! Everyone of them had gone straight to bed! So here we are, all excited to hang out with these kids and they're all asleep in bed! Well, there's always things to be cleaned or readied, so we did some busy work before heading to bed.
Our little man who slept the whole previous evening and through the night woke up, wide open at 6am Thursday morning. Bill got up with him 1st and started the coffee. Zhenya is the cutest 9yo boy and he has no comprehension that we do not speak Russian. He and Bill had about an hour "conversation" before I got up and they really bonded. Soon we were all up, the Wii was up and going, and an amazing gentleman named Chuck came in to cook breakfast. He drove all the way from Virginia to volunteer at Bridgestone. He made from scratch pancakes and they were amazing!
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| Zhenya |
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| Yulya |
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| Ruslan |
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| Katya |
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| Karina |
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| Hope & Tanya |
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| Hope & Vova |
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| Hayden & Nastya |
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| Danil |
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Group arriving in Atlanta.
Spending this time at Bridgestone again has only solidified for Bill and I that this is what God is calling us to do. We know He has plans for us in the mission field, working with orphans, but not sure what that will look like. It may just be to continue volunteering at Bridgestone, it may be committing to something more permanent than that, or even going over seas and into the mission field. Please pray that whenever God says "Who will I send?" that Me, Bill, and the girls are ready to answer "Send us Lord!" |
