Yesterday we noticed several children from our dorm were missing as we walked to the Friday night show in the auditorium. We were told that they were sick. Two of the girls were former roommates with our girl. They had been moved to a different room this past weekend. Today the dorm room was put under quarantine. There are now 7 children out of 34 who are in the "hospital" at the orphanage. One of the girls was the one who was so sad when I first met her and now comes to me as soon as she sees me. I knew she was gone yesterday when I didn't feel her wrapping her arms around me for a hug. I then realized I had not seen her the day before either. Another was the brother of one of our girl's roommates. He and another boy were having fun throwing snow balls at Jason yesterday and today he is in the "hospital". I so badly want to go visit these precious children and help take care of them yet I would then not be allowed to go back to our girl in her dorm. I cry as I type because my heart breaks for these children who do not have a mom or dad to lavish their love on them when they are sick. As a kid when I was sick I always knew my parents would take care of me. The caretakers of the sick children here come and go with their shifts and no parents are by their bedside. Please pray for God to heal each one of these children quickly and for Him to be their comfort. Please also pray for the rest of the children to stay healthy and for God to show us how to help. We had arranged for the taxi to pick us up later tonight so we could go dance with our girl. On Saturday nights in the main building they turn off the house lights and put on a dance with a disco ball and strobe lights. Last Saturday we went back to the orphanage after dinner to dance but our girl had already left before we got there so we made a date to dance together tonight. Our girl's group was not allowed to go to the group show or to the dance; they were only allowed to go eat but nothing else to protect other children not in their dorm from getting sick. Their small world just got smaller. Instead of dancing we spent time at their den giving extra attention to some kids in the common area. I didn't mind giving extra hugs to our girl as we sat on the couch, nor did I mind teaching some English to a little girl who would point to body parts and colors and then repeat the words, nor did I mind making our girl's best friend laugh by being silly. I think we had more quality time with the children this way than we would have with dancing and maybe it helped with them not thinking about the quarantine. When we first arrived at the orphanage this morning we saw a van that said "agape" and we were thrilled that God's love was being shared with children in the orphanage. Little did we know that the people with "Agape" were two people we had wanted to meet in Ukraine. They were sharing the story of Noah's Ark with the children in our girl's den! When we walked into the den, we heard different voices in the cammon room area. After our girl greeted us wrapped in the blanket we brought to her yesterday, we walked in and heard their names. They are the house parents of "House of Grace" in a nearby town. "House of "Grace is a home for orphan boys who have aged out of orphanages at age 16 with no where to go. They teach the boys how to take care of themselves and give them a warm and loving house until they are ready for the cold, hard life on their own. This ministry is supported by Ukraine Orphan Outreach whom we know the founders, Clarke and Kris Stoesz, who live in Berthoud, CO. They have become friends and sources of support for us in this adoption process because they have adopted 4 children from Ukraine. (Zoey helped raise funds for Ukraine Orphan Outreach through two of her classes at Options last year, including the Annie performance.) We wanted to meet the house parents and actually visit "House of Grace" but have not been able to visit yet. We did not think we would have the opportunity so God brought them to us. They drive one and a half hours one way each Saturday to share Bible stories and activities with the orphans. They were so engaging and so loving. The woman always had her arms around children and it warmed our hearts to know the children are hearing God's Word each Saturday and they are getting extra love and attention. We had arranged with one of the den mothers to bring our suitcase full of hats, gloves, and scarves today for the children to choose what they wanted. These children are typically just given items as hand me downs so we really wanted them to choose what they wanted. Right after the story and craft, the children said goodbye to the Agape teachers and we displayed the hats, gloves and scarves in piles for boys and girls. Then one at a time each child got to come and choose what he/she wanted. Each child seemed to enjoy picking their own items except for a few young girls who did not know how to pick something. Our girl helped them choose by showing them a few items. It made me wonder if this was a new experience for them. Many of the children did not have scarves so they were extremely happy about getting a scarf. Several of them have not had gloves or mittens so the handmade mittens that were donated were the favorites. The younger children were especially thrilled with their colorful mittens! Some children have not had hats so now they can put on a hat instead of just using the hood on their coats. We left more than enough with the den mother for the 7 children who are sick and we will give the rest to the main office tomorrow. We also gave some clothing items and underwear to the den mother who was very appreciative. She called girls to her and passed out the underwear right away. We know that must be a big necessity here. We brought an extra mini flashlight from home and several fancy scarves so we gave the flashlight to the den dad and a scarf to the den mother. The den mother seemed shocked and was shy to choose a scarf. We said thank you to her for taking care of the children and she blushed. I am sure it is a tiring and thankless job taking care of 34 orphans. The den dad said, "a very big thank you" which is the literal translation. He was pleased with his gift and we saw him smile which does not happen very often. Today we also brought the yarn and cut toilet paper tubes to make holiday hats with our girl and her now 3 roommates. (2 roommates were moved to a different room and one other girl moved in last week.) The girls each had fun making several hats. Our girl was so proud to give a hat to her den mom who wanted her to put it on their small, undecorated Christmas tree in the common room. Our girl made and hung the first ornament on the tree and she was quite proud! Now there are several holiday hats on the tree and some hats on the girls's stuffed animals. They each have asked to make more tomorrow so I will unroll our t.p. and cut the roll into 4 sections so they can each do one more hat tomorrow. The yarn that was given to us has been working great and the girls have been happy with the color choices. Our girl has asked if we can take her out of the orphanage with her friends. I asked her what she wanted to do and she said she wants to go to the hotel to color and play games. We could easily do these things in the orphanage but I can only imagine how confining it must be to be trapped inside the same walls every day for hours on end. The director at the orphanage has been out sick a lot and the assistant is sometimes hard to find. We do not know who else to ask for permission to take our girl and her 3 roommates, nor do we know if they will have a caretaker or allow them out of quarantine. We are just putting it in God's hands to work out the details if He wants us to bring them to our hotel room. Thank you for your fervent prayer for healing of the 7 children and the protection from illness for the others. Also, please pray for health for our children and grandma back home. "God is good all the time and all the time, God is good." Maxim, from Agape, had the children repeat that in Russian and in English many times. We heard it repeated later in the day by some of the children! May we each carry this truth with us and share it with those around us!