Bringing Hope to Ukrainian Orphans

Brokenness prevails in the midst of hopeless situation
By Suzy Goodman

What do you imagine when you hear the word “orphan”? Do you picture something like the set of Annie? When I have shared my pictures of the Ukrainian orphans from my trip with Hope House International, I have found some of the responses quite interesting, such as, “I was surprised that the children looked so normal, like children just playing on a playground getting ready to go home to their moms and dads.” Others seemed surprised by the beauty of the children. I admit that when I visited some of the orphanages, I was filled with these same thoughts. How could these beautiful children be left to live behind these walls? I longed to know if they had any brothers or sisters there with them because it comforted me to know that they were not alone. Then I was reminded that these children are not alone, that our Father in Heaven loves each one of them. Possibly, for some of them, living in an orphanage is much safer than where they had lived before. In some cases, these children are the products of alcoholism and drug abuse. In other cases, their parents found that they simply could not afford to keep them and had surrendered them to the state.

Some of the younger children had very playful spirits and were very excited to have us come to love on them for a short time. One such child, a little boy about 2-years-old, played “peek-a-boo” with me around a tree. This simple game brought laughter and joy to both of us, breaking through any language barrier. Other children clearly had broken spirits through circumstances that we could only imagine.

I looked at the children’s clothes and realized that they were wearing whatever they were able to get for that day. More than likely, they were dressed better than usual for the company that had come to visit them. Some of them were fortunate enough to have received shoes or sandals that fit for that day, while I saw that the toes of other children would hang uncomfortably over the ends of their sandals, or their feet would actually bulge in the shoes. Some children only wore one sock while others were fortunate enough to wear two.

Many of the younger children had blue spots of medication on their skin to combat impetigo that seemed prevalent and is highly contagious. Cleanliness was an issue. Many of the children were very small due to lack of nutrition. And yet, their eyes were bright and their smiles were full of excitement as we danced with them, sang with them, played with them and gave them gifts, including the socks donated by so many from our church. And in the midst of it all, they heard about Jesus and His love for each one of them. The younger children smiled. The older children often walked away because the reality of their life situation had broken them. Their hope was lost.

Before I even left on this trip, the Lord brought many opportunities to share my faith and excitement with strangers. Others that I met who have gone on mission trips shared my excitement. Even after the trip I cannot stop talking about it. I have had many opportunities to share my faith with people through the pictures. I have heard from some people that they have the desire to adopt and that has allowed me to help them get information to begin their search. This has been a blessing that never stops!