JUSTICE FOR ORPHANS Ministry Update

LORD, you know the hopes of the helpless.  Surely you will listen to their cries and comfort them.  You will bring justice to the orphans and the oppressed, so people can no longer terrify them.

Psalm 10:17-18

This time last year the Lord was just birthing this ministry in the hearts of Mary Slager and myself.  After doing Orphan Sunday at our church in November of 2011 we felt led to Christian Alliance For Orphans' annual orphan summit in California last May.  Since then we've spoken in a handful of local churches, held our first ever orphan conference, hosted a "Faultless" event, and we've been on local Christian radio a number of times.  

We settled on the name Justice For Orphans based on the above Scripture.  And we believe the Lord is directing us to 3 main areas of ministry:

• Rally the Church for the cause of the fatherless.  (James 1:27)
• Advocate for Christian families to step up and adopt and/or do foster care.
• Wrap around families who have answered the call to defend the orphan.

Pure and lasting religion in the sight of God our Father means that we must care for orphans and widows in their troubles, and refuse to let the world corrupt us.    James 1:27

How will we do this?  To rally the Church we are aiming to speak at area churches who will permit us to bring the message of God's heart for the fatherless.  We are also planning to do this through Christian radio and social media.  When we speak we always share about the plight of orphans here in the States and around the world, we present practical ways anyone and everyone can help defend the orphan, and we share our own personal testimonies as adoptive moms.  Since we have personal experience with the joys and difficulties of adopting and fostering, we have a heart to bring hope, help, and encouragement to other adoptive and foster families.  

Learn to do good, seek justice.  Help the oppressed.  Defend the orphan...      Isaiah 1:17

What's on the calendar for 2013?  We are very excited to announce that our very own JFO logo and website are in the works and will be up and running in mid-March!

In the area of foster care we are in the process of setting up the classes (mapp) for families to become certified to become foster parents.  These are tentatively scheduled to begin at Gospel Community Church in Coxsackie, NY on February 4th.

Pastor Stan & Mary and Wayne & I are planning to attend CAFO's 9th annual Orphan Summit in Nashville, TN in May!

We are amazed at how the Lord opened the door for us to be on the radio.  It all started when I was invited to share about orphans on a local Christian talk-radio station.  They had me back on again in October to promote Orphan Sunday.  Then another Christian station interviewed me for a pod-cast to celebrate National Adoption Awareness Month in November.  That led to the station doing a live-remote broadcast from our home to celebrate adoption month!  This is not an area we would have ever thought to pursue, but the Lord keeps opening the door.  In December I was approached by the talk-radio station with the idea for JFO to host our very own weekly, 1 hour radio show!  We really prayed hard about this possibility because of the huge responsibility it is.  But it's also an excellent way to "rally the Church for the cause of the fatherless," so after some negotiation, we signed the contract!  Over the summer we will record 17 half-hour shows covering various topics relating to orphans:  adoption, fostering, trafficking, global orphan care, local orphans, challenges parenting kids from hard places, etc.  We can have guests, do interviews, promote up coming events, etc.  The shows will air from August-November on Fridays at 1:30pm.  Each of the recorded shows will be the property of JFO and will be available on our website for free downloads.  Of course, now we need to raise the funds to actually do the show since air-time isn't free!  We need to raise $1300.

We have a couple of fund raisers in the works including the Coxsackie Yard Sale Day in the summer and a Christian woman who will sell flower and vegetable plants and donate the proceeds to JFO.  We have been blessed by some area churches who have sown into our ministry as well.

We have tentatively sent a date for our Second Annual Orphan Conference to be held at Gospel Community Church in Coxsackie.  This year's date is Saturday, October 19th, so mark your calendar.  We will cover topics such as adoption (domestic & international), foster care, global orphan care, human trafficking affects on orphans, and a session for adoptive/foster families who are struggling with their children.

Last September Wayne and I attended "Empowered To Connect".  A teaching conference for parents and professionals working with kids from hard places.  It was presented by Tapestry Ministries and Dr. Karyn Purvis, PhD.  I'd read the book The Connected Child by Dr. Purvis and watched some of her videos.  We were so impressed by her teaching, and our family was so helped by her methods, that we just had to attend the conference in Nashville last fall.  Since then we've been accepted into a "train the trainer" program where, starting in August, Wayne and I will go through the classes at home for 7 weeks so we can be certified to teach the "Empowered To Connect" program and the TBRI methods.  After the 7 weeks at home we will travel to Texas in early October  for a 3 day intensive training session.  This training will not only help us with parenting our own kids (many from hard places) but will also help us to help other families walking through the same challenges.

Last, but not least, is Orphan Sunday on November 3rd.  Since I'm the Regional Coordinator in NY for OS, we will be promoting it again this year.

So, Justice For Orphans has some exciting things coming up!  As soon as the website is up we'll be able to keep everyone up to date on all events.  One area we really need to open up for us is getting into Churches to share God's heart for the orphan.  We thank you for your interest, your prayers, and your support.
Blessings,
Sandra Flach,
Justice For Orphans

Surgery Week

Well, back to reality after Christmas break.  Homeschooling has resumed and I can't believe we're about half way through the school year!  Everyone is doing great.  I'm so thankful that we decided to enroll Sierra in Liberty University's online-dual-enrollment program.  She earned all B's the first semester (pretty good for a 16 year old) and is all set to start classes again this month.  Slava is even on the verge of reading.  He is actually able to blend letter sounds together and is able to figure out the words, plus he's memorized some sight-words!  We're also back into the swing of weekly Occupational Therapy and Physical Therapy.  Yes, it makes for a busy week and throw in Jordan's surgery and you have a very tired mom!

Slava, Anna, & Jordan

 I love it when the kids bust out the coloring stuff and the board games.  It blesses my heart to see them doing these activities together.  In a day and age where everything is electronics (yes they do that too), the "old-fashioned" activities are a welcome sight.

Jordan was scheduled for his "routine" rod-lengthening surgery on Monday.  I've lost count of how many times we've done this.  I will say I am so very thankful #618 that we have one of the best orthopedic/spine surgeons (who just happens to specialize in scoliosis) right in our back yard.  And instead of having to traipse to Boston or NYC, we can just drive 20 minutes to Albany Medical Center #619.

Jordan prepping "Ar-Ar" for surgery!

 We're also so blessed by the staff at the Children's Hospital at Albany Med #621.  We always seem to have the same pre-op and post-op nursers who always recognize Jordan and make him feel at home.  Where do you think he got all those medical supplies for Ar-Ar?

Quesadillas for dinner!

 I don't know why my pictures keep posting out of order???  This was Thursday night's dinner.  With 4 kids headed out to Karate class by 5:30pm, dinner must be quick and light.  Quesadillas with cheese and bacon are easy and everyone likes them - win-win for me!

Ar-Ar in surgery.

Medical team:  Nurse Colleen, Dr. Jordan, & Dr. Travis

There was a slight scheduling error so even though Jordan was scheduled for a 9:30am surgery, we had to wait until almost 11:30am.  So, to kill some time waiting around the pre-op unit, Ar-Ar had some major surgery.  Nurse Colleen is one of my favorite nurses.  She was keeping Jordan busy in an empty cubicle operating on his stuffed dog.  They were having such a good time, even a real doctor got in on the fun (he'd been attending to his patient in the next-door cubicle).  I don't think Ar-Ar will ever be the same!
Jordan's surgery went well.  Dr. Carl said they lengthened the rods about a centimeter...and we may only have to do this procedure a couple more times!  We were not expecting to hear him say that!  A boy's torso tends to stop growing around age 10.  Once the torso stops growing, we won't be able to get anymore length out of the spine so there will be no more need for growing rods.  At that point, the growing rods will be removed and permanent rods will be placed and spinal fusion done.  Jordan will be 10 in August, but he is small for his age.  I really pray he will grow much more.  A teenage boy shoots up tall because the legs grow long, but the torso is done growing by the time they hit puberty.  As much as I look forward to this part of the program to be complete, I still want this little guy to grow some more!  But it is good to know that there is a light at the end of the tunnel.

We stayed over 1 night in the hospital and came home Tuesday at noon.  I'm so thankful #634 that my daughter-in-law stayed at our house until 2:30pm on Tuesday. I was able to get a much needed shower and nap!  Now we're pretty much all back into our routine.  Hopefully in my next post I'll be able to update you on our orphan ministry "Justice For Orphans".  "Like" us on Facebook.  And our website is in the process of being developed.  So stay tuned for some exciting things planned for 2013.

Adoption Anniversary

Six years ago on January 6th I boarded an airplane in Kiev, Ukraine finally bringing our kids home.  After 6 weeks in-country, after spending the entire calendar month of December, after putting our biological kids on an airplane home 4 weeks earlier, after spending Christmas in Kiev, after kissing my husband good-bye as he flew home on 12/26, after ringing in the New Year Ukraine-style, after our adoption became official on December 30th, after bringing 3 siblings together for the first time - finally, finally we boarded Delta flight 89 in Kiev - AND WE CAME HOME!!!  But that was neither the beginning nor the end of the adventure!  

Andrii (then 9) & Anna (then 7)

 This picture was taken on Friday, December 1, 2006 - the day we first met them.  On the car ride to meet them we were told that they had been hosted by a Chicago family in 8/05 & 8/06.  We asked why that family didn't adopt them.  We were told that Andrii did not want to be adopted by that family.  We began to worry:  If, after spending 2 summers in Chicago and living the American dream, and then saying "no" - why, why would he say "yes" to us, another American couple who he meets for the very first time.  Andrii was old enough to  have a say and we began to worry that he would say"no"!  But, miraculously, after a very short visit with us, he said "YES!"  It would be almost 6 years before we knew his reasoning.

Jordan (age 3) with Mama in the background.

 We didn't have as many visits with Jordan in his orphanage in Boyrpka.  The bigger kids' orphanage was located a bit farther away in Vasiylkiv and proved to be a much more difficult process.  It required that we travel there more often.  Plus Jordan at one point was hospitalized for a bad cold. We visited him in the hospital once - that was an experience I will never forget.  Praise God for American hospitals!  Because the 10 day wait ended on the weekend, and because that weekend was a holiday we, by the grace of God, were permitted to pick Andrii & Anna up from their orphanage on Thursday, Dec. 28th.  They joined me in the apartment with Missy and my friend Jocelyn who flew over to help us home.  I left the kids in their charge on Friday morning and went to the orphanage in Boyrpka to pick up Jordan.  It was then and there that I discovered the 4th sibling, Slava.  He was 14 months old, and though he'd been in the orphanage since birth, his documents were not in or so he was not yet available for adoption.  I got a glimpse of him as we left not knowing what the future would hold.  When our driver dropped Jordan and I off at our apartment I took his hand to go inside.  He started to cry and squatted down not wanting to go in the strange building with me.  I picked him up and carried him up the few flights of stairs to our apartment.  He cried, and I cried knowing that he was afraid - a strange lady who spoke a strange language was carrying him into a strange building.  Our apartment door opened and a very excited Andrii & Anna welcomed their biological baby brother "home" - meeting him for the very first time ever!  Jordan's tears immediately stopped!   From that point on he just seemed to go with the flow.  These are memories that I will treasure forever.  And as for why Andrii said "no" to the Chicago family.  We learned the answer to that question a few months ago when he shared his testimony at church.  Andrii explained that he knows the love of God because we adopted him and all his siblings.  Apparently the other family did want to adopt Andrii & Anna, but they did not want to adopt Jordan (whose Ukrainian name was Serhiy - Sergay).  Jordan had crossed eyes and a very twisted spine from scoliosis.  The family had hosted the older 2 kids and had not met Jordan but had learned about his health issues and didn't want to take that on.  So, Andrii said "no" because he only wanted to be adopted if all his siblings could be together....he did not even know about Slava at that time.  When we went to the orphanage to meet them, Andrii was told that we wanted to adopt all 3 kids together - so he said "yes" to us!  This is a miracle!  For Andrii to have the opportunity to be adopted with his sister when they were 9 & 7 is a rare opportunity.  For him to turn that down would appear to be wasting a once in a life time chance.  But I believe the Lord honored Andrii's selfless act of love.  He sacrificed what might have been his only opportunity at a family and a future for the sake of others - his brother and sister.  So the Lord sent another family - this time a family who would adopt this whole sibling group.  We were honored with the privilege of being that family!  And 4 years after bringing home Andrii, Anna & Jordan, we were blessed again to bring home Slava and unite all 4 biological siblings.  God is faithful.   A father to the fatherless...is God in His holy dwelling.  God sets the lonely in families...Psalm 68:5-6.

Fast-forward to today:

Anna (right) and her friend Mary (left).

 It's hard to believe that Andrii is almost 16 and Anna is 13!  When we brought them home they were 9 and 7 - the exact same ages that Jordan and Slava are now!

Andrii plowing the driveway with the 4-wheeler.

Our dog Kashi loves to chase anything that moves!

 Jordan's back today, after growing rods were installed a few years ago.  And he's undergone bi-annual surgeries to lengthen the rods.  The last one was in July; the next one is on Monday 1/7/13!

 This picture posted out of sequence for some reason???

Curtis & Slava

                                           Curtis got in the snowy shananigans the other day.

It blesses my heart when he goes out to play with the little kids.

Jordan before his cast came off.

 Jordan is such a trooper.  He wears a fiberglass cast for 6 months between surgeries.  A couple weeks before surgery it comes off so the skin has an opportunity to heal from any irritations.  Once the incision heals a new cast will go on.  Jordan never complains about the casts.  The point of the cast is to protect the rods so he can still be a rambunctious little boy.

Slava not cooperating for the camera!

Keeping Slava busy with structured activities keeps things running smoothly, for the most part.  Wayne took all the big kids snowboarding a couple weeks ago which left me home alone with Slava.  We played 8 rounds of Candyland!

If you made it to this point in the post, I thank you for staying with me!  If you're a regular reader, and haven't done so already, please sign up to be a follower at the right of the screen.  It is an encouragement to me to know people actually take the time to follow.  Blessings to you and yours!