We Met the goal of 150 sheet sets and some more Thank you's!

You have done it again. Another Goal met! We have successfully collected 150 twin sheets sets for the boarding school kids in Korah! ( Some we have received already, some are being shipped, some we have purchased with your donation money). We want to Thank everyone that has made it possible for us to bring 150 sheet sets to Korah!

We are still in need of monetary donations to purchase beds. SO far we have raised $335 towards the bed project and we are trying to reach $2500. If you would like help us reach our goal you can go the website at www.twoheartsforhope.org/africatrip.html . We want to thank everyone for being so generous!

Thank you to the following people for your recent donations to the sheet/bed project in Korah, Ethiopia.

The Holland Family
The Sturner Family
The Mc Carthy Family
The Hochstetler Family
The Strieby Family
The Chaffin Family
The Kasianczuk Family
The Holmes Family
The Bess Family
The Brackett Family
The Darnell Family
The Basso Family
The Hobbs Family ( in honor of their new Grandson from Ethiopia)
The Hajjami Family

 

Thank You to all who have helped Ethiopia

We want to say Thank you to everyone that has helped us get closer to reaching our goal of 150 twin sheets sets and helped us purchase bunk beds and mattresses for Korah, Ethiopia this summer! We still need sheets, stickers, crayons, paper and monetary donations if you want to help too. Visit our website at http://twoheartsforhope.org/africatrip.html for more details.

Thank you to the following people:

Donna Arvantis Misewich
Rosemary Freeman
Luby Bartles
Amy Bryan
Sybille Vought
Nancy Rhoades
Donna Colcord
Jocelyn Pardi
Karen Cardin
Kerry Viellella Kruger
Joele Emma  Boty
Wendy McCormick
Terri Bajt
Patti Bajt
Tanner Struck
Sadie Struck
Lara Ford
Sandra and Terry Auberry
Barbara Hogsett
Kay Lashbrook
Jane Herlihy


Your donations are greatly appreciated and God bless you all!

 

Day Four

Today was another amazing day for all of us.  We spent the morning loving on babies AGAIN.   The amount of time and pure freedom we've been given here at this baby house is unbelievable.    This freedom and trust has been amazing.   Almost everyone on our team has been blown away by the trust and kindness extended to us from the staff and director.  This is a complete testament to the incredible organization we are with! We are all HONORED to be apart of this amazing ministry.  Two Hearts for Hope IS proving hope to babies who desperately NEED and DESERVE it!

We decided as a team that we really wanted to take ALL the different groups of children out to play on the new playground today.  It was not hard to find a group of children... honestly you can find a HUGE group of orphans behind most doors around here and there are LOTS of doors.  Have we mentioned there are 117 children in this baby house ALONE!?!   You can hear children, see children and feel children around every corner and turn.   

We took groups out to play on the playground and we enjoyed EVERY. SINGLE. SECOND!  After a few minutes of playing, laughing and catching kids at the bottom of the slide, I decided to step back for a second.   I then saw children - children running freely and carefree. Children who looked happy, relaxed, and normal.   They were loud and smiling and giggling... They were carefree and honestly I saw HOPE in their eyes and heard it in their laughter.

Tears began to stream down my face as I realized these are the same children who we've seen, played with and loved on for days... The same children that we've watched walk in straight lines in silence and somber... follow commands, dress themselves and follow the rigid regulations of the institutionalized life.   Hope....  I saw a bit of hope today!   Seeing that hope made me so happy because I also knew we were indeed showing them Jesus.

Later in the afternoon we were allowed to feed the children... Yes, I know - it was unbelievable!   For me this was the best part of the entire week.  It was honestly AMAZING!!!!   

We have SO much more to share, but NO TIME to write... the Internet cafe closes SOON - enjoy the pictures and know that when we get home there will be some posts from the team!!  We have LOTS to share!

PLEASE keep praying for us - we feel and covet your prayers!!!

Written by Lanetta Gobble

To see more pictures, visit our facebook page.

Day Three

We have reached the midway point for our time here in Ust-Kamenogorsk and today we feel like we have hit our stride. We have been blessed to have unbelievable open access to the kids in the baby house. The entire staff here has welcomed us with open arms....and we are taking full advantage of this wonderful situation and loving on kids every moment we can.

This morning we were treated to a precious performance by the 4 year old kids. The danced and sang and generally stole our hearts. After the performance we presented a new electric keyboard to the music director. She was very appreciative and it is clear from the performance we just watched that it would be put to very good use.

After the performance the whole team headed to the new playground site for a ribbon cutting ceremony. The baby house staff, officials and local news media were in attendance. The baby house Director made a heartfelt speech about how appreciated they are to Two Hearts and to the adoptive parents that helped fund both the playground and the window project. Truly she could not be more sincere.

The best part of the ceremony by far came the moment the ribbon was cut. Twenty excited children swarmed their new playground and their sweet giggles and squeals of joy were all the thanks any of us could hope for!

We have many pictures but internet is super slow.  It is hard to upload one but we will have plenty to share when we return to the USA.

Day Two

We all woke up to a gorgeous Kazakh day! After a shared breakfast and energizing prayer circle, we were off! With the playground completed we had been offered a day of baby playing and then sightseeing.

Tim, Susan, and Janet headed to the infant room where kissing, hugging, rocking, ooo’ing and ahh’ing commenced. We were allowed the gift of observing a new mom bonding with her soon to be adopted infant. In this room there are two girls and eight boys.  The director shared with us that all 10 are in the process of in country adoption. Praise God!

Lanetta and Bailey played with the toddlers, arranging them in formation on the play mat like beautiful peas in a pod. Tummies were tickled, cheeks were kissed, and hearts were breaking with joy and with sadness.  No one is being adopted from this room that we are aware of.

Jim visited the caregivers that cared for his son while he lived in this baby house.

Lori, Ayman and Kiefer were out and about preparing for the ribbon ceremony tomorrow to give the playground to the baby house.

After our time at the baby home we hopped in taxis and were off to the mountains for a fabulous Kazakh meal at an outdoor restaurant. Lagman, salad, sliced meats and yes more horse meat. And it was good. Then we visited a huge Mosque and were allowed a visit inside wearing robes and head coverings per instruction.

We visited a park with beautiful gardens of Kazakh tulips and a village of complete replicas of homes from Kazakhstan and surrounding countries.

Each one of us is feeling like we have broken down walls, personal and global, opening dusty corners of our hearts. The day ended with calls to home.

Tomorrow there is a ribbon cutting ceremony for the grand opening of the playground and the children are putting on a little concert for us.  We are so excited it gives us goosebumps!

Written by Susan Collins

You can view more pictures on our facebook page.

Winners!

The lucky winners are:

#1 - Staggenborg
#2 - Belli
#3 - Cohen
#4 - Belli
#5 - Persi
#6 - Floyd
#7 - Struck
#8 - Persi
#9 - Heckert
#10 - A. Truman
#11 - Short
#12 - Martin
#13 - Gilbert
#14 - Serra
#15 - Herman
#16 - Phillips
#17 - Jenkins
#18 - Kitzman
#19 - White
#20 - J. Truman
#21 - Jenkins
#22 - Falk
#23 - D. Truman
#24 - Mechem
#25 - Heckert
#26 - Wilson
#27 - Darnell
#28 - Vought
#29 - Serra
#30 - Morley
#31 - Staggenborg
#32 - Carbone
#33 - Walker
#34 - Day
#35 - Bledsoe
#36 - Falk

Congratulations to all our winners and thank you so much for your support!  The raffle raised $2300 for the start of our playground project.

If you donated an item we will be emailing you the winners mailing address this week.

Day One!

The 'dream' team (6 of us) connected successfully in Frankfurt and have not looked back one time!  After over 30 hours of travel we finally arrived in Ust-Kamenogorsk around 4pm on Sunday afternoon.    We then headed straight to the baby house and the 'real' emotions hit!   For many of us this was the first time we've been back in Kazakhstan since leaving with our precious babies through adoption.   Landing once again in our children's birth country felt like a piece of our hearts were reconnected.  Despite any hardships we faced through our amazing and miraculous personal adoptions, we all agreed that there is an amazing love for this country and the orphans left behind!

When arrived at the baby house we were quickly ushered back through the hallways to a back room with an amazing spread of food - a traditional Kazakh meal prepared for us by the director and staff.    We felt like royalty and could not have been more welcomed!  The meal was fabulous - it included amazing traditional Kazakh dishes, salads, etc.  (and YES, there was a horse dish and we ALL ate it and it was DELICIOUS!) (On a side note - we did not know it was horse until after we ate it!)

We enjoyed a wonderful meal with the director and about 10-12 of the staff.  It was truly an amazing opportunity.   :)  They are VERY thankful to Two Hearts for the windows and the improvements that they have done.

We then left the dinner area and headed to meet all the babies.  It was truly amazing, heartbreaking, and emotional to say the least.   There are 117 children from birth to age 4.   We saw, played with, and loved on around 60 of those children.  We all instantly connected with one or three of five of these precious angels.    There were emotions, tears (hidden from everyone except each other) and silent prayers. 

When it was time to rest, we sorted through and unpacked our bags and laughed, cried and shared how already touched and moved we all were.  

We all realize that this team, this group of people will never be the same - and it had only been one day!     We covet your prayers - this is emotional - this is tough - but, we all agree that KNOWING we are in God's perfect will at this EXACT moment of our lives is priceless!!

Written by: Lanetta Gobble