World AIDS Day

Today is World AIDS Day. I encourage you to learn more about this frightening disease — frightening for those who have it, and for those who don’t. Knowledge greatly reduces unwarranted fear!

The more I talk to people both here and stateside, the more I realize that we need to work harder to educate people about the realities of living with the HIV virus. If diagnosed at age 19, if treated, one can expect to live another four decades. An HIV+ spouse does not necessarily infect the other, and together they can have children who are not HIV+. If cleaning unidentified dried blood from a surface, the HIV virus is most likely non-existent…though the Hep C virus can survive up to 30 days in that blood sample!

And children may now be adopted and legally enter the U.S. even if HIV+ — an extra step is needed to secure the visa, but it’s a possibility and many children are now being adopted. After January 4, the waiver will no longer be needed and adoptions will proceed just like any other!

Among resources identifying these children for potential adoption is a new blog: For special delivery. Check it out!

Goodsearch and goodshop

It’s that time of year. For those of you who use the internet to shop, I’d like to ask you to consider supporting our ministry through your shopping. You don’t make an additional gift at check-out, or pay more than the regular price. You simply shop where you normally do, and we get a small percentage of your price.

How does it work? It just takes one extra step from you. First, you need to go to goodsearch.com. When the box comes up asking “who do you goodsearch for?”…please enter Ukraine Medical Outreach. At the goodsearch site, you can then search for whatever using the yahoo search engine…and we get about a penny per search. Hey, they add up over time. (We no longer google…we goodsearch!)

BUT, I digress. At that same site, you have an opportunity to click goodshop. You might be amazed at all of the online stores that are represented there. Simply goodshop for Ukraine Medical Outreach, and we will receive a cash donation. I never go directly to amazon.com — only through goodshop!

Please consider this painless method of supporting our ministry.

Ho! Ho! Ho!

Community center work continued

Back to the community center this morning. I am so thankful that the quarantine is finally over in Kyiv and that life can return to a somewhat normal routine.

Wednesday mornings will typically find me visiting preschool-aged children who either are infected or affected by the HIV virus. My official task is to teach them English, but I do so with games, flash cards, exercise and lessons from the Bible. Our crafts project usually is derived from the Bible and while they create, I can review with them.

I’ve missed the sweet smiles and their Ukrainian accents as they attempt to pronounce new vocabulary. What smart children!

So looking forward to my time there. Just a couple more hours…

Happy birthday, Mom!

Mom and her younger sister

This little cutie turned 80 years old today!

Happy birthday, Mom.

Euro-English

My friend Toma sent this to me earlier today:

Read with an accent

The European Commission has just announced an agreement whereby
English will be the official language of the European Union rather
than German, which was the other possibility.

As part of the negotiations, the British Government conceded that
English spelling had some room for improvement and has accepted a 5-
year phase-in plan that would become known as “Euro-English”.

In the first year, “s” will replace the soft “c”. Sertainly, this will
make the sivil servants jump with joy.. The hard “c” will be dropped
in favour of “k”. This should klear up konfusion, and keyboards kan
have one less letter. There will be growing publik enthusiasm in the
sekond year when the troublesome “ph” will be replaced with “f”. This
will make words like fotograf 20% shorter.
In the 3rd year, publik akseptanse of the new spelling kan be expekted
to reach the stage where more komplikated changes are possible.

Governments will enkourage the removal of double letters which have
always ben a deterent to akurate speling.

Also, al wil agre that the horibl mes of the silent “e” in the languag
is disgrasful and it should go away.

By the 4th yer peple wil be reseptiv to steps such as replasing “th”
with “z” and “w” with “v”.

During ze fifz yer, ze unesesary “o” kan be dropd from vords
kontaining “ou” and after ziz fifz yer, ve vil hav a reil sensi bl
riten styl.

Zer vil be no mor trubl or difikultis and evrivun vil find it ezi tu
understand ech oza. Ze drem of a united urop vil finali kum tru.
Und efter ze fifz yer, ve vil al be speking German like zey vunted in
ze forst plas.

If zis mad you smil, pleas pas on to oza pepl.

Definitely made me smile, and I’m passing it on.

Only the strong need apply

As I walk through the adoption process with friends on both sides of an adoption, I am convinced that this process is not for the weak.

I have often compared the process to a roller coaster with its up and downs. Sudden twists and turns. Sometimes fighting an uphill battle that looks impossible to climb. So slowly the process can move. And then, suddenly: News! Everything is back in fast-forward. You’ve survived the climb and the plunge, but there are surprises around every bend. Don’t let down your guard. Hang on!

Now put the roller coaster in the dark. No clue which way you’ll be jerked or dropped or lifted. No way to prepare yourself. You simply know that at the end of this sometimes terrifying journey, a child (or maybe two. or three) is waiting with open arms and a big grin.

That seems to sum up foreign adoption, as I watch it happen.

The joy of meeting ones whose lives will be forever changed makes this thrill ride ever so worth it. I asked yesterday for prayer for a specific meeting that took place. And I ask for continued prayer as that meeting has led to yet another one. Tomorrow.

Adoption. Foreign adoption. Only the strong need apply.

Pray, for the sake of the children

Tomorrow, Monday, will be a pivotal meeting for a pending adoption. I don’t know specifically what all of the challenges and roadblocks are, but there will be a meeting of the minds tomorrow that could make or break this adoption.

Parents and children have already bonded. The children are so excited to have adoptive parents. (They have wondered why other children have been “chosen,” but not them.)

Please pray that all of the adults (heh!) will consider the children above all else.

Trusting in our sovereign God.

“Overwhelmed” by H1N1

An interesting article that Jim received through Medscape Medical News:

November 12, 2009 — The number of patients seeking treatment at the start of the Northern Hemisphere flu season has “overwhelmed” clinics and hospitals in Ukraine, Mongolia, and Afghanistan as the H1N1 pandemic surges across Europe and Asia, said Dr. Nikki Shindo, a medical officer in the World Health Organization (WHO) Global Influenza Programme, during a press conference today.

The proportion of severe cases of H1N1 influenza in the Ukraine is smaller than that found in the Southern Hemisphere during its flu season, noted Dr. Shindo. “It seems like a lot of patients being admitted have rather milder symptoms. And mostly, the admitted people are young adults or middle-aged adults. We haven’t heard of pediatric patients overwhelming the pediatric wards.

“From Mongolia, we are hearing that pregnant women are overrepresented [among the hospitalized],” she added.

WHO is stepping up efforts to supply poor, hard-hit countries such as Ukraine and Mongolia with antiviral drugs, but its current stockpile of 10 million courses of treatment (and an unspecified number of pediatric capsules) can’t match demand, Dr. Shindo said. She estimated that developing countries need enough courses to treat 4% of their population. “We are working with partners and other countries that have enough of a supply to meet the global need,” she said.

WHO also has taken this kind of collaborative approach with H1N1 vaccine, which is in short supply as well. Earlier this week, WHO announced that GlaxoSmithKline will donate 50 million doses of its H1N1 vaccine, and WHO will distribute them to developing nations.

This article certainly doesn’t point to any need for a panic here.

Please continue to pray for wisdom among governmental decision-makers as well as medical professionals.

Flu update

We heard late yesterday afternoon that the quarantine will be in effect through November 23, if not longer.

These are the official numbers that are coming from the government at this point.

Please pray that the panic of the situation will subside.

CrossTalk

A new book is being offered at a GREAT price: $5 rather than $15. This offer is only good through midnight tonight in Ukraine and 5:00 EST in the States.

CrossTalk: Where Life & Scripture Meet by Michael Emlet.