And This One Matters......: Satan Never Slumbers........

Saturday, August 3, 2013

Satan Never Slumbers........

As I sit here writing this post in Ukraine with internet YEAH!!!! Haven't had it until we arrived in region for the boys. But I sit here reflecting on the words God keeps putting in my head and it is like a song that is stuck in your head and you just cant shake it.....and it repeats over and over and over again. Love them home Nicole, love them home. Then I sit and stare at the verse Exodus 14:14 The Lord will fight for you, you need only be still. This is all I need to cling to knowing God has this and always has from the time he sent me to Ukraine on that mission trip in March/April of this year until this very moment now trying....excuse me fighting to bring my boys home that God brought into my heart and life. Not only have they stolen my heart but Kolyas and my families. Satan is not slumbering and as you know he goes right for the heart and core of what is the closest to God, His orphans. I have never seen so much destruction until I started working in the orphan ministry. I saw it in the US but nothing like I have seen here in Ukraine and abroad.

On day 7 prior to our arrival our Sash (Scott) suddenly out of the middle of no where decided he could not come to America after being ready to come home. Our Slavic (Steven) whom also said yes suddenly changes his mind on the 7th day and my Sasha (Sebastian) goes into the hospital. On the 7th day God created the earth and on the 7th day Satan is trying to rip apart part the fabric of Gods heart and His children. When I see and am experiencing this now after already experiencing the loss of a foster son 6 years ago and Sergiy 2 years ago I am reminded how alive and well and active Satan is and there is not time to sleep for him. He will stop at nothing to destroy. But as we battle this out on the other side of the world in Ukraine I know my God is mighty and so much bigger then Satan and He can and will and is rising to the occasion for these young men that have stolen my heart. I see it in their eyes, their hands when I hold them, in their hugs....I know it is no where near over. I do not know who is coming home with me but I do know God brought me here to them, to love them as my sons and to pour everything I got into them and I will do that.

Ya know when I wrote the previous post about the boys all saying "Yes" to adoption I knew soon as I hit "send" Satan was going to jump on this outward announcement of incredible news like a bad habit and try to take it to the ground to take away Gods glory and seeing these boys home. I think somewhere in all this Satan forgot God created him and can surely take him down let alone destroy him and will when He is good and ready.

Here is a glimpse of our adventures while here so far. Photos say many words so they speak for themselves in many cases!

This is Marina with Kolya. She is our incredible facilitator that will fight to the bone on your behalf for these children. She has done Tania, Stopha and now our boys adoption. Love this lady and her massive heart.

This is Natalya a dear friend of mine who loves and serves with the kids where my boys are at. She is who translated and helped us on our mission trip in March/April 2013. We have this issue although she is one of the most amazing photographers we cannot manage to get a decent photo together without one of us munging it up. :)

This is our boys schools lawyer and incredible lady that loves this children to the core of who she is. I am blessed to call her a friend for over 2 years. I met her in America when Kolya came home. So to be able to see her in our fall missions trip and again with the boys adoption it has been awesome!

This is dear Alona.....she will be home soon and is being adopted by a friend of mine Wendy! Love this girl! She is such a blessing to her knew family and her family is such a blessing to her. I LOVE IT! Incredible people!

This boy oh how I adore him. Not sure if you all recall me advocating for him for a family. He was running away and hurting himself at the idea of no family. He breathed family literally and he would cry with so much emotion because he thought his time was over and no one would come for him. SURPRISE they are. My dear friends the Rowe family is coming for him and that is why you see this boy grinning ear to ear. Oh how awesome it was to hold this young man and say they are coming for ya bud. The joy in his face bring tears to my eyes. Man this is what it is all about seeing Gods fatherless children coming home, no greater joy. If you would like to read more about this young man whom I adore and help him get home to his family please visit: http://reecesrainbow.org/?s=ianto

We visited my boy Sasha as you all know him as Sebastian. Sasha is his real name and what a blessing this young man is to me. When I met Sasha for the first time in fall of this year I heard God say clear as day "This is your son". Indeed he is! This is my lighthouse tower, beacon of light to help to safety, Sasha. Incredible young man that barely hung on to hope and God has brought him a family, soon I will blessed to legally document officially, stamped, sealed and delivered and call him my son. In my heart, done deal. Today I brought him ice cream as he is still in the hospital and we went through photos and Sasha leaned into me and into my arms and would lay his head on my shoulder to show he had the desire to be loved. Sasha never did this before. This is a huge sign of him saying I am ready to be loved. Oh man totally awesome. I showed him literally how to hug because this was foreign to him and that boy has some strength he realized this is really cool and squeezed me so tight I think he put my rib that has been out back into place. LOL! This above is his FIRST official smile ever trying to show teeth! It is totally precious. I cannot wait to see what all God is going to do in his life. I know he is saved and believes in God and is wide open to want to love and be loved and to learn. Again incredibly special young man. When asked if he wanted me to adopt him not a quiver nor a blink but a firm Dah. Being part of our family a firm Dah.....every question was a done deal for him and ready to roll. I know he has wanted us to adopt him but I never thought possible as written in previous blogs and God u-turned us back to this young man and oh how grateful I am he did so! Please keep him in prayer as Satan again is not slumbering and is tackling my boys at every angle.

My precious Casanova......as all you Mama's know when adopting a older teen this is a high risk you take when you work for months to bring them home to be told when you arrive "I am sorry, I love her, I cannot leave". We have been there done this already 2 years ago with Sergiy. Funny enough same time frame we knew when Sergiy fell in love and could not leave as our Sasha. Satan seems to have a theme going on here. But I just feel to my core God is not done with this Casanova. Sasha known as Scott cannot tell me to my face "no" but he says he cannot go? His reason honestly I do not believe. He's a bad liar LOL. But I do know this God is telling me to love him, love him home. So I am and will. Will he come home...only the Lord knows. Although he is saying he cannot come home he is giving me every sign to say don't give up on me. Sasha and Kolya since they met have hit it off like brothers naturally. They love each other and there is a unique bond there I have never seen before besides the funny fact they look alike too which I really say today. LOL! I am asking for prayer for my boy. He is my heart and soul and the thought of not going home with me is crushing and I have no choice but to lift him to Christ and love him no matter his decision and trust God knows the path for this young man and no matter what will always be my son in my heart. I don't need any document to prove or show that. He knows he is loved and that is what matters to me.

Our Slavic, our precious young man that is so INCREDIBLY brave and also been under serious attack. He is choosing to say good-bye to the country he loves and his family. He has an incredible family that adores him but is unable to care and provide for him after he graduates. They fear for his future as I and gave their blessing for us to adopt him. This was an extremely emotional time of sharing stories, going through photos, talking with one another and hugging knowing his family letting him go was a way of showing how much they love him. I explained God brings me back here to Ukraine often and family ties we will not cut. Papa speaks Russian and our arms are wide open to love him and care for him and there is internet so everyone can talk. Slavic signed the letter to be adopted and asked is he could spend more time with his family. So he is with his family now and I ask that you keep him in prayer as I know this is a difficult time for his entire family let alone himself. Incredibly proud of him.

Haunted by the "Squatty potties". Folks that know me back when I first started coming to Ukraine a couple years back would write about my Ukraine adventures. One of my adventures were my many bathroom adventures whether is be "squatty potty" adventures and boy do I have stories or squatty in a field in the middle of the night to find puppies suddenly under me while going the bathroom and stealing my toilet paper. I have spent about 3 months in this region I am at this year and here is like a second home to me. I love it here but today was a day filled of squatty potty adventures and I have not had to use one of these darn things in a while so I was pretty rusty. First off I am not sure if the inventors of these things realize woman cannot aim. God did not create us this way. So I brace for impact to use this toilet on a floor that is wet because no woman can aim perfectly and of course there was no darn way I was going to be successful I would of had better luck in the bushes and once in position and after my business was done all I could think is crap how the darn am I going to lift myself up. Nothing to grab unto and my legs are pinned on the sides of my shorts and I am sprawled to the sides. This is not going to be good. Well I was right I come swinging out of the bathroom door slipping in who knows pee and out the door and down the steps into a wall. I just pointed as it and said ya all better be careful.....and brushed my self off, smiled and walked gracefully to the sink as the line of people waiting to go was staring at me.

Then we go out to grab lunch to have to use the restroom again to find another darn squatty potty. All I know is I need to start doing leg squats again I got to build these leg muscles to accomplish these things successfully.

These set of fun squatty potty adventures lead to an incredible adventure in the train station. We had serious lost in translation trying to buy train tickets with my son, Kolya, our taxi driver, Sergiy we have know for a year and a cell phone with our two facilitators and holding up the line and having everyone entertained as the translation got worse by the minute, Kolya getting yelled at, people saying I need to hire better translators and they could try to translate for me LOL and our train station agent choosing the wrong dates for us, spelling my name wrong and after 45 minutes of dealing with us she says looking at me "does she know we don't take US dollars"? LOL! Then puts the tickets in the window and pops them at me. Then soon as my hands grabbed those tickets you hear the roar or praises, claps and hallelujah as we all turn around and face the now crowed of about 70 people. I put the tickets in the air cheering and smiling LOL! It was priceless and I actually wanted a photo and with the people with my tickets but poor Kolya kept looking down and was walking as fast as he could to get outta there. It was a 45 minutes I will not forget. Entertaining to say the least.

These are some of the adventures we have had up until now. Praying not only for fun and safe adventures but miracles for my boys.

Please stay tuned to my FB page and this one matters as I will be starting to write soon about children I have met to advocate and fight for until they are home. https://www.facebook.com/AndThisOneMatters

Also I will be writing on our page Orphan Mission to Ukraine at:

https://www.facebook.com/OrphanMissionToUkraine

Kolay and I head to Kyiv for our second referral on the 5th and returning on the 7th. This time away will I pray give Sash time to think what he truely wants if NOT sooner.

Thank you again for your prayers! May God Bless!

4 comments:

LaraAugust 3, 2013 at 3:13 PM
:*) Praying hard for these wonderful boys and you and your family. We feel like we're staring into the glaring eyes of the Evil One in our adoption, too. <3
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UnknownAugust 3, 2013 at 3:28 PM
I feel your passion and love for your sons Nicole. Praying fervently.
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AnonymousAugust 3, 2013 at 4:15 PM
Praying for wisdom for you, peace for the boys, and that the Father of LIES be silenced in the ears and minds of these boys. Our own O tells stories of how everyone tried to convincer her to say no, saying all kinds of mean things to her and about us. It is spiritual warfare, anyone who believes differently is deceiving themselves.
It might not help, but our daughter is always willing to talk to any orphan debating the issue of coming to a family. Let me know. Remind them that life is going to be difficult no matter where they are, at the orphanage, out of the orphanage or in America, the difference being they will have the love and support of a family and more opportunities for life long success that they cannot get in their home country.
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AnonymousAugust 3, 2013 at 4:18 PM
One other thing, for the boys, having an adult Ukrainian male speak into their lives about the wisdom of their choice, the strength it takes to advocate for themselves and how strong they are to make the transition will probably help, Boys want to be known as strong, they need to see this desire for family not as a weakness but a wise choice.
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What Does Nicole Mean By Advocating For Orphans?

So glad you asked! In Ukraine many hosting programs are shutting down. The reason being is boarding schools (orphanages) are being condensed the more the foster care system grows in Ukraine. This leaves the school Directors in fear of losing their jobs if they do not hold a specific number of children in their boarding school. Then the threat of shut down looms over their heads. The second reason is with hosting programs that means many children will find their forever families which means again the number of children falls under what is required for the school to remain open. It is a double edge sword. You have many Directors that want their children adopted but then they know if they loose their job they cannot support their family. It is not easy in Eastern Europe to find a job in a couple days. Especially with the current climate Ukraine is in with war at hand.

5 years ago Nicole started to notice the decline in hosting programs being allowed to continue to bring children over to America. With the adoption of their children, especially their 2 littles ones Nicole & Joe knew they did not have the allotted time needed to dedicate to volunteer with NHFC and not be able to give it their all like they had done in the past. They did not want to fail the NHFC team. So they resigned and Nicole went freelancing in Ukraine. On Gods timing, when she was able, wherever God lead and with the team God put together. On these trips Nicole, her son Kolya and/or the team would teach children English, teach them about Jesus, love on them and then fight for them. Meaning if a child or boarding school staff came to Nicole and said this child wanted a family Nicole would interview them and spend as much time with them as possible to get to know them personally. Nicole would do this in an effort to learn as much as possible to help advocate for the child in hopes their forever family would come forward. Nicole would learn the good and bad in an effort to be upfront and honest with a potential adoptive family.

Nicole is not an adoption agency, a hosting agency, nor a professional and she does not work for anyone accept God. She is a gal after God's heart and children, a stay at home Mama that has worked with teens for 20 years and this is her heart and passion.

Why Ukraine Nicole?

In Eastern Europe it is very different then America. In America if a child is in the foster care system they can remain with their family for care until they are 18 years old. In America there is opportunity for just about everyone even if it is working at McDonalds. You are not labeled as an "Orphan". In Eastern Europe an orphaned children is basically wearing a stamp his/her their forehead that says "Orphan". It is like a permanent tattoo that is with them for life and never washes off not only in their mind but to others. They are not wanted or welcomed in many cases. On a trip to Ukraine a sign was spotted that stated "No orphans allowed" that was posted up on the door of a store. At the age of 16 these children age out of their boarding schools and have a choice of trade school or the streets. Most of them have no family to turn to. So just imagine a 16 year old child left to their own with NO accountability. With the economic crises and war in Eastern Europe the children that have extended family like Grandpa, Grandma, a sister or a brother cannot afford to take in the child so they only visit. If the child should choose to go to trade school it generally consists of coal mining, hair dressing, etc. Even with that in school the kids again are accountable to themselves and if they do not hold up their grades they are on the streets. If they graduate they still are stamped "Orphaned". So should they apply for a job with many other folks they will be the ones tossed because of this label. So their chances of graduating trade school and then getting a job are slim to known unless they are one determined child. The trade school housing for the kids is old hospitals that are now used as dorms. If a child is not back to their dorm by 10PM they are locked out for the night and they will call the streets then bedroom. Many children have been noted to say that they are scared to be in the trade school dorms because of the violence, rap, prostitution, drugs and alcohol. One child was noted to say that he would find kids shooting up drugs in the hallway and passed out. He bought a gun illegally in order to be able to protect himself of the unknown there. Then you have the rebels that take the world on by themselves that either at this point in their life want to live independently and not report to anyone or just cannot handle the trade school life and want nothing to do with it. So they take the streets to make it. They generally fall into becoming thieves, go into prostitution or commit suicide in order to survive. No matter how you flip this coin the statistics are grim from these children. They are all survivors doing just that.......surviving.

There is such a significant need all over the world even in America. Joe and I were foster parents and have served with youth in the US for our entire marriage and Nicole prior to marriage. God steered Joe and Nicole on a different path when they were introduced to NHFC and adopted their first son, Kolya from Ukraine. God has continued to call them to Ukraine in an effort to reach the voiceless and give them a voice, hope and love. God calls each of us to a specific place, time and season to do His work as Christians. God has shifted their call to Ukraine.....for the time being. Again they go where God leads where ever it may be.

Meet The Dewberrys

The Dewberrys came together as a family after hosting their now 18 year old now son, Kolya from Ukraine during Christmas 2010 through an International hosting program called New Horizons For Children, Inc.

In the midst of hosting Kolya, Joe and Nicole felt the Lord was going to lead them through more then just hosting in Ukraine. Nicole and Joe was were blessed to work with NHFC as a volunteer Regional Directors in North Carolina for the orphan hosting program. Nicole realized that in time there seemed to be a decline to host children from Ukraine with all the politics that was abounding in Ukraine. So she felt a lead to break away from hosting and go where God leads to travel to Ukraine and be wide open to God to lead her to orphanages to met children that could no longer be hosted and advocate to find them forever families that were aging out. For the last 6 years Nicole has been traveling to Ukraine several times a year to teach English in orphanages, teach the children about Jesus, show them the love of Christ and advocate for true orphans that want a forever family. Nicole brings aid to the Ukraine military, visiting the military in the hospitals as well as meeting active duty and on the field military and serving with mission teams the local folks that remain in regions that are devastated by war with her oldest son Misha. The Dewberrrys children have returned with Nicole to Ukraine on many occasions to serve the people of their country.

Kids are Joe and Nicole's love and passion. Nicole has worked with teens for 22 years. Joe and Nicole together have done mission work with youth and have specifically worked with at-risk youth and in church youth ministry for 17 years. The Dewberrys arms are wide open to show the love they have for the lost and forgotten youth.

The Lord lead them back to Ukraine in 2012 to adopt Tania, 10 years old & Stopha who is 8 years old and are HIV+. In 2014 the Lord lead the Dewberrys back to Ukraine to adopt Bogdan 12 years old who is HIV+ and Angelica 19 years old and Kristjan 16 years old. Then in 2015 the Dewberry's returned for Vova 16 years old and Viktor 12 years old. None of the Dewberrys children would not be home without the prayers and the hands of feet of Christ of folks coming alongside their family to see their children home and also all the mission trips Nicole has been on.

Nicole and her children continue to return to Ukraine to do mission work advocating for orphans that want forever families, teaching them about Jesus, teaching them English as well as doing doing mission work with the military and regions of devastation by serving those left behind.

With the greater increase in adoptions which is amazing there is also a greater need for support for adopted children and their families. Nicole is now working with Hope Connection International holding classes and support groups to teach pre-adoption classes, connect families that have adopted within the US and abroad and work with families in crises to help prevent disruption.

Our family prayer is to go where God leads.

Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world. - James 1:27

About This Blog

This blog is dedicated to our heart and soul, the orphans that cannot speak out of Eastern Europe. This blog is about our journey of the adoption of our children, the mission work we do in Eastern Europe, advocating for orphans and wherever God leads our family.

This blog is also about the trials and tribulations we have faced with hosting, adopting, missions work already and yet to come. The grace, mercies and restorations of our hearts and minds. The incredible friendships God has provided along the way. About our missions trips to Ukraine working with orphans. The blessings of when Nicole volunteered with New Horizons For Children as Regional Director. All our crazy stories & adventures we have had along the way here in America and in Ukraine. And oh how we have adventures and stories! This blog is a dedication to our Lord and Savior encompassing the one thing he treasures more then anything, His children.....the orphans.