OPPORTUNITY TO REALLY MAKE AN IMPACT

MATCHED FUNDING FROM AN ANONYMOUS DONOR

$25,000 CAN BECOME $50,000
This is a really big opportunity for each and everyone of our supporters and friends to make an impact for LAMb International. We have an anonymous donor who has offered MATCHED FUNDING FROM NOVEMBER 1 TO DECEMBER 31. This is non-restricted and wll be matched up to $25,000.

JUST THINK - A DONATION OF $100 BECOMES $200
A DONATION OF $2,000 BECOMES $4000

If we can raise the $25,000 - then that means LAMb starts 2011 with $50,000.

We are asking - can you help?

This is an amazing gift and opportunity.

THANKS DONOR - WE CANNOT EVEN BEGIN TO EXPRESS OUR FEELINGS ABOUT THIS WONDERFUL GIFT. you can hit the donate button on this blog and it is done!

The LAMb Team

ENDING THE TIME HERE FOR NOW

FABULOUS WEEK WITH SOME SUPER PEOPLE! We are heading back to North America tomorrow, leaving this side of the world. We arrived Kyrgyzstan in early September and leave tomorrow for home. Yet really where is home? Is it Ukraine, Kyrgyzstan, Canada, USA? Where is home.

We leave here saddened yet rejoicing in all that is happening within the field of child welfare. God has called us to this work and we are amazed at how different threads of the tapastry are woven together with so many different people.

Four very young staff here - working hard to make a difference - committed to Ukraine Without Orphans. One very young staff in Kyrgyzstan working deligently to ensure there is a Kyrgyzstan Without Orphans and all the other people who help us on the ground. NGO's, churches, pastors, teachers, volunteers, other missionaries and even the families and children we serve. And of course our wonderful team and partners.

Then there are all of you - our sponsors who encourage us - when the day ends and we put our heads on the pillow and in the dark of the night - and cry out from the deepest parts of our hearts about the hurts we see, the pain we feel and the hopelessness we so want to stop...we think of your words, your gifts and your consistent caring about those we love.

We are ending time with our Ukraine team - heading to a warm, comfortable and beautiful home. But our hearts? We already CRAVE TO RETURN. It is what it is.

OUR TEAM IN KYRGYZSTAN IS AMAZING

THE DONOR FOR ARAFAT RESPONDED IMMEDIATELY. This surgery is COVERED. Thanks so much. Look at the blog from our team member David and Jayne that tells the story: We had visited a number of times in a small village during our time here in 2008, but we never saw him. It wasn't until a visit to that village in the spring of 2009, that we met Arafat, a toddler with a severe cleft palette. He had been kept hidden from the outside world because of his problem. One afternoon, his parents cautiously brought him out for us to see...and the rest is history. We posted the need for his surgery on our blog. Within a few hours, finances came into cover his first surgery and the aftercare. First surgery was completed successfully. Now this fall, our young friend is having his second surgery, which will begin the work on closing the pallete. On Wednesday, the day before his procedure, we stopped in the hospital to see him and his beautiful young mom. Dad planned to come for the day of the surgery as he was home with a younger brother. TO OUR DONOR - WE THANK YOU SO MUCH AND YOU CAN BE ASSURED ARAFAT AND HIS FAMILY THANK YOU FROM THE BOTTOM OF THEIR HEART!

THE GIVING KEEPS GIVING AND RECEIVING

Delivering Field Guides to Brovary Social Services Director - Lubov!









Sunshine has returned to SUNSHINE - delivering Field Guide to the director - Annya!





WE GIVE THEM AWAY AND THEN THEY GIVE THEM AWAY - SO WE GIVE THEM MORE AND MORE AND MORE.

Yesterday was a very full day as we continuted taking our Kyrgyzstan visitors to different projects to study how they (Ukraine agencies) are working together to keep children out of the orphanages. At every stop we took more resources for them - some of these resources were written materials that help them better understand how to work with families and children. We delivered many sets of the Field Guide to Child Welfare.

One stop really touched us. We were at Sunshine (a family type home) and took in a set of the Field Guides. I had given them sets some time before, but know that one more set for them would go to good use. When the director saw the guides, she was quick to share her glee - as she was just wishing she had more...as hers were now gone. Why? Well, there had been visitors from Moldova and they spied her Field Guides saying they would give anything to have such resources. So, off the went the sets to Moldova, leaving Sunshine "cloud!" and sad...to have no guides.

Now, no Field Guides were available to their own staff - UNTIL - THE FIELD GUIDE DELIVERER ARRIVED - VOILA! We had stock and it is FREE. Thank you Institute for Human Services for this valuable resource - which is NOW IN MOLDOVA, RUSSIA, KAZAKHASTAN, KYRGYZSTAN, BELARUS, CANADA, USA, UKRAINE, AND WHO KNOWS WHERE ELSE? Until the FIELD GUIDE DELIVERER RETURNS....

EACH DAY A NEW CHANCE TO SEE UKRAINE AND KYRGYZSTAN WITHOUT ORPHANS

A COUNTRY OF CONTRASTS ---THE BEAUTY AND THE REALITY OF THE NEEDS







WE HAD A GREAT DAY TODAY.

We went to three major partners today. Stop 1: Soros Foundation to introduce our Kyrgyzstan visitors. While there we talked about a project to help Kyrgyzstan - first starting with another exchange - bringing about 10-12 Kyrgyz to Ukraine to learn from the Ukraine experience - doing this in possibly February and then in March conducting a conference in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan to further the work in diverting children from orphanages. Soros is very interested in this project.

Stop 2: We met with State Social Services Deputy Director and she gave a very thorough overview of the Ukrainian foster care system - its strengths and weaknesses.

Stop 3: We met with the Director of Kiev City Children's Services and had another very thorough overview of what are the strengths and weaknesses of the Ukraine child welfare system. The team was overjoyed with the information they have received and are eager to put into action some of the suggestions and strategies discussed.

Tomorrow - we will take the team to Brovary - a town in the Kiev Oblast that has an integrated social services program - where partnership and collaboration are more than just nice words. We will hear how they have made collaboration a success and learn how they have been successful in keeping children from being placed into orphanages. Brovary places NO children into orphanages!

And then our final stop for tomorrow will be a model program called Sunshine, started by a couple from Switzerland. It is a wonderful program where children are living in a family environment. This home has had great success in the years it has been in existance.

Each day we are just praising God for His Grace and Mercy in allowing us to host these wonderful Kyrgyz professionals. Each day we see one step closer to realizing a KYRGYZSTAN WITHOUT ORPHANS AND A UKRAINE WITHOUT ORPHANS.

Soros Foundation

State Social Services

Kiev City Children's Services

KYRGYZ AND UKRAINE NETWORKING FOR CHILDREN

WHAT A DAY. WE MET WITH TWO OF OUR PARTNERS AND DID WE EVER SEE THE INFORMATION FLOWING IN OUR "RIVER OF KNOWLEDGE!"

Our guests arrived from Kyrgyzstan yesterday without a problem. We have two professionals who work directly with children ensuring the rights of these children are protected. We met early this morning and started our week long learning time with them. First stop - Father's House. Here they met with the founder and president, Roman Korninko. A full presentation was given of how they work with street children, about their rehabilitation program and their family homes. The group even visited a family home and left Father's House amazed with the impact they have had on both children, families and the laws of Ukraine. This was a visit that clearly was just a beginning of the relationship between Kyrgyzstan and Ukraine.

Second stop was lunch at McDonalds for our visitors. Not too educational, but there are NO McDonalds in Krygyzstan - so you might say this was just a cultural experience.

Third stop was to meet with the staff at Every Child - another one of our partners. They presented a top notch information program to help our visitors understand the full spectrum of child welfare where they work as an NGO to keep children out of the orphanages. It was an exciting day and tomorrow will be filled with three stops beside lunch.

We will visit Soros Foundation and discuss a project for the spring, visit state social services and learn about the Ukraine foster care system, and end our visit with Nickolai Kuleba who is director of Kiev City Children Services.

What a day we have planned...stay tuned for only more and more exciting possibilities for the changing of the lives of vulnerable childen.

WORKING UP RIVER BY TEACHING AND TRAINING

A ROOM FULL OF PSYCHOLOGISTS eager to know more and learn more about working with families who adopt children and the children they are adopting. This was an action packed day with activites on disengagement, loss, a child's history and the reason it is important to tell children the truth about their adoption. The day was full of questions, stories and sharing. In addition there were many activites to help participants experience some of the feelings of children who are experiencing the loss of their history.

Perhaps the most important comment of the day was the person who said - "wow, so many things to think about, things I never thought about before." Might we say change occurs one little step at a time. We have always said the work of LAMb is one child and one family at a time - one person at a time! We are not looking for numbers - we are looking for change.

To each of you our supporters - you have made possible the influencing of all these psychologists during the training. Each one of them works with many families and children.

In the pictures you see the presentation of the Field Guide to Child Welfare being presented to the President of the Association of Psychologists. In addition, each person received a full set of the filed guides. Ruby and Lynn packed the sets and delivered them to the thrilled group. Each person also received a copy of the book Telling the Truth to Your Foster and Adopted Child - by Betsy Keefer and Jayne Schooler. You might say this group was just handed "JEWELS" for their future. We trust and pray every book will be the beginning of great things for the children and families these professionals serve.