UOO see’s results of 2010 summer camp

Sophie’s Lemonade Stand

I’m not sure where she got the idea. She must have seen some other kids do it. This child lacks nothing in the inhibitions department. She knows everyone on the block! When she decided to do a lemonade stand, she decided to do it on the most high profile spot on the block: right on 75^th street. I was a little nervous that she would cause an accident!

No problem. After the first couple of successful days of selling the instant variety, I suggested the lemonade concentrate on account of its improved taste. Her costumers loved it. She had people stopping and buying a glass with ice for 50 cents a glass. The fire trucks stopped. The trash truck stopped and so did the mailman. Often times they would give her a $5 and tell her to keep the change.

When I asked her why she wanted to give the profits to UOO and not keep them for herself, she said that she had been helped and wanted to help other kids too.

Thank you Sophie for your generous heart!

Eric and Angie’s Ukraine Adoption Story

It was the little girl pictured above that started us on a journey we did not expect….

Olena was an orphan in Ukraine. She and her older sister, Valentina, stayed with us for just two nights in December of ’06. Our church had a last minute hosting need and Eric and I volunteered. (The kids, along with many chaperones and adult actors, were in America performing the musical “The Russian Shoemaker”). In those two days, Olena and Valentina completely touched our hearts and opened our eyes to their situation in Ukraine. We heard the statistics. Maybe you have too (if you haven’t CLICK HERE). I remember lying in bed after meeting the girls and wondering how I was supposed to turn away from their situation; to look the other way and pretend they had loving parents back home. Both Eric and I couldn’t. We kept saying… “they have no parents, no one to take care of them when they leave the orphanage, no real hope for the future….” We had to do something.

Eric and I have always been open to adoption, both of us having adopted siblings. We always said…”if it falls into our lap, we will do it.” We felt convinced that it had fallen into our laps. We had parent-less children sleeping in our home and knew we had the resources to take them in as family. Immediately, we found a social worker and began the adoption process. It turns out that these two girls were not meant to be ours. While in-country adoptions are rare, they were adopted by a family in Ukraine and we are very happy for them.

We now have had the joy of hosting 10 other orphaned children from Ukraine for UOO camps and feel completely blessed. We love having these kids in our home and watching them interact with our daughters and son. Laughter fills our home when they are here and tears fill our eyes when they go. It is amazing how quickly you can get attached to these kids! I look forward to writing them and hearing their responses.

We recommend being involved with these camps to everyone! Let yourself be touched by these wonderful kids! It feels good knowing that they go back to their lives in Ukraine with a different perspective on life. They see all the kind people involved with the camp, face-to-face, who cared enough to spend their time and money on them. I am convinced they feel more loved and lovable, and see far more hope for their future, after participating in our camps.

Angie and Eric

Clarke and Kris’ Ukraine Adoption Story

In a country where poverty prevents many children from receiving the most basic necessities, it’s hard to imaging an orphaned child having hope.  At age 3 & 1/2, Natalie Stoesz, born to a poor Ukrainian peasant, was a survivor of hardships beyond description.  Labeled with a grim medical diagnosis and narrowly beating severe child illnesses, young Natalie was unaware that God had a plan.

We were on our way to Ukraine in 2003, with hopes of adopting not one toddler, but two elementary aged siblings yet to be identified.  However, with the Iraq war just starting, and a nervous National Adoption Center leader, the Stoesz family would learn that their dossier was now going to be inadequate for the adoption of two children.  With the divine hand of God at work, we were unmistakably led to meet our new daughter, Natalie.  Natalie’s adoption into the Stoesz family was blessed from the very beginning, as indicated by this miracle shown in the picture above… After the court appearance where Natalie officially became a Stoesz, we arrived at the orphanage to see GOD’s LOVE shinning upon the wall of the orphanage through the crook of a tree.  The image only stayed long enough for us to see and photograph before returning to just a shadow of a tree.

Over the next few years, a passion to reach more orphans grew inside us.  Two years later we found ourselves (with Natalie and our two older biological children) returning to Ukraine to carry out our plan to adopt two elementary aged children, Luke and Rhya.

Since then, our family has been constantly advocating and mentoring couples who were developing their own passion to help these “Fatherless” children through adoption.  Recently, our family decided to turn our passion into a ministry.  Teaming up with the Roge’s and Carman’s, who were growing in the same passion to help orphans, a new ministry of Ukraine Orphan Outreach was born in the summer of 2007.  A common vision is shared by the team, which is to offer hope to orphans of Ukraine in as many ways as possible.  Through Ukraine Orphan Outreach, our church and community have the ability to touch many of the 100,000 orphans of Ukraine!

Clarke and Kris