At the beginning of getting sick, we were trying even the crazy Ukrainian remedies – like a piece of wet cabbage on your forehead. And Balor watching over the whole process.
Hey All, Melissa here. I just wanted to start out by thanking all of you who prayed for me while I was so sick. I truly believe God heard you. Now that the worst is over I can say, it was truly scary for me. I have never been that sick in all my life and if you know me, you know I get sick a lot. It doesn’t help being in another country where they don’t speak your language and even besides that, we live in the village so the closest good hospital is over 2 hours away. I have to brag for just a second on Anika and Sasha. I truly wouldn’t have made it without them. Poor Anika was like a busy work horse with trying to do anything that would give me some relief. We don’t have a real kitchen and the makeshift one that we do have is in the other house. So she would constantly have to go back and forth and never once complained. Sasha didn’t get much sleep because I wasn’t sleeping at all. And he had to drive me multiple times to the hospital, which I know was hard. He also never once complained. I will say I am thankful we now have a toilet and a bathtub but man, after watching Anika wear herself thin going into a cold house to make food, I will be super thankful if we ever get a kitchen. This village life sure can wear you down, but it can also remind you of all that you have to be grateful for.
Just the other day, Anika and I were sitting on our deck and we see our neighbor’s goat on our side of the fence. As we get closer we can hear the other neighbor yelling and cursing profusely about the little baby goat. They don’t get along. Then our 87 year old neighbor who is the owner of the goat comes wobbling out, hunched over because she can’t stand up straight. She is all up in arms worried about her goat. This is the neighbor who used yell at us. She ended up thanking us over and over and saying she hadn’t seen us in awhile and we hadn’t stopped by to visit. So you see, to you this may not be a big thing. But to us, this is nothing short of a miracle. No one would have helped her because she has been pretty nasty to most people. This is not to pat us on the backs but to say that God has worked in our hearts to forgive her and in hers as well because she is now a nicer person.
Getting my first IV at the hospital
It took me way longer than I would’ve liked to get back to feeling somewhat normal. And now we’ve got a cold hitting our house again. But I have seen how faithful God is and trust that all things happen in His right timing. Again, I would like to thank you for being apart of this journey with us. It has been hard for my pride, but it has been really cool to see how many people care not just about me, but about Open Arms. We often seem to not really know what God is doing, but there always seems to be some kind of ministry happening. Thanks for sticking with us through the good, the bad, the sick, and the ugly.