“Wouldn’t you like to make a difference in someone else’s story?”
Karina wrapped her fingers around the podium and smiled as she looked out into the crowd.
“There is a person here who made a difference in my story and I am so grateful.”
10 years ago, Karina lived in an orphanage in Odessa, Ukraine. She was 12, and had no hope of a different life, no clue that God was working on her behalf.
10 years ago, a 4 year-old boy started praying for Karina’s adoption. He talked to everyone he met about her. He helped his mom make and sell cookies to raise money. In his winsome way he would say “Karina lives in an orphanage in Ukraine. She needs a family. Our friends want to adopt her. We are selling cookies to help them. Would you like to buy a cookie?”
People bought cookies. And prayed. And gave.
Nine years ago, Karina left the orphanage, no longer an orphan. In a moment she became a daughter, a sister, a niece, a granddaughter.
The four year-old is my Anderson, and I am the cookie-baking mom he helped. This journey changed Karina’s life, but it also changed mine.
I knew orphans existed “out there some where” but I didn’t know any. Suddenly this little girl tucked away in an orphanage across the world became a part of our daily discussions, prayers, and plans.
At first I was hesitant about helping. After all, my friends needed thousands of dollars. It felt impossible, too big to tackle.
But Anderson didn’t waver. He didn’t sit down and calculate exactly how many cookies, at 50 cents per cookie, it would take to raise thousands. He simply responded to a need and let God take care of the math.
He didn’t look at the plight of orphans as a whole and get overwhelmed. He saw the little girl God placed directly in our path. He knew how important his family was to him, and he wanted her to be in a family too.
Through this journey, God answered prayers and provided every single detail. He brought Karina home through the generosity, obedience, and willingness of many people.
This journey was much bigger than Anderson and me and cookies. And the results of Karina’s adoption are even bigger than Karina and her family. A beautiful ripple effect can be traced across the years. Other children have been adopted, orphan ministries have been supported, and along the way stories have been connected in ways only God could have designed.
As a little girl, Karina had no way of changing her path in life. She had no hope of anything except moving to the streets after she left the orphanage. But God used Hope Warriors, even a four year-old one, to reach into her hopeless circumstance and change her path for good.
Karina’s journey continues. Once without hope, she is now preparing to go back to Ukraine to reach out to children who are where she once was. She will have the chance to push against the hopelessness and helplessness on their behalf and point them toward lasting hope.
