Tomorrow the rest of the volunteers will return from Ukraine and their extended side trips on the way home. I kept thinking of the early years of USNOF as this team was overseas. There was a vision we all shared…”we” being the parents of the children with special needs, directors of orphanages, and many volunteers from the US. The vision we shared was that children of Ukraine with special needs would one day have value and opportunity in their own country. The belief and hope we shared was that parents would feel they could keep their children at home, provide for them, and have therapy and educational services with trained professionals available to help their children. After several years and several trips to Ukraine, the hope we’ve all had is slowly and surely becoming a reality. Relationships built on trust are developing among officials, directors, and team members. Partnerships are being strengthened with new commitments and programs being developed between the Ukrainian-American Birth Defects Program and USNOF. Educators are receiving training. More classes are being planned. Orphanage directors are feeling support for all of their special children and the care of their facilities as we attempt to reach out to the children who need to know they are loved. All I can say is that I am in awe of a God who knew at the beginning of the call there would be the teams of people with the skills, talents, and heart to invest in the special children of Ukraine. I am thankful for the willingness of volunteers to give and to go. I am thankful for the fighting spirit of the teachers, parents, administrators of orphanages, the OMNI centers, and the director of the Pahinets Early Intervention Center in Rivne, Ukraine, who won’t take “no” for an answer and who won’t give up. The exciting part is that what has happened these last years is only a small part of what is to come. The vision God has for Ukraine, a vision that is even bigger than what we can imagine, continues to unfold….

I want to be there to see it…
Karen Feathers
Founding Director of USNOF
www.usnof.org