A Letter From Karina

Hello.  My name is Karina and I learned something that I want to share with you.
I was really upset about what I saw yesterday and  today.
I was an orphan in an orphanage in Ukraine.  There are a lot of kids that need a family in this orphanage and I was one of them.
Our life in the orphanage is not good.  We need love and we need parents.
Children in the orphanage are the same as children everywhere else except we are orphans and need a family... but I think that people think we are different.  Why do people think we are so different that they will not make us part of their family?
I was waiting for someone to adopt me for a long time but it never happened.  I wondered why it took so long.
Children in the orphanage are usually mean to each other, fight with each other and make fun of each other.

In our orphanage every child has imperfections and I was no different.  I had imperfections too but I did not see them.  I was looking at other people's imperfections instead of recognizing my own.
In 2008 I was adopted and left the orphanage.
I was really happy but I remembered the kids still in the orphanage and I knew they needed a family and most of all they need God.
He is our heavenly Father and we need his love more than anything else.
One year after I was adopted my daddy was planning a trip to Ukraine and I wanted to go with him.
He told me that we were not going to Ukraine just to "hang out".  We had a mission.  Our mission was to visit orphans and people that ministered to orphans.
I wanted to go with him and go to the orphanage where I spent so many years.

I was able to go with him to Ukraine and we went to the orphanage I came from.  I saw my friends and supervisors but the thing that made the biggest impact on me was that I saw a change in the orphans and I saw a big change in my heart because I realized that God had given me true life.
Everything went good while at the orphanage.
My friends asked me why I did not make fun of a boy that I use to make fun of when I lived at the orphanage.
I said, "I do not want to make fun of him anymore.  It is sin."
After that, the girl that use to be a good friend would no longer talk to me.
When we left the orphanage I was thinking about all of this and I realized that only God could have changed my heart from one that always joined in with the crowd and made fun of those that were weaker than me to one that wanted to help and care for those that were weak or "different".
When I was an orphan I would make fun of people.
I am no longer an orphan.
I wondered why the kids made fun of certain kids in the orphanage just because they looked a little different or were weaker than them.
I realized how sad it made the kids who were made fun of.  I realized how sad I made these kids when I did it.  I realized that I use to hurt people with my words.
Thinking about this made me cry.
I cried because I realized what I was like before I had a family.  I did things that were wrong but I did not know they were wrong.  No one ever taught me that they were wrong.  I had no one that loved me enough to teach me the things that are right and the things that are wrong.
I never knew how much I hurt people.  I never knew how sad people were because of my actions.

I never knew until today.
I know now that everyone has imperfections but we do not need to make fun of them.
I do not ever want to make fun of a person again.
I want to show them love.
I also want to tell you that there are a  lot of orphans that need a mom and dad.  These orphans have never been taught what is right and what is wrong.  Will you reach out to them, take them into your family and teach them?

If you do, there will be one less child crying in the orphanage tonight.