Mystery revealed but more trouble ahead

Ever since we returned to Ukraine, I noticed that my health had been deteriorating. This past year I have been sick more often than usual with the escalation of non-stop health problems in the past three months. Neither the immunologist, nor the ear-nose-throat doctor could find any reason for me to have sinus and ear infections so often. As we tried to solve this riddle, the thought came that this could be related to our living conditions. As we mentioned in our latest posts, we have had a mold problem in our house. So, I went online to check the health effects of mold and this is what I found. Toxic molds can increase a person’s susceptibility to a wide variety of diseases by weakening their immune system. According to a 1999 Mayo Clinic Study, nearly all chronic sinus infections are a result of molds (to read more about it, click the links in the end of this post). This sounds like a very possible explanation of my recent health problems.

The mold all the way down through the stucco

The other side of the bathroom wall

Black mold along the floor boards in the boy’s classroom

Applying an anti-fungus solution

Our bedroom after cleaning

No matter how many times we tried get rid of the mold spots, they kept coming back. Finally, we had our Christian architect friend come and inspect the house to see what (if anything) could be done. This was his verdict. The house is completely infested with mold… the first floor having it deep in the walls. The boy’s classroom is the worse room: you can even smell the mold. After personally having the experience of fighting mold in his own apartment for two years, our friend believes that our house is not suitable for living and we need to get out as soon as possible if we want to stay healthy.

A month ago we told our landlady that we wanted to try and find a new place and began the search. A month of looking for a house within a $1000 price range has not yielded any results. For one reason or another, every house we’ve looked at has been totally unsuitable (major heating problems, too cramped, ‘smokey’, etc.) So, two days ago we told our landlady that since we were not able to find a house, we would like to stay in this one longer. First, she said that she was going to kick us out anyway and then she decided to let us stay but would raise our rent by 30%, effective February. Even though Wendy is due the end of February and moving right now is the last thing we want to do, we have decided to keep looking for a house and try to move before we have the baby. Please pray for us to find a suitable home with a reasonable landlord quickly!

On a happier note, Sashko had his 9th birthday on January 18th. We spent the day in joyful fellowship with friends who came to celebrate with us. Over the past year, Sashko has matured so much. He is a big help around the house and with the younger boys. Also, he took on two new musical instruments this year: violin and guitar. Our prayer is that Sashko would always love God and serve Him with his whole heart.