A few days ago, a group of Russian orphans arrived in the US to spend Christmas holidays with host families. This is one part of our work in Russia. You can see a video about their arrival here.

MIR board member Lyle Thomas writes of the day the children departed from St. Petersburg —

I met with Andrei Gvozdovsky on Monday, (who works for MIR on the hosting program) right after he and Masha (the director, his wife) had spend most of the night traveling around the city to pick up the kids and take them to the airport. The kids aged between 2 and 15, many of whom are handicapped.

Andrei’s heart went out to these kids, and he expressed hope that they would be adopted as a result of this experience. He related a short but telling moment:

One little boy asked him, “When are we leaving?” – and the Russian word implied by car.

Andrei pointed out that they would be flying. The child didn’t understand.

“Like a bird,” Andrei explained.

“That can’t be. People can’t do that.”