An Update from Russia — About Valerie

January 2, 20115 Comments

Many of you have by now heard our big news: we are guardians of a three year old orphan named Valerie. She came to live with us last Tuesday evening. She’s doing great as she gets settled in to her new life with us.

We have just entered a brand new phase of our lives, and it will take time for all three of us to adjust and settle into our ‘new normal’. It still feels a little unreal, like we are in a dream, we are having a crash course in parenting. Please, pray for us to go through this transition smoothly.

This update will fill in some of the blanks about Valerie, her mother, and our relationship to them.

First, Valerie is a ‘social orphan’. That is, she has a living mother but her mother is in prison and is losing her parental rights. Her mother used to live with us.

In 2003, we became guardians of a teenage orphan named Oksana (left, in front with Olga, Olga’s sister and mom, and our then-new cat Miki; July 2003). Olga had met Oksana in a summer camp several years before and was like a big sister to her and became like a mother.

Oksana lived with us for about 18 months, until her 18th birthday. She then decided to leave our home and pursue her own direction.

Oksana started living a destructive lifestyle. As the years passed, she was distant from us though we tried several times in many ways to help her. She would contact us once in a while, and then fall out of the radar again. She had several live-in boy friends and got involved in dealing and taking drugs. As a result, she contracted HIV and Hepatitis C. Continue reading →

Christmas Day on January 1?

January 2, 2011March 27, 20202 Comments

We celebrated Christmas on New Year’s Day because Valerie wasn’t with us on the 25th. She’d never celebrated Christmas like this (or maybe ever), and I don’t think she’s ever opened a Christmas gift. It was great fun to watch her learn what it is to open a Christmas gift. There was a sled waiting for her under the tree.

We read the Christmas story from the Bible and later Olga’s mother and some friends came to visit. We cooked a turkey and had a good meal together as a family. And the two grandmothers got to talk on Skype.

We start with Valerie opening a gift from her American Babushka:

Valerie – Day 2

December 30, 2010March 27, 20203 Comments

Well, I said yesterday that I wouldn’t post pictures of Valerie every day, but some folks have asked to see more.

We’ll celebrate Christmas on New Year’s Day, since Valerie wasn’t with us on the 25th. We have a tree with presents under it waiting for Saturday morning!

We start with a video of Valerie meeting babushka (grandmom) Cantrell over Skype:

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Valerie — Day 1

December 29, 2010March 27, 20206 Comments

OK, I promise not to post pictures of Valerie every day, but folks have asked to see some more.

I’ll send out a more complete update hopefully in the next few days.

We didn’t take too many pictures today. We start with a short video from breakfast:

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Valerie is home!

December 28, 20105 Comments

Some of you may not know, but Olga and I have been pursuing guardianship of a little girl named Valerie.

Valerie is the 3 year old daughter of Oksana, the orphan who lived with us a few years ago. Oksana is now in prison, and her daughter was placed in an orphanage earlier this year.

Today we finished the process of becoming guardians. We picked her up a few hours ago. I took the picture above of Olga and Valerie walking down the sidewalk to our flat in St. Pete.

I can promise that you’re going to see a lot of pictures of Valerie in the future! I’ll try to post more tomorrow.

Right now she is sleeping soundly in her new bed. It’s great to have her home.

Redneck Rythm Section

December 24, 2010Leave a comment

There are my kind of people:

They are actually Swedish, and that’s a Volvo BM Victor 2-cylinder diesel tractor.

Very cool.

Merry Christmas!

Orest Maximilianovich Groten — 92 years old

December 23, 2010Leave a comment

Olga’s grandfather, Orest Groten, celebrated his 92nd birthday yesterday. We had a great visit. Here Orest opens his gift of gloves and a scarf. This video will give you a taste of what it’s like in a simple Russian flat. You’ll see Olga’s grandmother Ludmilla Groten, Tamara Senkina a family friend since 1957, and Olga’s mother Tanya.

200 Countries — 200 Years

December 17, 2010Leave a comment

This very interesting video looks at the wealth and health of nations for the past 200 years. I had no idea that in 1810 the average life expectancy was 40 years (though this is surely affected by high infant mortality rates).

That Can’t Be

December 17, 2010Leave a comment

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.”