SPU: Today we said goodbye to the little ones…

Dear Family, Friends and Loved Ones,

Time for our weekly update and we couldn’t be more excited to share about our experiences at the Baby HIV Orphanage. We apologize that we have been quiet for a few days, but fortunately our time has been well spent and we have so much to share!

While Monday was a little shaky with us being introduced to the children for the first time, Tuesday we established what would be our weekly routine. We have been lucky to have an apartment opened up to us for us to stay in and have been treated to some of the BEST Russian home-cooked meals, thanks to the generous spirit of Alexandra who has agreed to come cook for us. We would all be fat and happy if it wasn’t for chasing kids and burning it all off after each day 😉

Tuesday morning, and each day afterwards, the children became more familiar with us and each morning they would rush to meet us. I think it is safe to say that we have all been blown away by how amazing these children are. While facing so many challenges, these children have an amazing capacity to love and each one of them willingly opened their hearts and were generous to share their smiles and laughter. These children have a rough life; they don’t have a family and are very sick. But God has been generous and has provided them with an amazing facility that does the best to accommodate for their unique needs and they daily receive medicine and therapy to help them stay healthy. While stretched thin, the staff there is very compassionate and loving towards the children – which is unique for a place such as this. We are all impressed with how polite and well-mannered the children are, they are happy and it is hard sometimes to remember that they are sick with the smiles on their faces.

For most of our week we have been outside, running around with them. Bubbles were a HUGE hit as was sidewalk chalk. The language barrier was an issue at times, but fortunately for us, our actions were more important to the children than words so we could get around that communication difference, and having two amazing translators helped. We have picked up some more Russian. Thanks to the children we now know that a dog says “Gawf gawf” and a horse says “E-go-go”, that toy buckets and shovels are popular on the playground and that we have to say “Paka!” to the cars passing by. Over the course of the week we have all had amazing experiences, we have all been writing daily in our journals so we can share them all when we return, but here is a small glimpse of what we’ve each individually been doing:

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– Vanessa learned that she is a natural with newborns and quickly became the favorite to push them around in strollers.

-Shannon bonded tightly with a rosy cheeked little 3-year-old girl who cried each time she left.

– Natalya spent a lot of time smelling flowers in the garden beds with a shy 4-year-old girl who had a preference for her and thought she was the coolest ever.

– Elizabeth was well exercised running around with a very robust and energetic 4-year-old girl who taught her a lot of new Russian words.

-Rachel built up some muscles tossing a trio of 3-year-old boys up into the air a million times after catching them on the slide.

-Jessica was attached to the hip to an 18-month-old girl who, while very stand-offish at first, quickly warmed up to her and Jessica was one of the few who could make her giggle and laugh.

-Emily has been sketching individual drawings of each of the children in-between being one of the favorite swing pushers (mainly because she would serenade them in the process).

-Deanna was well adored by a 2-year-old boy who made her a gift out of twigs and leaves as a going away present after spending a week building things with her.

There is so much more that we can say, but then this little post wouldn’t be so little. So we just want to let you all know that we are doing very well, we are all still healthy, we’re getting along well (almost TOO well sometimes, hehe) and are now packing for our next ministry: camping by the Gulf of Finland with about two dozen special needs teenagers. We love you all very much and have cherished hearing the comments you have been leaving. Dosvedanya from Russia with big hugs!

Love,

“Emmie” (Emily), “Zhenya “(Shannon), “Raya” (Rachel), “Natasha” (Natalya), “Zhana” (Jessica), “Dinka” (Deanna), “Liza” (Elizabeth) and “Vanya” (Vanessa)  ….(as termed by our Russian cook J )