When homeless and orphaned children are given new homes, we celebrate! However, we may overlook the impact this has on the existing natural biological children living in the families that receive their new brothers & sisters. This month we salute these unsung heroes by hearing one of their stories...
My name is Vic. I am named after Vic Jackopson, who dedicated me to the Lord as a baby in his arms. My sister is the only one now who calls me Vic because my brothers, dad, friends and classmates all call me Victor. My mother calls me Vikulya, a sort of pet name. To be honest, I don’t really like this as I’m almost 13.
From my birth until I was 7, I was the oldest child in the family, but then my parents decided they wanted to adopt more children older than me. I was a little upset. My parents loved all of them making no distinction between the natural and the adopted children.
Over time I came to be friends with my new older sister Diana. She helped me with my homework assignments. When I got into mischief and expected to be punished, she took the blame upon herself. I have a very nice sister and she also makes very tasty cakes and pancakes.
Mother does not like lazy people, so she teaches us all how to cook, clean and do house work. Our father never needs loaders when he chops logs in the forest. He chops the firewood and we load it and Mom drives the truck from pile to pile until the truck is filled. We all rest well on such nights.
Every year our dad takes us somewhere special. Last year it was to Moldova to visit my Mom’s relatives. There are so many relatives that I cannot remember all their names. My granduncle has 60 grandchildren! In the summer we visited Leyna, in Uman because Diana and Vlad remember her kindness and love toward them, when they were there in the orphanage. There we visited the world famous Sophia Park.
Every summer we spend a week at the beach on the River Dnipro. Often we build a campfire and sing songs. Our personal favorite is, “How Great Thou Art”. It is so impressive as darkness falls and the sky lights up with twinkling stars, our faces all aglow reflecting the crackling fire. Soon other Christians come and to the strumming of a guitar we sing our praises to God.
I do like to sing, maybe because I study piano at the music school. Young as I am, I dream of the future beyond music college to maybe the Music Conservatory in Odessa. When, I first played the piano in church I was so scared that I seemed not to feel the keys under my fingers. However, such skills do help me to play for my brothers because we all love to sing. How fortunate we are to go to the church in the village of Geronimivka, set in the idyllic natural surrounds of the forest. We live in an equally beautiful setting, the open fields of Ruska Poliana.
Life was very hard for the two Kratkii brothers. The boy's fathers are
unknown, for they were the result of their mother's lifestyle. She
lived in a smoke filled, dirty hovel with her constant companion, the
bottle.
Hope Now cottage homes are scattered throughout the Cherkassy region.
Over the next three months we shall eavesdrop on one of these families
in Ruska Poliana.
