A week in the life of Shelter 2.0 (plus bonus photos)
What does it look like to take care of a dozen or so previously orphaned teenagers, some living at home with houseparents, some living elsewhere? Here’s a look at how the Shelter 2 staff spent five of the ten days between August 21st and August 31st, as told by housemom Tanya Krevoruchko. At the end of August Chris and Christy Hill were visiting us. They wanted to learn more about our work and activities so they could learn how to start something like our ministry. Earlier they helped us fix the tiles in the dining room floor and had an American cookout for us. They showed their love to the kids with their actions and all their help. For example, they helped Sasha Kaplun from the older Shelter group to put new doors and windows on his house. They paid for everything! Sasha and his wife have been dreaming of fixing this old house to make it livable. It was a great blessing for Sasha and Alona. August 21st: Our kids went to Aqua Park. The trade school students who have scholarships/stipends bought tickets with their own money. Some of the kids didn’t go with us because they wasted their money on minor unnecessary things, still hoping we would pay for them. It was a practical lesson about budgeting! Until that moment we had taught them about saving money just with our advice and conversation; plus sometimes for a few days they would live on their own money and learn that way. Chris and Chrsity also went to Aqua Park with us. August 28th: A very busy day. In the morning we went with the kids still living at the orphanage to a clinic to get a medical check-up; they needed the paperwork that says they’re healthy and can attend school. In the afternoon we had guests. Sasha Lubelchuk and Vadim Svyatsky were the first visitors. Vadim was just recently released from jail. Then Sveta Yukhimchuk came. She spent the whole summer in the village where her relatives live. In the evening we said goodbye to Chris and Christy. We were sorry to tell them goodbye; they are special people. August 29th: On this day we invited the director of a Ukrainian pharmacy website, Sanitas, and his wife to come visit us. His wife also has a successful business. They are both believers. They talked to the kids about how in order to have something good, a person needs to work hard. They taught the kids about the characteristics of good employees and bad employees (the kinds they don’t want to have). They challenged the kids to grow daily, to dream and make their dreams come true, to develop the habits of a good worker who will easily be able to get a job and be a valuable employee. August 30th: We took the kids from Berdichev orphanage back to school, since the school holidays were over. There we visited Yana Ilchenko who has a 6-month-old son. We gave them small gifts and learend about the young mom’s life. August 31st: We had a wonderful walk out in the park with our kids. There we spent time with Berdichev orphanage graduate Vita Lavrenuk. We invited her to visit the Shelter because we want to ask her to come live with us. The kids introduced the Shelter’s family rules, and they told her which ones are the most difficult to keep. We listened to our kids talking, and rejoiced about how much they love our home and our big family and they way they shared about how “cool” it is to live here! Here are a few pictures of the walk in the park on the 31st:
Our beautiful girls out for a walk
Baby Makar ran right over Marina!
Three of our girls being silly. New girl Vita in the middle
Vita, who we hope will come live with us
Marina and housemom Tanya
At the park
Everybody pretending to be busy on their devices, ignoring each other…
Juice at a cafe (yes, it is just juice!)