September 20, 2011
Wow, less than three weeks left of this trip. Today is the day I have been praying for for over two years. This is the day I was to visit Dasha. It has been a long two years since I was able to see her and she was always afraid that if they moved her I would not be able to find her. I am so pleased that is not the situation. God has given me favor with the Doctors and Directors at so many of these facilities in and around St. Petersburg.
It has been a very gloomy and overcast day, but there is NOTHING gloomy or overcast about my heart this day. There was nothing that would keep me from this appointed meeting. We had a very emotional reunion and I am sitting here unable to read this as I am crying while writing to you; tears of joy and thankfulness. Dasha was so pleased to see me and we held each other and cried tears of joy and gladness.
"The grace of our Lord was poured out on me abundantly along with the faith and love that are Jesus Christ". I Timothy 1:14
Not only did I have the blessing of visiting with Dasha, I was also given permission to take her out into the city for up to 4 days at a time. HOW AMAZING IS THAT!!! She had to give her permission and I had to sign a paper stating who I was and where I lived in the city. There is nothing in the paper that makes me responsible for her, but, of course, I will take the best care of her. Dasha will be 26 on November 8th, so she is responsible for herself. My translator for the day, Yan, noticed how bad her vision was and we decided that next week we will take her to the clinic to have her vision checked and get her glasses. Yan said that if the doctor at her facility would write a letter to the eye clinic, we could get her glasses without cost to me. If that works out, thats great, but if not I will gladly pay for her to have glasses. We had another very fruitful meeting last week with the Grace Center and its Founder Valentina. She is a delightful woman with a true heart for the orphans. She was the Director of #41 and when her orphanage was closed, she founded this center. She currently has two young women living with her in her one room; YES, ONE ROOM, communal apartment (shared kitchen and bath). It imparts to me new meaning to giving of yourself and your provision. It certainly opened my eyes to see that there are so many doing and giving so much to help and love these kids.
We are planning a social gathering with the staff and students at Grace Center tomorrow. We plan to invite several orphan grads that we know to this gathering to get them acquainted with those already in the program. Some of those invited are Anya Utyusheva, and twins Nelly and Liza Ilyina who have successfully transitioned from orphanages, but who still occasionally need help with legal and other matters and who we feel would be good mentors for younger orphan grads. In addition, we hope to be able to contact Sveta Zakatova and Sasha Prohorov, both grads of Pavlovsk who are now mainstreamed to attend our social. We have also arranged for tickets to Spartick Basketball games from time to time. An American from Chicago is currently a member of the team and he attends the same church I do here in the city. Patrick and his girl friend Mimi have arranged for us to get tickets for all grads who wish to attend. I hope we can also contact a few grads from Peterhof 1 and to attend our upcoming functions. I will be meeting with the director, Valery, there this week as well.
"Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever amen"! Eph 3:20
Das ve danya,
Karen