Before I tell you about all the miracles God has poured on this long-suffering family, I want to go back to the circumstances preceding them.

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Sergey and I left Valya?s place depressed and saddened. We both realized that a sick mother and a child could no longer live in such conditions. But to radically change their life it would take a lot of money that neither of us had.

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But the Lord gave us something greater than money ? our heart that is full of compassion and mercy. God does not need finances, He needs those who hear His voice and follow Him. And this is what the directors of the ?Gospel Charity? Foundation have ? one great heart. Just recently they had raised a significant amount of money for different charitable events in prisons and orphanages of our town. When they heard about Valya?s dilemma, they unanimously agreed to offer immediate financial assistance to Valya Batueva for complete renovation of her apartment.

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Literally the day after our visit the situation began to unfold at great speed. Elena received some money from Ruth and Sarah in Texas and bought a load of wood for the wood-burning stove to keep Valya going for a few weeks. Meanwhile, Sergey made arrangements with a crisis shelter for women and children located about 3 hours away from our town ? they agreed to host Valya and her baby for a month or so while her apartment was being remodeled. A week later a team of workers came to assess the conditions at the little village home and come up with a quote. And a few weeks after the New Year?s Valya and Ann were on the way to their temporary home in Bogdanovich. There they were well taken care of by the caregivers: they were given their own comfortable room and fed three times a day.

Our minivan was going up and down the hilly road towards the village of Cheronoistochinsk. In spite of severe frost outside, it was warm and cozy inside the vehicle. I was enjoying soft music while trying to concentrate on the forthcoming trip to see my family in St. Petersburg, but as hard as I tried I kept failing. One and the same image was continuously coming back to me ? a scene that we had just witnessed. A young mother with a skinny boy and? a big man who was sitting in front of them on their bed gobbling down a bowl of soup. At the dorm where Olga* and her two-year-old son reside, this man was not the only ?extra mouth? to feed. We had brought some food for Olga and her child, fully realizing that only a token of that will reach this family. We really do not want to sponsor any parasites, but at the same time we cannot abandon little Nikita.

The Graduate Program was set up to help transition girls like Valya and her daughter Anya from the orphanage life into life in the real world.? It is estimated that there are over 1,000,000 children in the Russian Orphanage System. While children are still under the custody of the state and are kept in the children?s homes, they are more or less provided for.? But once they are released at age 16, they have had almost no training on living in the outside world.? This is where life really hits these unprepared teenagers. They are sent into adult life with a change of clothes, a set of sheets for their often non-existent bed, a pair of winter boots and?a few dollars cash.? They are expected to survive.? Many do not.? They end up like many of their parents...... addicted to drugs or alcohol....?