It's a GIRL!

On Wednesday, April 9 at 6:00 pm, Vera and Vova became the proud parents of a girl! Her name is Katya, she weighs about 97 pounds, and is a little over 70" long (that's 5 feet for the mathematically challenged ones!). No, she is not a newborn to the world, but she is to Vera and Vova. We call her Little Katya and she has been a member of the Road of Life family for over a year and is 16 years old. (Don't she and Vera look like mother and daughter in this picture!)

Vera took Little Katya into her home even though she is not a graduate orphan, and immediately began work on adopting her. After a year of struggling with paper work and government officials, it is done! Yesterday Vera met with the last group and the documents are all in order - Katya is now officially a member of the family, joining her two brothers, Nakita and Sasha.

Also living at Vera's apartment is Katya, who will graduate this May from ROL. She is a gorgeous brunette and shyly speaks some English. Vera shared her testimony regarding Katya two weeks ago at our weekly prayer meeting of the ROL counselors. She told how she struggled with Katya and her attitude the first few months that Katya came to live with them. It seemed to be one battle of wills after another, one punishment after another - nothing seemed to work! Then Vera said that the Lord revealed to her during her daily prayer time that SHE was the problem, not Katya. God instructed Vera to love Katya just as she was - not to try to change Katya, but to try to change herself - to basically as my grandmother used to say, "Kill 'em with kindness! It relieves your stress and drives them crazy!" And it worked. Suddenly Vera was hugging Katya more, telling her how special she was, complimenting her on the good things she did, rather than harping on the bad. God changed them both, and now Katya is a confident, loving young woman, and has even brought her sister Nadia into the home, and hopefully Nadia will become a ROL resident as well.

Vova is an assistant building contractor on one of the major buildings being built in St. Petersburg. He is a wonderful father, not only to his two sons, Nakita and Sasha, but the girls that God has placed in his home. When the Nevsky apartment was bought in the summer of 2007, Vova committed himself to doing most of the renovation work himself. He worked all that summer - no A/C and sometimes no electricity - stripping down walls and rebuilding them, renovating plumbing, everything. Now the apartment is beautiful and almost finished. It is a home that he can truly be proud of - not only its physical appearance, but its loving, Christian foundation as well.

Living with this wonderful family is Tyson, a young man who is from Texas and who will be entering medical school in the fall in the U.S. His family, after he and his younger brother were approaching their teens, adopted three children from Russia, so he has had Russia in his heart for years. He graduated from college last fall and decided to come live in St.P to study Russian intensively for the spring.

Tyson is a wonderful, Christian young man and helps with our English classes at dormitory #70, teaching a group of boys. He also plays the guitar and leads the fellowship time on Saturday afternoon at Vera's apartment. He plans to return home to San Antonio in July.
(Seated: Vova, Vera, Sasha, Katya, Tyson, Nakita; standing: Little Katya)

Please keep this family in your prayers, and send up an extra "Thanks" to God for all He has done to bring this family together.

From Russia with love,
Nancy