“You must love me twice as much!”
Vera and Valodia (Vova) Simonova were married February 12, 1997 in Saratov, Siberia, Russia. Vova bought her a gold wedding band that to him looked so terribly small – unfortunately Vera’s finger was still smaller, so the ring he put on her finger that day could easily slide over the knuckle.
In April they traveled to Vera’s family home in another area of Siberia. While there, she went out to the strawberry patch at the back corner of her brother’s home to pick berries. Later that same day she realized that her ring was gone! Everyone searched through the strawberry patch, in the trash, everywhere they could think that she had been. But the ring was gone.
Ten years later, in 2007, Vera’s brother had to pull up all the strawberry plants in order to lay new water pipes for his home. While doing the work, he searched for the ring that had been lost so long ago, but was unable to find it. Then, in the summer of 2010, he decided to add on to the back of the house and began digging a deep hole to put the pilings for the new foundation. He dug deeper and deeper, and suddenly saw the wedding band that had been lost 13 years earlier. He ran to his sister’s house and she called Vera and said, “You will never guess what lucky thing happened today!” Of course Vera could not even guess what had happened, and her sister told her that her ring had been found.
When Vova’s sister came to visit this past New Year 2011, she brought the ring to St. Petersburg. During a ceremony to renew their vows Vova put the ring back on Vera’s finger and told her, “Now, you must love me twice as much because you have two wedding rings.”
This is truly a story of a miracle, but let me share one more Vera/Vova miracle story. When they were married the doctors told Vera that because of a hereditary problem she would never be able to bear children. They continued to hope that the doctors were wrong, but it seemed that they would be just a family of two. Then Vera and Vova both accepted Jesus as their Savior and began to dedicate their lives to Him to be used in His plan in His time. Shortly after becoming Christians they received a miracle, when Nakita was born on October 31, 2000. Their second son, Sasha, was later born on June 10, 2004. So God’s miracle to His new children was to give them two wonderful boys of their own. And God continues to bless them as he adds one foster girl after another to their blessed home.
Please pray for Vera and Vova as they continue to minister to orphans in St. Petersburg, and as God continues to grow their family (even growing it through their hospitality to American missionaries like myself).
To My Family in Russia with Love,
Nancy
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