THE MAGIC HOUSE SUMMER NEWSLETTER ( Read more... )

We foster parented an exuberant 15 year old this summer/last year and she chose to return to her orphanage/friends/boyfriend this fall ( Read more... )

It was one of those weeks ( Read more... )

The nursery in Ermolino is quiet...we peek in at the sleeping kids and they slowly begin to stir. Cheryl picks up Bagdan and he grins his trademark toothy grin...eyes scrunched closed and fists tightly waving like a new baby. These 5 kids are at some level of disablity, either physical or mental or both. I look over the side of Andrei's crib and ( Read more... )

Late day sun ( Read more... )

Lots of folks have asked about what happens here day to day, what do the kids do, etc etc. Well, right now we are very cold...so I think wrapping up in blankets with long underwear,wool sweaters and hot tea is the favorite activity. I cannot be convinced that a cement house will ever be truly warm, no matter what my husband tells me. This house ( Read more... )

Some time ago I posted a note about our encounter with Rosie Swale Pope...the intrepid 57 year old woman from Wales who set out several years ago alone from her door to run around the world. Her goal was to raise funds and awareness for the orphans of Russia,as well as other charities working with kids around the world. Well, she is still going ( Read more... )

I am part of a wonderful online Rotary Club, which I joined due to travel and the distance any clubs are from our home here in Russia. This week in our online discussion I posted a great article about some of Martin Luther King's ideas that we may not be aware of....What an inspiration he really was, and still is ( Read more... )

It's dark...and I wonder where the sun is all these gray days ( Read more... )

Russian orphanages spending less than a penny a day on each child ( Read more... )