We spent the morning at the baby home in Lomonosov, about 3 hours from St. Pete. The home was built in the late 1800's and looked about ready to cave in from the outside. From the inside, however it was beautifully preserved. We took a quick tour of the facility housing all types of beautiful little ones, ages newborn to 3 years old.
There was a separate building for HIV babies. That's where I spent my day. These are babies without hope. There were 12 of them and I, Kiefer (my 14 year-old son), Olga (interpreter), Boris (interpreter), Bryan (Lost Lambs Ministries) and Ron were never without a babe in arms.
We fed them, burped them, bundled them up for a little fresh air and spoke Jesus' love over them all day long. They look like normal little babies. They respond to touch and love even though the staff is spread so thin that most days they only get survival attention. Kiefer held one HIV baby that also had Down Syndrome. This itty bitty tyke gut-laughed at everything that Kiefer did. I was so proud of my boy and so was the whole ministry team. All of us worked hard to give as much love as possible in a day. We're all pretty drained. The other members of the team were doing the same stuff with healthy babies.
The Lomonosov home is staffed for the most part with very caring people. They are horribly short on all manner of supplies. (Think 2 rolls of toilet paper for a week!) We came with a bus load of diapers, baby food, wipes, and anything else we could get our hands on at the local "Wal-Mart."
My baby is a little brown-eyed girl named Genya (soft, French G -jz). She was so pensive, alert, smart and 6 mos. old. She rarely smiled. These babies don't see many smiles, but she was altogether content to be held and talked to. I coaxed a few grins out of her. I have a picture of her in my lap just leaning against me; enjoying the warmth of human contact and love. I really hated leaving her. She didn't cry when I left, she just quietly watched me walk away.
(Insert tears here...)
That's today's report. More later.
Jennifer
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Jennifer,
ReplyDeleteI heard on the radio that you were going to Russia, but I had no idea that you were going to St. Pete! I go there every year to visit the orphans (#8 and #32 are my favorites)... I also visit the Harbor homes. I will go again in January alone and then in July to take my 16 year old daughter to the summer camps. Check out my facebook pictures and see if you recognize anyone. If you don't have a church in mind, the church I went to is just west of Grazhdanski Metro stop. (take your interpreter) God bless you and your love of the children of Russia!
Stephen Cotton
Jacksonville, Texas