Here is a message from the AIYD Director of International Operations, Dr. Tatiana Baeva:

We are so honored to meet and make friends with this wonderful Ukrainian couple raising five children, two of which are adopted from the orphanages. Irina and Dmitry are very hearty, kind, smart and amiable people. 

We spent a day with them learning about their family, their past, their present life, their character and beliefs. We were happy to learn they are believers who completed missionary school and started some Christian churches in Ukraine. 

Twelve years ago they decided to adopt a girl, but during the adoption process they found out she had a sister. Without hesitation they made a decision to adopt both of the girls. The sisters were just one and two years old. Today these girls are teenagers and lucky children who have loving and caring parents who are always there for them, helping to solve their teenage problems. 

Irina and Dmitry still think about the lives of children they couldn’t adopt and who still live in orphanages. They wanted to do something, so they started asking their own children to look in their closets and toy boxes and decide what they could share with local orphan children who needed help. It was not easy at first for the little ones to share, but seeing how much happiness it brings to others they soon made it a habit! 

Still, Irina and Dmitry wanted to do more. About a year ago they found another couple Maksim and Julia who also had a big heart for children in need and they started visiting a local orphanage with 70 children – spending time with them and helping them with whatever they could. They said that finding out about the Allies Mentoring Program (AMP) felt like an answer to their prayers. Through AMP they could continue to impact on the lives of local orphans in a positive and eternal way.