A Time to Say Goodbye

To help prepare Esther for an outing at our church’s small orphanage, every time we go we tell her that we are going to see Kolya. We have only been helping out there for a couple months, but little Esther and Kolya have developed quite a friendship. He is an adorable, curly-haired boy who is also 2 years old and, along with his 4 year old brother Vanya, has been at the orphanage for almost a year. Every time Esther sees him she squeals in delight as he toddles over to her, and for weeks the only intelligible words in her prayers have been, “Mommy, Daya, Nemo (as in Finding Nemo), and Kolya." Of course, she did see the dark side of 2 year old boys with his constant pinching and hair pulling, but that did not seem to dampen their friendship. Kolya also melted our hearts by continually addressing us with the Russian words for uncle and aunt.


This week one of the orphanage workers took me aside and gave me some difficult news. It was one of those exchanges in Russian where I understood every word, but was sure I had missed the overall meaning of what she was saying. There had been a hearing where a judge ruled that the parents of Vanya and Kolya would now have custody over them. The boys were to be taken away the next day. We know little about the parents except that they dropped their sons off at the orphanage nearly a year ago, and we pray it is a good sign that they have requested custody of their sons. We are obviously saddened by the realization that we will likely never see these boys again. What will we tell Esther now as we get ready to go to the orphanage? The real heartbreak though, is for the Ukrainian couple and 3 women workers who lovingly cared for these boys every day. That next morning we watched the tears roll down their faces as they prayed for the 2 boys and hugged them for the last time. These goodbyes happen when you work with at-risk and abandoned children, but they are never something you get used to. So farewell little Kolya, we entrust you to God’s protective and tender care. We did not know you long and you will not remember us, but you made an impact on our family!