Kids are Funny

The other day, Mama Helen asked the kids to run upstairs and dress up quite nicely for an evening with the best manners and best toys the Genesis House has to offer.

So off they ran. Here are the kids coming back down. I'm sure the girls had help, but the boys are much more "I'll do it myself" types... It's always interesting to see what they might come up with.

Couple number one is Slavik and Masha Looking quite nicely:

Then we have couple number 2, biological brother and sister Anton and Sofia.

Then we have Yan by himself... He likes to break the mold:

I love how obviously thrilled he is to have come up with this by himself. The shirt goes about down to is knees so he tucked it all in to his tiny shorts that DON'T even get close to his knees. But Dasha gave him an A+ for being color-coordinated... even down to his sandals.

New Beginnings

If anyone is interested, here's a website about how everything had started : www.newbeginningscharity.org.uk

Welcome!!

That's something children do well...

Crying without tears. They are talented actors.

Specially for Andrey

Pasha is one of Andrey's closest friends in Kiev. Once Andrey left to England Pasha continued coming for visits, now to spend time with Donskoy family (mostly with me, as I naively thought). Now that parents live in a separate house out in the village with 5 more kids Pasha continues visiting them. I guess it's the 'Donskoy magnetism' that draws everybody to Alexandrovka village. Almost every day different people (random guests, neighbours, friends and family) come to visit the big renewed version of the Donskoys.

That sunny beautiful day Pasha came not even knowing Jamie, Vadim, Katya and myself were already there. He came to plant rose bushes he brought. Normally people come to help with something around the house or just to have rest and enjoy the company. Vadim and Jamie are responsible for flying the kite and making kids run as fast as possible, jump as high as possible, shout and laugh as loud as possible... so they sleep well at night (what a blessed time of a day). Anyhow, this was one of those days. In the picture are Katya, myself and Sofiya and Pasha.

They'll need a bigger parking lot soon! :))

Everyday Life

You can see Yan #5 in this picture. This is a game Mom made up to help him behave. His dynamic stereotype is very variable. He can be so sweet, then suddenly starts screaming and squeaking, drops down on the floor and starts hitting it hard, calling everybody 'stinkers and fools'. After Mom's long monologue about how mean Yan #3 is and how much she misses #5, he quietly stands up, smiles and becomes a nice boy again. You never know what to expect from this little 'angel' :))

It's been a whole month and a half since Anton and Slavik started going to school. Anton seems to be enjoying it a lot. Somehow school influenced his personality for better, a lot better. At once he became more mature and responsible, even smarter! (people started noticing) Go for it, Anton, we're so proud of you!


The girls still live in the world called 'Happy Childhood'. No school, no homework, no problem. Although childhood has a lot of problems to deal with. Sofiya seems to enjoy Masha's company now. Slavik and Masha have been in the family for approximately 2 months. It was interesting to watch them get used to an absolutely different lifestyle - living in a family. Sofiya used to be jealous since everybody would mention Masha's beauty and cuteness. And YES, she is so pretty! But now they seem to be good friends, always together, mostly playing and avoiding any work.

Slavik realises he has a lot to catch up with. Math is the hardest. Whenever guests come, they all end up explaining math to him. First it was hard and discouraging, but then it got easier. It's very challenging and hard to study in the 4th grade being in school for the very first time in his life, but he now believes in himself and spends much hours studying in his room. Probably wouldn't be if Mom wasn't there to motivate him all the time.