Boys, Boys, Boys!

Somehow I get along with teenage boys. When I was here for so long last year, I really got to know some of them. Roma told me after seeing them again, "You know, Mom, they are big boys and they aren't supposed to like big people like you, but they all really like you!" I have no illusions of grandeur; several of the boys I know do seem to really like me, yet I know they laugh at me sometimes and are still willing to steal from me if given the chance. Doesn't matter, I still love them. I still hurt to see them trying to be men but lacking any kind of foundation on which to build. I've given them all the "Don't smoke, drink, do pornography, be careful with girls" speech several times. I really don't know if any of it sticks or not.

This is Dima. He never got adopted and I don't know why. He doesn't just seem sweet when you meet him (they ALL seem sweet when you meet them!) but others who have spent years knowing him say the same thing. He was the only boy in the orphanage who made it a point to go to church. He wanted to be a doctor, but he won't get the chance. He's in cooking school now and he gets to live at House of Hope. He's behind developmentally, like most of these guys. He also was the one the orphanage director used as slave labor to baby-sit her daughters. So, when he could've been studying, he wasn't even in school, he was working for free, for the orphanage director who drives a BMW.

This is Oleg. I was really smitten with him last year. He was too old to be adopted or I would've thrown him into the mix, too. He has an older sister he had wanted to live with when he left the orphanage, but for some reason, he doesn't it. He lives at the technical school where he learns bar-tending. Oh, that broke my heart! He has made it a point to find my address and mail me letters. Oleg, Dima and a boy named Alyosha are boys I'd like to try to find a way to get them to America on student visas, but I don't think it's going to be easy. Anyone know how?

This is Sasha. He's one that's probably at the precipice of being into real trouble. Yet, doesn't matter that he's 18, smokes, or what he does, he still wishes he had had a mother.

Dima number two. He also gets to live in House of Hope. He could've gone either way, he could've chosen to hit the streets and choose a life of trouble, and he sometimes still does this, or he could make wise choices. For the moment, he's doing okay. He took longer to get to know me last year, but he can be so sweet and made my girls string bracelets as gifts. There's a sweet man in there somewhere.

Sergey left before we started snapping pictures. He did a brave, strong thing and allowed his sister be adopted by a family who did not want to adopt him. That was his only chance to have a family, and he let is sister have that chance. He doesn't have too much of a future, and I'm sure he's been into some bad things, but somewhere inside of him, there's a piece of a very great man. Oh, but Satan wants to destroy him.

Igor, oh Igor. This boy is a big, fat mess. He's 18 and stuck to me like glue last year. He, for some reason, clung to me like no other big boy. He just recently got out of jail, again. He is into some bad, bad stuff and he stole Roma's gloves while we were here. But, he hurts. He wanted a mama and didn't get one. He hurts.

These are boys, trying to be men, with no foundation to build on.