A Most Amazing Woman...and a Most Amazing and Holy Experience Helping Her

Back in October we met with Galina to see if her needs were great enough to need our help. Her story is here. On Dec 3, 2010 we assisted her and her 7 orphans. Take a few minutes to read her story then watch the slide show of our day helping her. Dorina, our translator, and I both agreed that we would remember the day we helped Galina for all eternity. It was truely a sacred and reverent day as we acted as Christ's hands doing what he would have done for Galina had he been there.I have to tell you about a woman we are going to help. She is amazing.

Galina is about 55 or so. She recently lost her husband in a work accident where he fell off scaffolding and died. She also lost her son in a car accident. She lives in an obscure village with only a pension that equals about $118 a month. She has been caring for a neice and 6 abandoned children (total of 6 girls & 1 boy). They are living in a house that has less than 200 sq ft heated-and NO that is not a typo it really is less than 200 sq feet! There is another unheated room that is partially used where she wishes she had a woodburning cook top stove installed so she could heat that room and cook there. She can't afford to pay the electricity for an electric cook stove. The 7 children range from 8 to 17 years of age. All the children sleep on two twin beds with blankets that are shredding (see photo) and have holes. They have no running water. All water is carried from a well. They wash cloths in a bucket and take baths in a metal tub they bring inside. (see photo). The only heat they have is a wood stove that they also use to cook on top of. (see photo) Since her husbands death she and the children have used up almost all of the firewood so they've been collecting dried cow manure to burn for heat this winter. (ugh!) She has been bottling fresh veggies on an outside wood cooktop. She stores the bottles in a root celler. As is typical in Moldova, she has a walled yard that she has chickens, geese, cats, and a pregnant dog in. She is growing most of their food. The outhouse is behind the woodpile. A couple of the children came home from school while we were leaving. They are gorgeous. They were clean, neat, and polite. They are all top students too. One girl about 10 came home all excited because she got an A on a paper or a test. I don't understand it but for some reason she got 10 lei (=86 cents) because of the A and she proudly gave it to Galina. They really love Galina and she sure is proud of them. A couple years ago she had radiation to treat cancer so she is continually concerned about the childrens care if something happens to her.

We are hoping to help her by providing 4 bunk beds so everyone has their own bed (imagine that!) with new sheets, pillows, and blankets and quilts. We want to have a wood burning cook stove built in her extra room. We are going to have enough wood delivered and stacked so she can cook and be warm all winter. Her refrigerator doesn't work so we'll get her one that does. Be sure to notice the big rock in front of the refrigerator holding the door closed in the photo. We have hygiene kits, towels, shoes, and sweat suits left over from the flood assistance we provided so we'll take those to these children.

This little "family" is so lucky to have each other. They are giving their all and we are so happy and humbled to be able to help them. She kept telling us about how she believes in God. She prays and said she "knows God listens because we have showed up today to help".

Galina made us promise to come back to share Christmas with them. She kept inviting me to live with them for 2 months guaranteeing that I would speak perfect Russian by then. She is so awesome that if there was somewhere for me to sleep I might have considered her offer!

A peek down into the root celler where she is storing her bottled food.

The shredding blankets they are currently using.

Source of heat and indoor "cooking".

The defective refrigerator with a rock to hold the door closed.

Galina and Nadia sitting at their outside table.

They raise their own meat: chickens, ducks. They have a goat for milk.

Igor just turned 10 years old. The puppy just turned 1 month.

At least it is "sit down" toilet! Most in Moldova are "squat toilets".

The galvanized tub they showed me when I asked where they take baths.

They bring it inside and bathe. They do laundry in it also.

The last of the firewood as of October 2010. Galina and the children had been gathering dried cow manure piles to use for heat for the winter. We saw what she had gathered. I didn't know you could burn cow manure for heat & cooking.

THEN...Friday Dec 3rd we gathered the items we'd purchased and the quilts we had made and headed through the snow to Galina's. It was so exciting and yet so spiritual at the same time. There was hugging contantly. There were smiles and laughter. There were tears. At the very end we did not take photos. Taking photos would have intruded on the most sacred part of the day. We stood crowded in their home with the family, Dorina (our translator & friend), friends of the family, and Elder VanWormer and I. We gave them hygiene kits in gift bags that were embellished with embroidered nametags of thier names and stuffed with hygiene items, MaryKay items, candy, and hot chocolate pkts w/mugs. Then when things quieted down I told them that I wanted to tell them 3 things. The first was that they have a Heavenly Father who loves them and knows them and knows their situation. He listens to them so they should talk to Him. Galina cried. I said that we were an answer to Galina's prayer to her Heavenly Father and that she was an answer to our prayer to find someone who needed our help. I told them that the second thing I wanted them to know was that WE loved them and it was such an honor to be allowed to serve them. Of course I cried then. Then I told them the third thing was that there was hope. They have hope for a better life. Christina was standing next to me and she put her head on my shoulder and cried as she thanked us over and over for helping them. She said how she had always been embarrassed to bring people to the house and she never had any new clothing before or a bed of her own to sleep in. She was so overwhelmed with gratitude. We all hugged. It really was a moment that is seared into my memory for eternity. Later as I enjoyed the afterglow of the evening I realized how Christina reminded me of myself when I was her age. All the feelings she expressed were the same feelings I had had at that time in my life and it made me feel all the more gratitude to Heavenly Father for allowing me to be a part of Christina's life in this way. It is amazing to know that Heavenly Father loves each of us so much and so individually.