Good Friday with Sergey and Julia

Sergey and Julia Yarovoy, Renee, Paul and Yuri. Tea and torte for breakfast is a great way to start your day.


Yuri and Paul with fresh hair cuts.

This morning, we met with Julia and Sergey Yarovoy at a local cafe for late breakfast. When Paul visited Odessa in August of 2006, Julia served as his translator/tour guide. We used this meeting to become better acquainted with the Yarovoy's and to learn about their work with youth in Odessa, including a ministry to kids living on the street. Sergey does not speak English but, he understands quite a bit. Julia served as translator during our meeting.

Julia also works as an English instructor, tutoring kids at the Internot who have been selected for adoption. We hired Julia to work with Yuri for a few months prior to our arrival and found it very beneficial. If you are planning to adopt from Internot #4 and want to know more about Julia's tutoring services, send us an email and we can put you in touch with her.

Paul mentioned to Julia that he and Yuri both needed hair cuts and could she help us find a suitable salon? Sergey smiled and said, "I'm getting my hair cut today. Do you want to come with me?" We gladly followed Sergey to his stylist. We spent the next couple hours running errands downtown with Julia, who translated for us. Then we invited her to have late lunch with us at Mario's (We lost count but we think that is our 5th meal at Mario's.)

Now, it's back to the apartment to check email and make our post. Yuri selected a photo of himself with his new Mom and Dad. Paul will make duplicate prints which Yuri will give to his supervisors at the Internot. Bit-by-bit, Yuri is using more English and gaining confidence. Tomorrow, Yuri is off to Babushka's apartment to spend Easter weekend.