The Harbor Update – Summer Edition

“For the past week or so it has been very hot and humid in St. Pete. Heatwaves here are rare because we are so far north so usually when the temperature gets to 75F everyone is super happy, however, once it gets above that, it gets very unbearable. Most homes have no AC so you must use fans and put them on high, hoping the air will be circulated enough to cool down the house, which is not always the case. It has been hard for our boys to sleep during the night, but we are grateful that we do have fans.

The Harbor staff are taking vacation one by one and getting rested and prepared for the next school year, which always comes quicker than we expect. After a busy school season, the Mothers’ Program (“Pearl”), the Vocational Training Center, Jesus and Sports, School of Rap, Theater, and Alcohol and Drug Prevention (“You are a Treasure”) are all on a “pause-vacation”. 

The Residential Program, now known as “10 Knots” (each “knot” represents a core value of the Residential Program), hosted another graduation ceremony where three girls and two boys completed the program. We had the graduation this year at Kronstadt, an old military fortress. Our family went out for the day to join in the festivities as trying to camp in a tent with a two-year-old and a seven-month-old would be crazy, even for us. It was a beautiful day and we even got to race on some paddle boards with our residents and staff. It was so sweet to see Vadim, one of our current residents, play with our kids at the graduation. He attempted to feed Jayden his baby food and even won Levi’s friendship by playing in the sand with him.

We recently have welcomed four new boys and will soon welcome two new girls. Ideally and prayerfully, we are hoping to get two more boys and two more girls so please pray for this. I was invited a few weeks ago to our boy’s residential and got to spend two hours talking with two of the new boys Sasha and Vadim. Sasha has read some of the parts of my autobiography, which was released last year in Russian, and he had a list of questions to ask. Some of his questions were, how I managed to stay pure until I got married four years ago, how I never cursed or drank alcohol, or sniffed glue, etc. He also wanted to know how I managed to forgive my biological mother and my adoptive parents. The forgiveness topic of course opened a unique door to talk about God. He said that he was a believer and when I asked him what it meant for him to believe and who God is for him, he hesitated to answer the question. I am so grateful for such moments and conversations and for the seed that was planted. He also wanted me to sign his copy of autobiography with a special message and it was as if we had become best buds.”

-The Harbor