We are in Vladimir Tonight

After all of the aministrative issues getting our visas, we arrived in Moscow this morning without a hitch. The big hitch came with Moscow traffic. It took over an hour to get out of Moscow and about four and half hours to get to Vladimir. We arrived at the minsitry center to over 40 orphanage graduates, many of whom we know from Pokrov.



I was able to spend a lot of time with Valya K. who is doing well in her advertising degree program at the local university. Valya turned 21 this year.



A special surprise was seeing Lilya T. She left the orphanage early, and I was not able to see her last year. I did not know where she was and I feared the worst. However, she was at the ministry center today and is in a technical school. She looked so grown up. She will be seventeen in September.



There were many others from Pokrov. I also met some of the girls in the young mothers program. These girls are single moms between the ages of 17 and 21 who receive monthly parenting and life skills training. Many of them are still enrolled in school, although they have the year off to take care of newborns. They are allowed to live in the dorms if they have no place else to go.



I meant to post pictures, but I'm down in the lobby using wifi here at the Hotel Vladimir. I left my camera in my room. So, I'll post pictures tomorrow.