On the eve of Easter, 36-year-old Irina from the Taldomsky district of the Moscow region took temporary care of three orphans from Donetsk: two boys, ten-year-old Makar and nine-year-old Zakhar, and a girl, 17-year-old Yana.  

“A child should grow up in a family, it is impossible without a family,” says Irina, who had four children of her own and another adopted boy.

According to the woman, it was about a big family that she dreamed of all her life.

As Irina explains, she was alone with her parents and knows what it's like to grow up without a brother or sister.

“So many children, and almost all orphans”

In the Moscow region, Irina and her husband Alexander came from Rostov-on-Don.

  • Alexander with his youngest daughter

  • RT

“At the time of the move, we had four relatives, but my husband and I decided that we wanted more children.

Opportunities allow, the desire is there.

We studied as foster parents in 2019, and a year later we had Seryozha, ”recalls Irina.

“He was five years old at the time.

A very difficult child, he was rejected several times, and his last foster mother died of a coronavirus.

But we were not afraid.

You know how nice it is to see when a child from love and care becomes calmer, prettier before our eyes.

Irina says that, looking at how Sergey is transforming, she and her husband wanted to take more children.

Before the New Year, 2022, the family wrote a letter to the Governor of the Moscow Region Andrei Vorobyov with a request to help take two or three children into the family.

“We even made such a wish for the New Year.

Then they forgot about it.

Two weeks ago, they called us and asked: “Will you take three orphans from Donbass?

Two boys and a girl."

We immediately agreed,” says the mother of many children.

On the eve of Easter, the eldest girl was first brought to the family.

She lived separately from her brothers, so after the evacuation she found herself alone in Nizhny Novgorod.

The boys first ended up in Rostov.

Their foster family has already met at the station.

“When the train pulled up, I almost burst into tears.

So many children, and almost all of them are orphans.

Makar and Zakhar ran out, they immediately recognized us and called me mom.

And they have such eyes - full of hope, inner goodness and warmth.

I thought: “This is happiness.”

Such a gift to us for Easter,” says Irina.

Now Yana and her brothers are getting used to a new life. 

“I immediately told Yana that she can always count on my support.

That she now needs to study, - says Irina.

- She had thoughts that she would turn 18 years old - and she would take them.

I tell her: "Yana, study."

Then you go to work.

You will arrange your life in peace.

The boys are under control and reliable protection.

And then, if you have such a desire, when you are already on your feet, you will take it.”

"For the Brothers"

17-year-old Yana says that before meeting at the station, she had not seen her brothers for four months.

  • Yana

  • RT

“I saw them and cried.

They ran up to me and said: “Hi, Yana!”, And I answered: “Hi, sweeties.”

According to her, she made the decision to temporarily place her in the family.

“They called me and asked if I wanted a family.

It depended on my answer whether the brothers would be taken away.

I didn't really want to anymore.

But I understood that if I refused, then no one would take the brothers and they would be in a boarding school until the end of the ninth or 11th grade.

I went through this and I don't want them to be like that.

In the end, she agreed - for the sake of the brothers, ”explains Yana.

In Donetsk, Yana studied as a master of housing and communal services.

After evacuation in Nizhny Novgorod, she studied for two months as a locksmith.

“It was closest to my specialty.

I didn’t like it, but it’s temporary,” says the girl.

- Now I am being accepted for another specialty related to the computer.

To be honest, I would rather unlearn to be a manicurist.

I have already taken makeup courses.

It's kind of more to my liking." 

The girl says that she does not regret that she agreed to go to evacuation to Russia and live in a foster family. 

“The boys are safe, we are all together.

The adoptive mother is a very good woman.

We can talk heart to heart with her, I trust her.

And the city is very cozy.

I like it here.

But I have friends in Donetsk, my boyfriend.

That’s why I want to go back when it’s safer there,” says Yana.