Vitalik has been making all of us happy with the progress he’s shown over the past few months. He has gotten much better at communication. He calls & texts showing respect & accountability. He has gotten tremendously better at saying “no” to the kids that used to use him for money & drinking company. Couple of times Anika has initiated cooking the things that he’s been learning to make at his trade school. & the results were quite good.
Vitalik, like most of our kids, has had it pretty rough. He doesn’t remember ever seeing either of his parents (who by now had both passed away). His first memories in life are a baby orphanage, where he was taken together with his sister, who now lives in Crimea (southern Ukraine). Vitalik has his interesting moments (again, like most of the kids we work with). But for the most part he’s an extremely easy-going kid, which has not been doing him good service when he was surrounded by trouble kids. He is always willing to help & join any type of activity. He constantly cracks jokes, & gets a kick out of them himself.
For the past 13 years he has been spending his summers with a host family in France. French culture has shaped Vitalik’s personality in interesting ways. He associates himself with French folks. & he sincerely doesn’t understand a lot of things here in Ukraine, & why they work the way they work. He’s good at French. So much so that he will be going to the Pravda orphanage to translate for an older lady that is coming to visit there. He’s been teaching me some words. & though I am not the best student, Vitalik gets really fired up & excited when I show an interest in his help. He loves to be needed.
& he needs to be loved…
