Anne, Slavik and Bruce Elliott.

House mother and "daughter" of Father's House.

Part of Family Unit of Orphans atf Father's House.

Our update this time is a personal one and a big praise report. At the
end of April we arrived back in the United States with our new Ukrainian son, Slavik Marcus Elliott, aged 15.

Slavik lived at Father’s House for 7 years and we have seen and
photographed him many times when we
have taken letters from sponsors to the children there. On February 20, 2008 God spoke to us about adopting Slavik into our family and last summer we got the opportunity to have Slavik stay with us when 10 Father’s House children obtained visas to come to the United States for a month. We had many big hurdles ahead os us, the first one being getting our US citizenship before we could even begin the adoption process. However, when God has a plan He causes it to come to pass and instead of “at least a year” for our citizenship it took a miraculous 3 months and 6 days.

As you might imagine, adoption from Ukraine is potentially a very difficult process and the documentation mountainous. God gave us many miracles and we were given favor by officials.

One big blessing was the opportunity for Anne to live at Father’s House in the latter part of the process and being part of one of the family groups. For those who are unfamiliar with Father’s House, it is a Christian home with around 50 children (more expected after this year’s 3 month summer camp for children from very bad living situations). The original house in the front is for children who have been at Father’s House for less than a year. Behind this is a big building that is divided into apartments and the children live in family groups with a “Mom and Dad” couple, some of whom have a couple of their own children.

In Slavik’s family group there were 5 boys and 3 girls. The parents are Masha and Sergiy and they have a grown family. I also spent time in some of the other family groups and was extremely impressed. The homes are immaculate and the children all have chores to do. The family parents care for their children with so much love. It is hard work and the hours are very long. Slavik’s family group’s father also has a job outside of Father’s House during the day. Every day each family has a time when they come together to read the Bible and pray
together. On the day we left, all the children in Slavik’s family group were up at 3:45 a.m. to pray for us and see us off.

At Father’s House are children we met at the camps as “diamonds in the rough” and the transformation that has come from living as part of a family group is nothing short of amazing. As we have shared before, Father’s House is operated financially by faith. If you would like to help sponsor a child at $30/ month or in any other way, please contact Anne at annejelliott@aol.com.

Slavik is settling very well into the United States and our family - we are very blessed to have such a beautiful son!

Blessings,
Bruce and Anne Elliott
Children’s Work Directors