When you parent two children with special needs, the way Svitlana and Volodymyur do, you learn to appreciate the small things.
For them, it’s the happiness and victories of their kids. The faithful parents carry deep trust and support for one another, and their bond has helped them through the hard times.
Living near our Ternopil site in Ukraine, their daughter Diana has dwarfism and poor eyesight. Her brother Olesksandr is on the autism spectrum, and faces some developmental delays. Between the many moments of joy, there’s been some challenging ones, too.
At one point, the family was in debt from surgeries and treatments for Diana. Both parents stopped working so they could take care of their children full-time. At that point, any support at all was a precious gift.
It was then Chalice sponsors entered their lives – people they now consider the heralders of God’s grace.
Diana and Oleksandr both received sponsors, which helped the family cover their children’s medical expenses. Svitlana and Volodymyr were hopeful and relieved as their lives started to look up.
Sponsorship helped the kids complete their schooling, and Diana has achieved her dream of publishing a poem in a booklet.
It also allowed Svitlana and Volodymyr to insulate their house, and recently, a special gift has made their home even more secure.
Generous supporters of the Chalice Gift Catalogue helped the family replace their old, crumbling roof with a new one, protecting them from heavy rain. To make it better, Volodymyr did much of the work himself, imbuing him with a sense of satisfaction.
Despite the struggles they’ve faced, the family never complains. There’s no ‘I’ in their household, only ‘We’, and their faith in God’s love and mercy knits them tighter together.
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