Anya and Anatoly Bogdanovy just started their life journey as a big family a year ago. Because Anya has 12 years of experience working with orphans, they felt ready to “start something big.” Today they have 8 children: 5 foster and 3 siblings they decided to adopt. They are great parents! The kids are happy to call them Mom and Dad.
About the Children: Because they recognize that every child that comes into an adoptive or foster home is unique with different experiences and worldviews, Anya and Anatoly have made it a priority to find a key to a heart of each child in their family. When siblings Sveta (2), Andrey (4), and Sasha (7) were first welcomed into the Bogdanovy family, each was suffering. Andrey’s teeth were completely decayed and his gums were infected. He couldn’t eat any firm food because of the pain. The eldest, Sasha, didn’t know any colors or the names of animals and simple objects. The youngest, Sveta, was tiny and sick. If you met these happy, healthy children now, you’d never know!
The oldest of the Bogdanovy’s foster children, Marina, will be 18 soon. At the age where many orphans fall into a lifestyle of drugs, prostitution, and desperation to survive in any way possible, Marina stands as an example of what a loving family can do to positively direct a child’s future. She had a difficult childhood: both parents were alcoholics and she often witnessed her father beating her mother. Six year old Marina was sent to the streets to beg for money for vodka and if she returned home empty-handed or short the right amount, her mother would beat her. Then she met the Bogdanovy family.
Despite the negative conditions in which these children started out, they are happy today because they have people who love and care for them. They have parents who are positively shaping their futures by showing them God’s love, which brings healing to broken hearts.
Pray that God would give Anya and Anatoly wisdom as they parent these 8 children!
