MELANYA'S BLOG

WONDERFUL MEMORIES

2011-07-03T19:19:00.000-07:00

Make photo slide shows at www.OneTrueMedia.com

CONFERENCE

2011-02-26T15:50:00.000-08:00

ON STAGE

2011-02-26T15:41:00.001-08:00

AT THE UNIVERSITY

2011-02-26T15:36:00.001-08:00

VISITING KIEV

2010-09-25T22:55:00.001-07:00

Inna, Ela and Irina in Kiev

Ela was all smiles

It was a lovely day

Irina and Ela

The photographic exhibition of Roksolana at the Kyiv Mohyla Academy

Ela took photos to share with her classmates

Mama Irina watches over Ela

Ela continued to take more photos

Roskolana thanked the public

Inna, Ela and Irina

Inna , Ela and Irina

Ela choosing the best photos

Roskolana

Excellent role models for Ela

All successful women!

LAST DAYS OF SUMMER

2010-09-25T17:01:00.000-07:00

SUMMER'S SUNSETS

2010-09-25T16:54:00.000-07:00

SUMMER'S MEMORIES

2010-09-25T16:42:00.000-07:00

Ela and Nadya

Ela and Sasha

VACATIONS IN KHORTYTSIA

2010-09-17T10:12:00.001-07:00

AT GODMOTHER INNA'S HOME

2009-09-08T20:22:00.001-07:00

Melanya at the computer

Pretty Nadya eating some dessert

Melanya happy at her godmother's

Pretty Inna at the computer

Sasha at the table

Getting ready to eat

Cooking soup

Melanya getting things to start cooking

VISITING INNA AT HER OFFICE

2009-09-08T20:16:00.000-07:00

Melanya at godmother Inna's office

Melanya at Inna's desk

Talking on the phone

Sasha at Inna's desk

TO THE PARK WITH INNA AND SASHA

2009-09-08T20:04:00.000-07:00

Inna, Melanya and Sasha

Melanya and Sasha

Melanya on a tree trunk

Melanya by the pond

Sasha and Melanya

AND THE BEACH TOO

2009-07-22T00:00:00.001-07:00

A very happy and lovely Melanya enjoying the blue ocean..

NEW PICTURES FROM CRIMEA

2009-07-21T23:42:00.000-07:00

Melanya was invited to spend a wonderful summer's vacation with her godmother Inna's family in Crimea, here some of the beautiful places they visited

VACATION 2009

2009-07-18T16:04:00.001-07:00

SCHOOL 2009

2009-07-18T16:01:00.001-07:00

Pretty Melanya!

With a Teacher

Ironing

Irina Victorovna

With two classmates

NEW BLOG FOR MELANYA IN UKRAINIAN!!!

2009-02-09T10:10:00.000-08:00

Dear friends,

Melanya has grown into a lovely young woman and is learning to use the internet, so I have created for her an e mail, for all of you who want to send her a note;

melanya2009@hotmail.com

Also, I have made her a blog in Ukrainian, that way she will make friends in Ukraine first and practice more easily her new computer skills

http://www.melanyamylifeanddreams.blogspot.com/

Good luck sweet daughter!!!

ELA HAS CHANGED HER NAME TO MELANYA!!!

2009-02-02T14:36:00.000-08:00

Dear friends,

Ela has chosen to use the name of her baptismal saint
'' SAINT MELANYA''
So from now on, her blog will chage from ''Project Ela'' to ''Melanya's Blog''
We are so happy for her, she is doing well at school and she will start very soon to use the internet.
As soon as she decides what e mail she will use, I will let you all know.

ELA VISITED WITH OLD FRIENDS

2009-01-14T11:43:00.000-08:00

Ela went to Zaporozhyie and visited with old dear friends.

Ela, Sasha and Ula

Ela with Doctor Galina Galkina, Solnishko orphanage director and a mom to Ela from birth to eight years old.

Ela holding a little orphan boy and next to the sweet woman who was her mentor as a little girl.

ELA GIVING THE TEDDY BEARS TO THE LITTLE ORPHANS

2009-01-14T10:28:00.000-08:00

Dear Friends,

Ela arrived at the baby orphanage Solnishko and gave the little ones the bears that David and I sent.

The little ones were very happy!!

ELA WAS BAPTIZED!!!!

2009-01-06T11:02:00.000-08:00

Dear friends of Ela,

Wonderful news!!
On December 31, 2008 Ela joined the Ortodox Church and was baptized!!!
We are so happy for her, and we thank our friend Inna for guiding Ela to the church.
Congratulations dear Ela!!!

Ela on her baptism day, showing her new blessed silver cross, a present from
grandpa David and mama Sonia

Ela posing outside in the snow

ELA ARRIVED IN ZAPOROZHYIE TO SPEND CHRISTMAS VACATIONS

2008-12-28T14:03:00.000-08:00

Ela has grown into a lovely young woman, she is doing great at her school, getting good grades and has many friends.

She arrived today in Zaporozhyie, Ukraine where she will spend her Christmas Vacations, staying at our sweet friend Inna's home.

She will also go visit the Baby Orphanage Solnishko, and she will give the teddy bears David and I sent, to all the little ones.

( relaxing at Inna's home )

NEW PICTURES OF ELA

2008-10-25T13:36:00.001-07:00

Ela took these pictures with her cell phone, she looks lovely and very happy.

ELA MOVED TO LUGANKS

2008-10-16T10:42:00.000-07:00

Well, Ela did not liked the Khortitsa's school and decided to move east to Luganks.

She took the bus there, and we are happy to report she is settled and very happy in the new school, where some of her old orphanage friends are studying as well.

So now she is living on the border with Russia and we are in contact via our friends Inna and Sergey, who call Ela on her cell phone, check on her progress and translate letters to me.

I hope Ela will be happy there and she will do well in school. She will find an internet cafe and start sending e mails, practicing her English.

Here are some pictures of Luganks.

ELA VISITED OLD DEAR FRIENDS

2008-09-26T21:38:00.000-07:00

Before Ela left Zaparozhyie, she went to the baby orphanage SOLNYSHKO where she grew up from baby until she was eight years old

Ela spent time with Galina Galkina the director, the woman who was Ela's mama, who cared and loved Ela when she was a little girl.

Also the staff were all happy to see Ela all grown up.

And she visited Babushka Galya, a foster grandma. Here is Ela and Inna

ELA ARRIVED IN ZAPOROZHYIE!!!!

2008-09-09T15:13:00.000-07:00

The old mentor, Ela and my friend Inna at the Zaporozhye's train station.

At Zaporozhyie's train station, the old mentor, Ela and my friend Albert.

The old mentor, Ela, the new mentor and Alexandra ( another student) in front of the new school.

Alexandra, the new mentor, the old mentor and Ela in the college's park. Alexandra, the new mentor, Ela and the old mentor at the hall of Khortista School

Ela with the new mentor, the old mentor and my lovely friend Inna

Ela among the flowers in the college's garden.

Dear friends,

Today September 9, 2008 Ela arrived in Zaporozhye!!

Our friends Inna and Albert, were waiting for her at the train station and took Ela, her mentor and Alexandra ( another student) to the new school.

The other students welcomed Ela and she got to meet them, later they took these pictures.
She will start her schooling tomorrow at the Khortitsa Educational Rehabilitation Multi-Discipline Center". Soon she will be settled in.

I will post news as I get them.

Tomorrow I am mailing Ela a little "welcome to college package"

thank you, thank you, thank you universe

WONDERFUL NEWS

2008-07-25T11:20:00.000-07:00

Dear Friends,

Ela went to summer camp and was elected 'Queen' of the summer.
She also has been accepted into college in Zaporozhyie, Ukraine and will start classes in September 2008.
We are very happy for Ela and want to thank all the wonderful friends who help us along the way.
A big hug to all of you,

Sonia Paz Baron-Vine
President
Mellowswan Foundation
Ela Project

WITH HER TEACHER AND DIRECTOR

2008-07-04T14:40:00.001-07:00

PROM DANCE

2008-07-04T14:36:00.001-07:00

Ela and her friends celebrated prom dance. She looked like a princess in her pink dress.

"ELA'S HIGH SCHOOL IS ALMOST OVER"

2008-05-23T15:55:00.000-07:00

On June 2008 Ela's will be graduating from High School.

Not only she will be done with her schooling, but she will be leaving the orphanage where she has lived since she was eight years old.

She has been invited to attend a summer camp and enjoy her well deserved vacation.

Then we have arranged for Ela to travel to Zaporozhyie and stay with my dear friend Galina Galkina at the baby orphanage "Solnishko" which is the orphanage where Ela grew up from baby until seven years old.

She will stay with Galina and she has offered to train Ela to be a "nurse assistant" helping with the little ones. And the possible enrolment into Seamstress School, until we get her the "Humanitarian Visa" and I can fly to Ukraine to pick her up.

I am so grateful to my friend Galina, she is a wonderful woman. She loves Ela as a daughter and I know she will take good care of her and be the best role model for Ela.

Pray my friends, that everything goes well and we receive the visa documents very soon.

thank you , thank you, thank you universe!

" ELA SENDS HER LOVE"

2008-05-14T19:20:00.001-07:00

Ela is growing into a lovely young woman

"NEW PICTURES FROM ELA"

2008-05-14T19:16:00.000-07:00

Here is Ela holding her cell phone and waiting for us to call her and tell her we got the visa!!

THE STORY OF ELA

2008-05-03T20:22:00.000-07:00

Ela was born in Ukraine in 1990.
Her parents were teens when the nuclear plant in Chernobyl melted and sent a radioactive cloud that damaged their DNA.
By the time Ela was born, she was the innocent victim of the radiation and she arrived looking different.
Her little hands and feet were deformed.

It was not her fault...

Unfortunately her parents did not understand this and they rejected her and abandoned little Ela in the hospital.
Little Ela was sent to the baby orphanage in Zaporozhyie, Ukraine.
There she met the director Galina Galkina, and she found a mommy in her..

Galina loved Ela and took care of her just like a daughter, she help Ela learn to walk and play.

Ela met at the orphanage two other little boys, Nikita and Dimitri who also had deformities and three of them grew together playing and acting like brothers and sister.
They grew seeing other orphans being adopted and they were never chosen, because of their deformities, nobody wanted them.
Until 1998 when a lady named Sonia from California, who was handicapped herself, came to the orphanage to adopt Nikita and Dimitri.
Ela asked Sonia to please adopt her too...the boys were like her little brothers and she wanted to have a mommy too..

Ela dancing a dance she choreographed

It broke Sonia's heart to tell her that she couldn't take her home with her then, but she promise Ela that once the boys were done with their corrective surgeries, she would return.

Five years passed and Ela waited.

Sonia applied to adopt Ela, but the adoptions in Ukraine were suspended, she had to wait.

Several years passed and Ela and Sonia continued to write to each other and Ela called Sonia

"Mama " and Sonia called Ela " daughter"

When the adoption ban was lifted, Sonia was told by the American Immigration Department that Ela " was over 16 and too old to be adopted"
Sonia cried and Ela cried, they wanted to be together and the law was not allowing it.

Sonia founded a non profit medical charitable foundation in order to help deformed orphans worldwide.
She named the foundation Mellowswan Foundation
because her foundation will help "ugly ducklings" become Swans

http://www.mellowswanfoundation.org/

In 2008 Sonia applied for a "humanitarian visa" to have Ela come to California to have corrective surgery.
She needed co-sponsors, so David and his daughter Samantha from Ohio helped.

David made a page for Ela,please go and visit David's wonderful blog
http://www.ukraineorphans.net/

The "Ela's team" is growing, we have our Russian friend Serguey in Moscow, who translate the letters for Ela that Sonia sends and translate the letters that Ela sends for Sonia.
Spasiva Serguey!

Now we are waiting for Ela's visa to be granted.

Sonia was very worried about Ela's future after she graduates from High School at the orphanage.

But Ela has one more person in her life, remember Galina Galkina?
She has offered Ela to stay with her at the baby orphanage, until Sonia can come to pick her up.

We are so grateful to Galina, Serguey, David, Samantha, Laila, Debbie, and all the other friends who have come to Ela's rescue.

Here is a picture of ELA (taken by Debbie) sending a big hug to all of you who are helping her come to California to have corrective surgery in her hands and feet.

We are not posting Ela's hands or her feet, as a courtesy to Ela.

If you want to help Sonia go to Ukraine and bring Ela to California, please click on this link

www.guidestar.com

Once the page opens, type Mellowswan Foundation and donate please.
Your donation will be used for Ela's transportation and medical care

thank you!!

Sonia Paz Baron-Vine
President
Mellowswan Foundation
Project Ela