The Totsky family is a very special family. When we met them as HopeHouse candidates they wanted to adopt 3 children, but with special needs. They knew that children with HIV in the Ukraine would rarely be adopted. But that did not stop them. They had a love for these children and wanted to help them so that they could get the medical help they needed to live a full and joyful childhood and beyond. So they
adopted three children with HIV. They already had 2 older biological children. They spent a year together in the new home that HopeHouse helped them build and what a radiant family they were. I met them in 2011 while on a mission trip and they touched my heart with their infectious joy and infectious laughter. There was so much love in the midst of their family. I thought to myself, “This is what HopeHouse is all about. Rescuing the hopeless and giving them the love and joy of a family so that these children could grow and develop into all that God wanted them to be.”
This summer I returned and visited the Totsky family in their home for an afternoon with my cousin, Brandon Dragan, pictured on the left. This time they had just adopted 2 more children with HIV. Their compassion is such an example. It is not easy with the Doctor’s appointments, the medicines and the unknowns of HIV. But as they said to me across the kitchen table with their eyes full, “We couldn’t love them any more than we do. God provides . . . and our hearts are full.”
Deneen Turner
