Since I’ve always wanted to have my own family, my first teacher at the orphanage was trying to do all that was possible to find my mom. My first teacher, Vasilina Tanasivna, taught me well all I needed to know about honesty and patience. She taught me the honesty, because I needed to be honest with everybody, and not trying to make money dishonestly. She knew about one bad incident that I had when I stole her money. Although she taught me the harsh way by beating me and yelling at me, she made sure that I would remember that lesson on honesty for the rest of my life. She was right and I am grateful for that.
The lesson about patience I had to learn from being patient; the lesson of respect I learned from being respectful; the lesson of hard work I’ve learned by working hard. My first teacher at the orphanage would sometimes tell me that she was looking for my mom, but I had to be patient. I had to wait. Since I didn’t have anything to lose at my young age, and in the name of a happy family reunion, I was ready to wait. My first teacher was working hard to help us to be happy. About 20 years later, when I met wiht my wonderful teacher again, I talked to her about my success and lows in this life, but she always was proud of me. Although she didn’t know how my life has changed from that time when I left the orphanage, she definitely knew that I succeeded in this life. Last time I visited her in the school for disabled kids with special needs school. At that time I talked to her when she worked as a principle of that school. This tells me that she not only loved children, she cared about them as her own and wanted them to get at least some sweet but not bitter taste of this life. She is a wonderful woman, who is full of love and compassion for children. She even on several occasions would help me and other brothers and sisters from the foster care family, where I lived for a few years after the orphanage, with some clothes that her school would receive for helpless kids. She had always invited us to visit her and also shared some of those clothes from different sponsors with us.
When time had come and my teacher found my mom she would call her to ask her to come and see me in the orphanage. She told me a few years later that when I visited her about 20 year later, that when she found my mom, she personally went and visited with her. My teacher told me that she yelled at my mom to make her to come and visit me in the orphanage. So, later my mom visited me in the orphanage once.
We have a tradition when you visit someone close to you either in the orphanage or in the hospital you have to bring some sweets with you. My mom did the same; she brought something for me on her first and the last visit to the orphanage. It was her last because after that first visit she never came and saw me again. Maybe it was too much, or she didn’t want to visit me but she didn’t. However, in the middle of all of us I was introduced to my real natural brother.
