Tanya Sych knows what it means to grow up without the safety of a real home.

She was one of six children taken into an orphanage after addiction consumed her family.

Her mother drank heavily, used drugs, and cycled in and out of prison. Her father, Tanya believes, never recovered from the grief of losing his children. He died while she was still young. Her mother died the day before Tanya turned eighteen.

For a girl raised inside that kind of instability, the future could have gone in many painful directions.

But somewhere around seventh grade, Tanya began hearing about a place called Shelter 2.

At first, she did not want to go. Everyone knew the people there were Christians, and the children had been warned to stay away. But she went once, then again, and before long she was returning regularly, drawn by kindness, consistency, and something she did not yet know how to name.

Years later, when she had nowhere to live, the Shelter welcomed her in.

That was more than temporary housing. It was the beginning of a different kind of life.

At Shelter 2, Tanya found practical help, yes, a place to stay, people to guide her, skills for daily life. But she found something deeper too. She found adults who noticed her. Adults who sat with her, spoke with her, and made her feel seen. She found people who taught her how to cook, how to save, how to value what she had, and how to live with stability. She found what many children from hard places ache for most, not just services, but family.

Then Tanya fell in love.

Young and eager for freedom, she left the Shelter to start life with the man who would become her husband. Just three weeks later, she discovered she was pregnant. She returned to invite the Shelter staff to her wedding, unsure how they would respond.

They came.

Not with shame. Not with rejection. With presence, blessing, and a gift for her new family.

That is what grace does. It stays.

Today, Tanya is married and raising three children of her own. She speaks honestly about the fear she still carries, the fear that because she grew up in an orphanage, someone might one day say she is unfit to be a mother. But instead of letting that fear define her, she has let love reshape her.

She is determined to give her children what she never had.

She wants to be their example. Their support. Their steady place. She wants them to grow up knowing their mother sacrificed for them, told them the truth, guided them through hard moments, and gave them everything she could.

One of the most important lessons Tanya carried out of the Shelter was simple, value what you have.

Now she is passing that lesson on to her children.

When war came to Ukraine, the Shelter was still there. Tanya and her children were able to evacuate with their help. Even after years and many life changes, Last Bell remained what it had always been for her, a place of refuge, relationship, and care.

Tanya does not speak about the Shelter with embarrassment. She speaks about it with gratitude.

She calls it what it became for her, family.

And that may be the most beautiful part of her story.

The girl who once needed a family is now building one.

Not from the patterns she inherited, but from the love she was shown.

About Last Bell Ministries

During my time in Zhytomyr, I didn’t just observe the work of Last Bell, I experienced it, in the laughter of young people gathered together, in quiet conversations filled with honesty, and in the steady presence of a community that feels like family.

During so many of the one to two hour interviews I conducted, I often asked a simple question, “If you could describe Last Bell in one word, what would it be?” After careful reflection, the most common answer was the same, family.

In Ukraine, the “Last Bell” marks a student’s transition into adult life. For orphanage graduates, it can be a moment of deep uncertainty. Last Bell Ministries meets them there, providing housing, mentorship, and community, helping turn a vulnerable ending into a hopeful new beginning.

I’ve seen firsthand how this kind of support changes lives, walking with young men and women through some of their hardest moments and helping them move from survival toward stability, healing, and belonging.

If you’d like to learn more about Last Bell or be part of this work, visit lastbell.org.

About Capturing Grace
Discover the story behind Capturing Grace and how my daughter Christina’s life continues to inspire this work at capturinggrace.org/about-us.