The Birth of Galya and the Family's Journey

On October 3, 1960, their family's first long-awaited child was born—a daughter, Galya. The father gave the daughter her name; she was born with long, dark, wavy hair. Timofei was very surprised, saying: "I've never seen infants with such long hair."

After living another couple of months in the city of Kherson, Timofei said to his wife: "I so want my relatives to see our beautiful daughter. Let's go to my mother's; I'll build a temporary dwelling in my father's yard and we'll live there." So by the end of 1960, the family moved to the village of Krasnodon. Timofei worked in the mines, walking there daily, covering ten kilometers each way. Tanya stayed home with the child. They didn't build the temporary dwelling because they didn't have enough money to start construction. After living there until July 1961, the family returned to the city of Kherson and settled again with Tatyana's parents; at that time they had just had their youngest daughter, Elena. Anna Alexeevna looked after her daughter and granddaughter while the parents worked: Timofei at a canning plant and Tanya as a spinner at a textile mill. When Galya turned two, they moved to live with an elderly grandfather who was ninety years old and a former officer of the Tsar's army. The old man was cultured, honest, and very kind. Tima and Tanya worked different shifts; Tanya left for work an hour before Timofei returned, and in this short time the grandfather watched over Gala.

Money was scarce for buying their own house, and at first the family had to move around from apartment to apartment. They lived with Yemelyanovich and Ekaterina, who was the brother of grandmother Petrov Panasenko.

…Then the family moved again to live with Tatyana's parents. Gala was happier there, as her uncles, Viktor and Nikolai, who were slightly older than her, lived there, as well as Aunt Lena and their cousin Vova, the son of Aunt Lyuba, whose family was also living with the parents at that time. Together they played and mischief-made.

Tatyana got a job as a nanny in the kindergarten that their daughter Galya attended, while Timofei worked at the "Metallist" factory. Tanya always attended the House of Prayer, never missing a service or rehearsal, only absent due to illness. Timofei didn't go to church, but always let his wife go, staying home with his daughter himself. When Galya grew old enough to sit on a bench by herself, Tanya brought her along, seating her on the front pew opposite the choir, and making sure her daughter behaved well. If Galya misbehaved, she received punishment when they got home. When she turned eight, she began singing duets with her mother. Tanya also traveled with the choir to visit other churches in villages and cities. Communion with God's people brought her great pleasure and happiness. Her soul was filled with extraordinary joy when she saw people honoring God. She always instructed her children never to miss services in God's house. Tanya kept her home always clean and in order. She never went to bed leaving dirty dishes or unwashed laundry. Before any trip, she made sure to do everything necessary for the family: prepare food, clean the house, bathe all the children—and so it was always. In July 1967, their second daughter was born in the family. The girl was named Lilya.

…The year 1970 arrived; by that time, sister Lyuba's family had received an apartment from their workplace and moved there. In the house on Rabochaya Street there remained Anna with the younger children and Tatyana's family. Timofei very much wanted to have his own house, but they had no means. At that time, Anna Alexeevna decided to sell the house and move back to her homeland in the Voronezh region. She offered Tanya and Timofei's children to move with her, saying she would give them money to buy a house, and wanted them to live nearby. But Timofei said: "Better you lend us the money so we can buy ourselves at least a small home." He didn't want to live in an apartment, calling such dwellings "birdhouses," and always wanted to live on land. After searching for a house in Kherson and finding nothing within their budget, they decided to go to Pavlovsk. They packed their things and sent a container, then followed it themselves. Anna left with her family later. Upon arriving in Pavlovsk, they stopped with friends and began searching for housing, but found nothing suitable there either.

Redirecting the container to the station "Izvarin," which was located on the border of Russia and Ukraine, they went there themselves. At that time, Timofei's brother Nikolai was living there with his family.

"We arrived at the station at night," Galya recalls this moment. "Papa had an address, but he didn't know which way to go, and there was no one to ask. Leaving us with our suitcases near the station in a field, he went to find the address. I don't remember how long we sat there, but soon he returned, saying he had found Uncle Kolya's house.

In the morning the parents went to the nearby city—Donetsk in Rostov Oblast—to search for housing there. By evening, they found a small house of two rooms, with a living room and kitchen. It cost 3,500 rubles, and the parents only had 3,000. Borrowing 500 rubles from believers, we bought the house, and when the container with our things arrived, we immediately moved into the house.

Timofei got a job as a driver for a bread delivery truck, delivering bread and confectionery items to shops throughout the city. The work was shift-based: work twenty-four hours, home for three days. When he had days off, he worked on repairing the house. First, he did a major renovation, added a glazed veranda, and then worked on the yard. There was a temporary structure (summer cottage) that had already sunk into the ground; he demolished it and built a new one. During winter, Tanya worked as a boiler operator in a food store, also on a shift basis. This work schedule suited them well, as Galya was in school and Lilya was at home and needed supervision. Sometimes, of course, their shifts overlapped, and then she went along with her father to deliver bread. After the heating season ended, Tatyana got a job at the same bread factory as a loader, also on a shift basis. When she was home, she helped her husband with the construction.

In the city of Donetsk, there was a small group of believing Baptist Christians who met during the week to study the Bible and on Sunday traveled twenty-five kilometers to services in the city of Krasnodon. Timofei's family also attended services in Krasnodon, where afterward they all remained at his mother's house until evening.

In September 1972, a son, Pavel, was born in the family; with three children, it became difficult to travel to services. Timofei remembered his father's words: one needs to settle in a place where the family can have fellowship for spiritual growth. Friends from Kherson wrote them letters, in particular the choirmaster and presbyter Fyodor Ivanovich and his wife Shura, inviting them to return. They even found them housing that had two owners. In one half lived Tanya's aunt, the wife of her husband's uncle. Having lived in Donetsk for two years and eight months, in August 1973, the family returned to Kherson. They sold the house for 5,000 rubles and bought the new one for 5,800. They had to borrow the difference again. Timofei got a job at a combine harvester factory, and Tanya, to be able to see the children off to school and meet them afterward, got work as a janitor in the Executive Committee of Laborers' Deputies. She went to work early in the morning before the children woke up or late in the evening when her husband was already home. This schedule allowed her to do housework, be with the children, and somehow help the family financially.

The new dwelling, though on two properties, was not divided. The children could go into the neighbors' half, and the parents didn't like this much. Timofei talked with the owner of the other half, suggesting they make a partition, to which she agreed. He divided the hallway, separated the garden with a small fence, and though the front yard couldn't be divided because the entrance to the street was shared, that was arranged. When everything was done with mutual agreement, the neighbor suddenly thought her half was smaller. She said they needed to call in officials from the organization that handles such matters and have everything checked. Timofei answered her: "You're welcome to call, Egorovna, it's your right." When the officials measured the entire area, they said: "Comrade Balatsky, your plot is smaller; you'll need to move the little fence toward the neighbors' side to make it equal." To which he replied: "Let her have more; this is enough for us." Tanya and Timofei planted a garden, and in his free time from work, he replaced all the windows, plastered the house under roughcast, made cosmetic repairs inside, and brought order everywhere. Egorovna was very pleased, and she asked him to do repairs for her as well. Timofei agreed but refused payment. Afterward, on his own half, he made a cellar with a summer kitchen above it.

In February 1975, a fourth child, daughter Yulia, was born in the family.

With more family members, the living space seemed to shrink; it became crowded. They decided to look for something larger. They found a small house at the other end of the city for 7,000 rubles, and they were given the same amount for their house. But a sister of the owner was living in the house, and she asked them to wait while she found an apartment and moved. She assured them the price wouldn't change. When the house became available, the Balatsky family moved in. Two days later, they went to register the documents—and then the owner changed the price to 8,000 rubles. Seeing the dishonesty of the seller, Timofei refused to buy this house. But all their things had already been moved; they had to urgently find something else. At that moment, an old woman approached them who lived a block away from that house. She said to them:

"Are you looking for housing? Buy from me; come look at my homestead. I'm selling it for 9,000 rubles. You can move in, and then we'll register the documents... And I'm leaving tomorrow to go live in the country."

Timofei looked at the homestead, liked everything, and though they only had 7,000 rubles, they decided to borrow from friends, the family of Mikhail and Anna Kramarevsky, and buy this house. The next day they moved into this house. In October 1975, Tanya left the Executive Committee to work at the Kherson Agricultural Institute, again as a janitor. She went to work in the evenings and was home with the family at night and during the day.

So 1976 arrived. The house was old and small, and Timofei wanted to build a new, larger one, but they had no money. They tried to save their wages to pay off the debt. Timofei's wages were 350-400 rubles a month. They paid back the debt at 350 rubles a month, and lived on what remained and Tanya