From Russia with love

It looks for all the world like a smaller, older sibling of the famous Moscow Kremlin,  standing tall between two rivers in the ancient city of Pskov.

Here, hundreds of miles from Moscow, more than a thousand years of history have rolled down among the old spires and domes.

And on June 24^th, 2004, a very personal piece of history was playing out in a local park.

Vera and Nadia, were about to be reunited with Sergei and Nicolai after almost two years.

The girls arrived first at nine in the morning.  

Hythem Salem: We took ‘em there and we told them to wait.  We didn’t even tell them their brothers are coming.  Just wait here.  We’re going to go to court and we might meet your brothers in court.

And then far in the distance, they saw two boys they hadn’t seen for a very long time.

Hythem: And here come the brothers.

Lisa Salem: You could see that they were so happy but they had so much to catch up on.  They almost didn’t know what to say.

The boys now 10 noticed how much the girls, who had just turned 12 — had grown, the sisters looking at the familiar birthmark on their brother’s face.

Lisa:  It was, “We’re back to where we belong.  We’re back to where we’re supposed to be.  This is how it should be.”  And you could feel that moment.  You could feel that.

And Lisa felt something more.

Lisa:  There’s also a sadness about what they had lost in their past.

And with all these mixed emotions, the fact was, it could still come to nothing.

Because that very day, a court would have to rule on their adoption request.

Lisa:  As much as our excitement over anticipating their meeting we were also worried about the court, the court hearing.

LINKS For more information on adoption: National Council for Adoption U.S. Department of State: International Adoption Joint Council on Internation Children's Services Families for Russian and Ukranian adoption Fund to help orphanages in Russia: Pskov Orphan Lifeline Fund c/o Commerce Bank 325 Main Street Harleysville, PA 19438 Phone: 888-751-9000

Lisa and Hythem would have to persuade a judge that they could care for and support four  more children.  And the crucial question—the judge would ask the children directly, whether they wanted to be adopted.

Lisa: That whole process is just very intimidating for me as an adult.

They could only imagine what it would be like for the children.

Hythem:  What the kids’ gonna say?  Or what kind of questions you gonna ask him? It’s very nerve-wracking, because you don’t know what’s gonna happen.

Cameras were not allowed in the courtroom.   But behind these closed doors...

Lisa: The emotion is very raw, I stood there I wasn’t nervous but I wanted to shake the judge, and say, “You’ve got to feel this, that these children need to be together.” 

The judge looked down from her bench at four very nervous children and asked the question that would make all the difference. “Do they really want to be adopted?”

Lisa: And they’re all silent.  And I really started to get afraid.  And they’re not allowed to be adopted until they answer this question.

Hythem: And the judge kept saying, “I need somebody to stand up and that was very scary.”

And that’s when, Sergei, the one everyone thought to be the most withdrawn, got up and faced the judge and  spoke for them all.

Lisa: He stood up with such pride. And no hestitation.  From a child who barely speaks, he said, “I wanna be with my brothers and sisters.  And he said that he wanted this mommy and daddy.”

After which it was no contest.  The entire hearing lasted just 20 minutes, and the judge made her decision.  Adoption approved.

Lisa: I saw tears streaming down her cheeks.  And I know she knew.  She already knew that they needed to be together.  And what a heartwarming life it will be for them.

At their first meal together in Russia, the family created a whole new way of talking to each other.  The children were given new American names.

Selene, Julianne, Sam, and Jake.  They’ll keep their Russian names as their middle names.

Keith Morrison: Why’d you change their names?

Lisa: It was a washing off the old, starting new. Starting fresh. And we asked them.  We didn’t just change their names.

Though that was the easy part.

Suddenly they were parents of two more sets of twins.  And the four eldest are far older than most adoptees, spoke no English, have lived lives of hardship, and emotional pain.  This was not going to be easy.

Lisa: We do have healing that needs to take place.  And a wounded child is a wounded adult.

It was during those last days in Russia, bit by bit, the children began telling their new parents about their nightmare life.

Lisa: I remember being shocked many times when they talked about it.

Morrison: So, those orphanages, difficult though  they were, were—

Lisa: It’s the best place they ever knew.

So they rode on a train away from there, beginning their 5,000 mile journey to a new home, and new life.

...and yet here on this train they have no real idea what is about to happen to them.

Nor did Lisa and Hythem, for that matter.

How would they support four more children?

And they could only imagine what nightmares had been brewing in these preteen heads. 

Were they capable of forming new family bonds?  How would they get on with Joe and Sophia?

Lisa: You can’t have lived the life that they did and not have some issues.

And on that train, to their great surprise, the children found themselves passing through the village of Moreno.  The village where they had lived with their parents.  From the train, they could even see the apartment where they had suffered for so long. 

Children talking (in Russian): Here it is, over there ...without the roof. It is such an awful apartment.  Farewell Morino...

Next, America.

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