We arrived at the Baby Home, called the Magadan Specialized Children’s Home about midmorning on Friday (after finally reaching Magadan on Thursday evening…..remember we left on our trip on Monday a.m.). You remember “This is the song that never ends”……well, this was the trip that seemed to never end!! Finally we arrived! As you can see, it looks pretty awful on the outside. We are taken through the door and entry room (all buildings in Siberia have a very small entry area, that protects the inside of the building from the harshness of the cold outside, I can’t remember what you call it, but it is like a small wind breaking room) into the main hallway of the orphanage. We walk down a hall and go into the Chief Doctor’s office, a large room with a desk, a long conference table, and a sectional couch. We wait for her to discuss the health condition of little A. After waiting a few minutes, we discover that she is out of the building for a while, and we will be taken directly to see the child. We go upstairs to his groupa (group), but he is not there. He is down the hall with the other children in “Music Class”!! Isn’t that adorable? They have different classes for the babies and toddlers, that include music and other activities, and they have a schedule they follow, which I’ll post at a later time.
We walk up some stairs up to the second floor. The stairs are made of cement, and have moderate size chips out of them, but they have a fresh coat of bright enamel on them, orange in the middle with blue stripes on the sides. It is very bright and fashionable, despite all the cracks and wear and tear that is present. We enter the door to the groupa and the first room is a small one with wall to wall lockers. All the caregivers in this groupa are assigned a locker, and there they hang their coats and all of them change their shoes, and wear clean slippers only inside the home. We take off our coats and shoes, and enter into the “living room” area (as they called it). I immediately recognized the pattern on the couch, as the one in the picture of little A. Of course, in the picture he was only 14 mos old, and now he is 24 mos. I will digress here for a minute and say a few things about our referral process, which is different than some other areas. We are given a picture of the child, birth date, and list of medical diagnoses (with NO elaboration or explanation) and the color of the child’s hair and eyes, and a description of the child’s personality (Little A. was described as a “fidget child” meaning they felt he was overly hyperactive) before we travel. We either accept to meet the child/children, or decline and are given another referral (with gender, age, etc. listed above). The official letter is sent to our e-mail from the MOE (Ministry of Education) in Russia. All referrals come from them, and not the individual adoption agencies. So, since we already had the formal letter (sent in Russian and also a translated copy), we did not need to meet with them upon arrival. However, during the first meeting with the child, a representative from the Guardianship Department is required to be present. This person observes your interaction with the child, and then testifies in court as to what they saw and how they interpreted your interaction with the child. Svetlana L. from the Guardianship Dept. had already arrived and was waiting for us in the living room area. We took off our shoes and went in and were introduced to Svetlana. We sat down on the couch and awaited the arrival of little A.
Tomorrow……the meeting!!!
We arrived at the Baby Home, called the Magadan Specialized Children’s Home about midmorning on Friday (after finally reaching Magadan on Thursday evening…..remember we left on our trip on Monday a.m.). You remember “This is the song that never ends”……well, this was the trip that seemed to never end!! Finally we arrived! As you can see, it looks pretty awful on the outside. We are taken through the door and entry room (all buildings in Siberia have a very small entry area, that protects the inside of the building from the harshness of the cold outside, I can’t remember what you call it, but it is like a small wind breaking room) into the main hallway of the orphanage. We walk down a hall and go into the Chief Doctor’s office, a large room with a desk, a long conference table, and a sectional couch. We wait for her to discuss the health condition of little A. After waiting a few minutes, we discover that she is out of the building for a while, and we will be taken directly to see the child. We go upstairs to his groupa (group), but he is not there. He is down the hall with the other children in “Music Class”!! Isn’t that adorable? They have different classes for the babies and toddlers, that include music and other activities, and they have a schedule they follow, which I’ll post at a later time.
We walk up some stairs up to the second floor. The stairs are made of cement, and have moderate size chips out of them, but they have a fresh coat of bright enamel on them, orange in the middle with blue stripes on the sides. It is very bright and fashionable, despite all the cracks and wear and tear that is present. We enter the door to the groupa and the first room is a small one with wall to wall lockers. All the caregivers in this groupa are assigned a locker, and there they hang their coats and all of them change their shoes, and wear clean slippers only inside the home. We take off our coats and shoes, and enter into the “living room” area (as they called it). I immediately recognized the pattern on the couch, as the one in the picture of little A. Of course, in the picture he was only 14 mos old, and now he is 24 mos. I will digress here for a minute and say a few things about our referral process, which is different than some other areas. We are given a picture of the child, birth date, and list of medical diagnoses (with NO elaboration or explanation) and the color of the child’s hair and eyes, and a description of the child’s personality (Little A. was described as a “fidget child” meaning they felt he was overly hyperactive) before we travel. We either accept to meet the child/children, or decline and are given another referral (with gender, age, etc. listed above). The official letter is sent to our e-mail from the MOE (Ministry of Education) in Russia. All referrals come from them, and not the individual adoption agencies. So, since we already had the formal letter (sent in Russian and also a translated copy), we did not need to meet with them upon arrival. However, during the first meeting with the child, a representative from the Guardianship Department is required to be present. This person observes your interaction with the child, and then testifies in court as to what they saw and how they interpreted your interaction with the child. Svetlana L. from the Guardianship Dept. had already arrived and was waiting for us in the living room area. We took off our shoes and went in and were introduced to Svetlana. We sat down on the couch and awaited the arrival of little A.
Tomorrow……the meeting!!!
2 comments:
So, are you adopting indy or is this just how this region and/or your agency work regarding the referral. Sounds really great to have that official referral paperwork yourselves! Yes, this is different than how ours worked. But our info was very limited, like you describe.
Great blog posting, it is so interesting. TELL US MORE and stay warm. Hoping this is the trip of a lifetime and so glad you are finally there!
Maria
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