April 28, 2008

Our visit to Alyona’s orphanage

Today we enjoyed our afternoon visiting Alyona at her boarding school.  We were to video our experience as Alyona gave us a tour and we met all of her friends.   We had to sign some documents and one document was a name change for Alyona.  During our ride back the other day from visiting Victor and Kristina it came up in conversation about the possibility of her changing her name.  We told her she can do what ever she wants.  She said she always liked the name Alexandra and would like that to be her new name.  She said “a new name for a new life”.  She amazes us everyday with new surprises.

As we entered her school she came up and gave me and Julie a big hug and kiss and a million dollar smile.  She gave us a guided tour of her school as Julie filmed everything and Mariya translated.  We saw her teachers, library, gymnasium, dining hall, music room, hair salon and a sewing room.  The entire facility is spotless.  As muddy and dirty as it is outside it is immaculately clean inside.   She took us to one room where 5 beautiful girls sang karaoke songs for us.   They were so cute.  The school also provides a psychologist if the children have any questions or concerns and they have a doctor and nurse on staff.

She then took us upstairs to where her family area is located.   They divide the children into families.   The orphanage has 8-10 families.  Her family has 14 girls and 10 boys.   As we entered their area we first went into a living room with sofas, piano and a general hangout area.   She then took us down a short hallway to the girls room.  The girls room has four rows of beds stacked 3 deep.   Since they have 14 girls they had to convert a kitchen area and add 2 more beds.  This is where Alyona sleeps – it is small but seems the best place as it has a TV.  In between the girls room and Alyona’s room was the boys room.   I asked if they had any issues with the boys and girls being so close to each other.  The very calmly said no problems, they are like family.   These children are so well behaved and do what they are told when they are told to do it with no drama.   It is amazing to watch.   They all seem happy and comfortable but all look at us with those eyes that say find us some parents to take us to America.

We gave Alyona our camera to take pictures while we talked with her care giver and the director at the Dept of Guardian.   We write in the journal that we all visited today as this is necessary for the court. Alyona came back with lots of pictures of the orphanage and her friends.  We sat in the living room with about 10 kids as we showed our Hrenko family photos of Alex, Ben, our house, vacations and family.   Alyona told all the children about the photos as she has seen them several times.   They had many questions and all Julie and I could understand was her saying to them was Alex and Ben. 

We really enjoyed visiting her school and home and meeting her friends today.  Nothing has been what I expected.  Everything I have ever read or heard about adopting older children does not seem to be the case here.  Family values are very strong and very important in Kazakhstan.  They try to make the orphanage as much like a home as possible and are warm, caring and nurturing with the children.  I do believe a true family is the most important but I think they have done the best job anyone could expect with the limited resources and funds available.  The children all seem well adjusted, educated, and well cared for.  I would tell anyone that is considering adopting an older child to consider this boarding school in Petropavlovsk.  We spoke with Mariya today and said if more people could see these children we believe more of them would be adopted.  If you have been afraid to adopt older children, you really should consider this boarding school, or at least Kazakhstan.

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