May 3, 2008

Alyona, Victor, Julie, Nick, Kristina

We visit Victor and Kristina with Alyona

We met Mariya in the morning to do some more shopping.   We had to buy luggage for the kid’s trip to the US.  We also found shoes for Victor.  Julie and I went to the market to get more bananas and juice for the kids.   We could not show up without bananas as Kristina loves them.

We picked up Alyona around 2PM.  She had makeup on and looked beautiful.  Whenever we come pick her up we usually have to wait a couple of minutes in the lobby of the boarding school.   This is an area of high activity as many children are always bustling about.   Whenever they see us they stop and are curious and the older children try to talk a little English with us.   They love it when we take their picture and show it to them on the camera. 

During our trip to the orphanage we asked Alyona if it would be ok to ask her some questions about her growing up.   She told us she has nothing to hide and wanted us to know everything.   She told us how long she had been left to manage Victor and Kristina alone (about 2 months).  We asked how she provided food for them.   They lived in a small village where everyone knew them.   The store gave her credit for awhile. She would do cleaning and cooking for some older people for food and her relatives and neighbors would help out.

In October the state came in and took Alyona and Victor to a shelter and Kristina to the orphanage.   Their mother tried to come get them in January of 2007.  This is the last time Alyona saw her mother and has not heard from her since. Several months later Victor went to the orphanage and Alyona went to the Regional Boarding School. 

We had a great time playing with Alyona, Victor and Kristina.  They are all becoming more and more comfortable with us each day.   They are all so cute and fun to play with.   They are happy, smiling high energy children.   We see Alyona smile her big smile but can’t get her to do it for photographs.   She keeps telling us Nyet Nyet (no, no).   Mariya tried to get a couple of photos when she was not looking and it became a little bit of a game.   We all had a great time.   After hugs and kisses and good byes we drove back to Petro.   We talked about things that we would need to get and do to make the transition as easy as possible.   We bought a couple of DVDs in English and Russian. We will get Alyona some CDs of her favorite Russian musical groups.  

We hugged and kissed and said our good byes.   Tomorrow we will pick up Alyona after school (because of the holiday they have school on Sunday – they usually go Mon – Sat ).    We have to find clothes for her.   It should be a very interesting shopping day.

The Hrenko Family

Adoption Journey to Kazakhstan

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Victor & Nick

Alyona, Kristina & Julie