There are so many stories of Russian adoptions that have been difficult and deemed “unsuccessful.” Ours is not one of those. I ran across this very heartwarming story about a Russian girl who was adopted in Ireland. Her story starts out the same as many Russian orphans:
“How she came to be working as a nanny in Dublin at all, after being taken as an infant from her alcoholic parents by the Russian authorities, is an extraordinary story, and one whose effects she still feels.”
The life of an orphan living in an institution is hard. Harder than most of us can imagine. Reactive Attatchment Disorder is a common disorder that occurs in Russian orphans:
“At the orphanage where she was taken, 600 miles from Moscow in the forests of rural Russia, children were given minimal care, and sufficient food and education, but never love. Nobody exclaimed when Zina took her first steps and she didn’t know what Christmas was. Physical punishment was so routine that Zina and her friends instinctively protected one another. If one got into trouble, the others would move to do something worse to distract the attention of the adults in charge.”
Imagine being a child in this situation. You’re sent far away and put on things you’ve never seen before like large buses and airplanes. But for Zina, this experience would change her life forever.
“Zina has no idea why she was chosen to visit Ireland, considering how bad she was always told she was. What she does remember is landing at the airport in Ireland, walking down a set of stairs on to the runway, and looking out for a sign with her name on it – Zina Kurashina. When she found the sign, she ran towards it, reached for the father of the family and instinctively said “papa”.
She was as surprised as he was when she uttered this word. She’d never called anyone papa in her life and had no concept of the term that she was consciously aware of. “It was weird – to this day, me and dad are so close.”
Things are still difficult for orphans in Russia. Today, Children’s HopeChest is helping orphans in 41 orphanages throughout Russia. To find out more about how you can be involved and what is happening in Russia, please
visit our Russian website.
Read Previous Post
