GOMEL ORPHANAGE
(Story by Colm & Liz Ledwedge)
The journey which took us to Belarus in July 2003, to complete the adoption of our son Seán-Alexei began in January 2000, when we attended a General information meeting on foreign adoption in Dublin. This meeting was held the same week our recently adopted son Seán-Alexei was born in a hospital in Gomel, Belarus.
After attending the meeting we immediately began putting together an application for assessment, being particularly concerned about the issue of age limits (Hague Convention) as we were both over forty at this point.
Three countries, China, Thailand and Romania were uppermost in our minds at this point, regarding the prospective country we wished to adopt from. In late 2001 after attending an IAA meeting in the Sheldon Park Hotel, on adoption from Belarus, in which “Mary Hanrahan” from “Hanrahan Translations” spoke, along with some other couples, of their experience of adopting from Belarus, we became very interested in Belarus as a prospective country. The more we enquired and found out about adoption from Belarus, the more convinced we were, that this was the country we wanted to adopt from.
We began the group course in September 2001, and our individual assessment was done during the first half of 2002.
We received our declaration from the Irish adoption board in October 2002.
One major hiccup occurred prior to us receiving our declaration, when in May 2002, Belarus refused to accept any further applications from Ireland, due to concerns they had over post placement reports they had not received. This was eventually resolved a month prior to us receiving our declaration, and so Belarus was open to us.
“Hanrahan Translations” in Limerick handled all our translation requirements, and in addition to providing a fast and efficient service, “Mary Hanrahan” proved to be an invaluable source of knowledge on adoption from Belarus, and was always available to answer queries and concerns that arose. We had also made contact with a Facilitor/Co-ordinator in Belarus “Valentina Bedritskaya”, who agreed to assist us with our application.
Our application left for the Belarussian embassy in London in December 2002, and we received our referral on the 23rd April 2003, for a three and a half year old boy who was resident in a Children’s home in Gomel, Southern Belarus.
The quality of the fax containing the medical report and the photo of the child was very poor quality, and despite efforts by “Valentina Bedritskaya” to have the fax re-transmitted, “Hanrahan Translations” were unable to fully translate the medical report and other information, and subsequently “Dr Costigan”, in the The Children’s Hospital,Crumlin was unable to offer any firm conclusions on the medical information.
On “Dr Costigans” suggestion, “Valentina Bedritskaya” arranged a conference call between the chief doctor at the children’s home in Belarus, and “Dr Costigan” in Crumlin. As the children’s home is about 5 hours drive from “Valentina Bedritskaya’s” home, another Faciltator/Co-ordinator “Masha Bogomaz” who lives in Gomel acted as translator for the conference call.
Following the conference call, “Dr Costigan” expressed his satisfaction with the medical report and as we had decided to accept the referral, unless “Dr Costigan” strongly advised us against it, we visited the child in Belarus on a four day visit four days later in mid May, and brought the necessary papers to confirm acceptance of the referral.
We booked our flights through “Martin O’ Carrol” at Shannon Airport and found him to be the most helpful airline representative we had ever met.
We arrived in Minsk Airport, Belarus on the evening of 15th May and were met by “Valentina Bedritskaya” who organised our entry visa, and then, as she had another adoption to take care of in the Minsk region over the following days, “Masha Bogomaz” who acted as translator for the conference call travelled up from Gomel with a driver called Sasha, and brought us on the four and a half hour car journey to Gomel, “Masha Bogomaz” and the driver stayed with us for the four days and brought us everywhere we needed to go.
Masha brought us to the Children’s home in Gomel on the morning of the 16th May, and we met the assistant chief director of the children’s home in her office, while we waited to meet our child.
While the conference call clarified the content of the medical report, we had still not seen a photo of our child that was viewable, and we were completely overwhelmed when this slightly built adorable little boy with blonde hair and blue eyes entered the room. We went for a walk around the grounds of the children’s home with him, and played with him on the various swings, slides and climbing frames in the grounds, and after a break for lunch we returned to the children’s home in the afternoon, and played for several hours with him again.
We returned to the children’s home the following day, and after an initial period of shyness, Seán-Alexei really took to us, and we spent a most enjoyable afternoon playing with him in the grounds.
We returned to Minsk the following day for the trip home, looking forward to returning to bring Seán-Alexei home, and being greatly impressed with the care and attention that the children received from the staff, and the general happy, cheerful atmosphere that prevailed in the Children’s home.
“Valentina Bedritskaya” got a provisional date for 7th July for our court hearing, which meant a wait of about seven weeks before retuning to Belarus. In June “Rosarii Dunne and Colin Fairweather” made contact with us, as they had received a referral for a two year old boy from the same children’s home and were also using “Valentina Bedritskaya” as their Facilitator/Co-ordinator.
They made a visit in early June to Belarus to meet their child, and also visited Seán-Alexei and kindly brought him a present while they were there, we also sent some presents for Seán-Alexei with another couple who travelled to the same children’s home to collect their son at the beginning of June.
“Valentina Bedritskaya” arranged for ourselves and “Rosarii Dunne and Colin Fairweather” to have our court hearings on the same day, Wednesday 9th July, one hearing immediately after the other.
We met “Colin & Rosarii” at Shannon airport on Monday morning 7th July, and flew to Belarus together, and met “Valentina Bedritskaya” at Minsk airport. “Valentina” was accompanied by a lovely lady called “Natasha” who provided our accommodation and meals in Gomel, and a gentleman called Pavel who did all the driving. We travelled to Gomel by car, and on Tuesday morning the long seven week wait to see Seán-Alexei again was over, when we went to the orphanage, and again sat in the Directors office waiting for the children to be brought in. “Colin & Rosarii’s” son arrived first and the great joy and happiness of their reunion increased when Seán- Alexei arrived and raced over to Liz’s outstretched arms.
We spent the day in the orphanage with the children, while “Valentina” ensured all the paperwork, both from our end, and from the orphanages, was in order for our court appearance the following day.
We arrived at the court on Wednesday morning and “Colin & Rosarii’s” hearing began at 10 pm, it lasted about thirty minutes, while we waited outside in the corridor, and then after the hearing they waited for about thirty minutes for the Judge to return and confirm their decision.
Our hearing followed the same pattern. We were both granted immediate decisions in our favour by the court, and by midday both “Colin & Rosarii” and ourselves were officially the proud parents of our respective sons.
“Valentina”, who had acted as translator for both hearings then had a lot of work to do, to get the court decisions typed up and released to her, to allow her to get birth certificates and passports issued by the following afternoon, to allow us to leave Gomel on the Thursday afternoon and leave Belarus for Ireland on the Friday morning.
As with everything that “Valentina” undertook on our behalf, she managed to deal with all the respective departments and agencies involved in a very professional and organised manner, and we left Gomel at lunchtime on Thursday with our children, and all the necessary documentation.
Joe & Val Tierney, with whom we made contact with, about eighteen months before completing our adoption and who completed their adoption from Belarus three weeks prior to us were the people who done us a huge favour, by putting us in touch with “Valentina”, as guidelines to Adopting from Belarus issued by the Adoption Board only mention the name of one facilitator, Natalia Gontcha, when in fact there are more working in the area. We think it would benefit prospective adoptive parents if the adoption board updated their guidelines to reflect this.
Valentina does not charge a fee for her services, though we all insisted on paying her for all she had done for us, which included her being away from her own home for five days, while assisting us with the adoption.
After bidding an emotional goodbye to “Valentina”, “Natasha”, and “Pavel” at Minsk airport on the Thursday evening, we stayed in some rooms at the airport that night and returned to Ireland on Friday.
In the two months since our return Seán-Alexei has settled in amazingly well, each week being a bit easier as Seán-Alexei begins to understand English, and in the past few weeks has started to speak it as well.
“Rosarii Dunne and Colin Fairweather”, Joe and Val Tierney and ourselves, met up with our three adopted children a couple of weeks ago, and spent a lovely afternoon reflecting, while the children played together, on all that transpired on the way to completing the adoption of our children, and on the wonderful change it has made to all our lives.
NOTE:
GUIDE LINES FOR ADOPTING IN BELARUS CHANGE FREQUENTLY; PLEASE CONTACT THE ADOPTION BOARD FOR UPDATE INFORMATION.