Chapter Three

Money and Paperwork Fun

Included in Elena’s $16,675 fee were the following:

BBAS Program Fee of $3,000

International Program Fee of $6,175 for one child 0-4, (Or “Commitment Fee” once a parent said yes to a child)

Identification Fee of $1,500

Orphanage and International fees of $6,000 to be “paid in the form of cash overseas to the overseas coordinators.” 

    Elena, since she was a biological sibling of Oleg’s and less than four years old, would be an extra $3,500.

    The Towells jumped through financial hurdles to fund their children’s adoption. They quickly realized what a costly venture it was to adopt two children from Russia especially with BBAS.  

    They did not know at this time the true costs involved in a Russian adoption; instead, they paid BBAS its fees, believing that the best interests of their children were being served. 

    They managed to obtain a loan for $15,000, even though they had minimal collateral (or so they were told by the lending institution). Alysha’s parents, for Christmas, came through with a handsome monetary gift so they could see their new grandchildren come home. The Towells were thankful — they could see the end in sight.

    Wendy Stamper at BBAS, who Alysha would get to know very well, was impressed at Alysha’s insistence in obtaining an adoption grant of $5,000. She told Alysha before Oleg and Elena’s court date was assigned that she had never before seen such a determined PAP.  

    Alysha told me, “I sent paperwork so fast it made that Wendy’s head spin.  Wendy made small talk about our paperwork was fine and that everything was going well.”

    Their next hurdle was the homestudy process, but they were to be blessed with an excellent social worker who would become a bulwark of support for them in the year to follow.  She would have their homestudy completed within 12 days.  She would continue this phenomenal job throughout the traumatic months, delays and lies that would follow.

    As an extra added benefit (they were so good about this in Medina!) Denise, from the goodness of her humanitarian heart, sent the Towells an updated video of Oleg and Elena. The Towells received it on Alysha’s birthday in mid-January 2001. 

    They were thrilled to see their new children interacting. The video had been shot on Elena’s first birthday on Dec. 4. If the sight of her new children wasn’t enough to motivate Alysha to get cranking on the paperwork, nothing could have been.

    The children’s appearance was both a blessing and a concern. The children looked as well as could be expected, yet both now had shaven heads. Elena’s legs looked like they had become bowed — Alysha stated that “you could have put a ball between her legs.”  

    Elena was taking her first steps. Oleg was shown standing, albeit he was holding on to a table for support. They were thrilled to see a small smile spring to his face, and were overjoyed to hear him utter a few words.

    Alysha, determined to finish the dossier in record time, took matters into her own hands by hand delivering the INS documents to her local INS office. She carried by hand, through the rough prairie snow, each and every document to her state office building for apostilling.  

    By January every document they needed was complete — with the exception of the INS 171H clearance. “Finally on Feb. 27, 2001 I got the call to pick it up,” she said. “I had harassed the office for so long that they knew I didn’t want to wait for it to come in the mail.  It left for Russia that very day.”

    With their “Intent to Adopt” signed, notarized, certified and apostilled, the dossier was on its way. They waited for their travel date.

    Or rather, the dossier left for Medina and on to Alpharetta, that very day.

    During the wait for their travel date Wendy Stamper was nice, helpful, and so comforting. She seemed to truly understand where Alysha and Brian were coming from, their fears, their needs and their hopes for Oleg and Elena.  

    Wendy Stamper would be the nicer of the two in the end, but she would still have to handle all of Denise’s dirty work when the going got tough and the questions just couldn’t be answered.

    They waited with high hopes for their travel date. Alysha researched Russia, studied its language and learned more about the adoption process. They filled their house with “extra beds, car seats, clothes and toys” for the new children. 

    Tiffany and Brody were proclaiming to everyone they met that they would soon be siblings in the home. They couldn’t wait.

    After cajoling Wendy Stamper to give her some names of families traveling to Amur so she could send Oleg and Elena gifts, Wendy gave in and provided the names and emails of two other BBAS clients who were traveling to Amur in February 2001 for their adoptions. She joked to Alysha that Denise felt Alysha was getting “obsessive” about Oleg and Elena, but they would help her out nonetheless.

    Alysha was happy to contact the two clients, for she knew that it would only be a matter of time before they too would be making that trip. One family agreed to bring along a picture book that Alysha had made Oleg, filled with photos of his new home, his mother, his father and his siblings.  

    She had the pages laminated so could turn them easily. The family assured the Towells that Oleg’s book had been given to the orphanage, when in fact, they gave it right to Amrex’s facilitator when they got of the airplane in Blagoveshchensk.

    Why was Wendy foolish enough to connect BBAS clients again? Hadn’t she learned anything by connecting Linda Wright with the Cases the year before?  Or were the consequences far worse if BBAS clients were to find one another on THE INTERNET?

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