Chapter Six
Oleg and Elena As They Were
On the
morning of April 19 Brian, the Beacon House family and the other unaccredited
agency family were in a car headed towards the orphanage to visit their children
at their baby home. The mood inside the car on the ride was intense.
The orphanage itself was located on the outskirts of the city. The orphanage was called “Dom Rebyonka of the Amurskaya Oblast.” It was indistinguishable from other “Dom Rebyonki” that populated Russian regions.
Like Cyril’s orphanage in Perm, it was a two-story building situated near apartment complexes. Parallel to it was the local morgue and hospital.
In the summer time, the children playing out doors could see the Statya
truck pull up and unload its cargo of corpses. There
also appeared to be an incinerator located nearby.
All three families were led into the orphanage director’s office.
She was a kind woman by the name of Ludmilla Ivanova.
She summoned for Oleg and Elena and the other families children to be
brought to their waiting parents.
Elena went right up to Brian, and sat in his lap, as if she had known him all her life and was ready to leave that very moment. She was a bright, blonde little 16 -month old girl — one of the favorites at the orphanage.
Her caregivers had her sing for Brian, and she relished the attention.
She was very attentive to the gifts that he had brought for her.
Oleg was not in such good shape. Brian was relieved to see that the horrible
“hematoma” on his the middle of his forehead so prevalent in his video was
completely gone, but a scar remained. His
and Alysha’s fears about any horrible disease about the discoloration
evaporated.
What had caused that horrible discoloration to his head?
Brian surmised the horrible bruise had been caused by Oleg getting his
head rammed in to the crib by either a caregiver or another child, or by his own
actions of hitting his head on his crib. The
hematoma was located exactly on his forehead where the bar of his crib would
have been.
But the boy’s legs were badly bent by rickets and his walking was unsteady. He walked much like that of a child still unsure of the steps he was taking.
His treatment in that orphanage was nothing short of child abuse.
The orphanage caregivers (a name I can hardly give to these people) had
been dragging Oleg up and down the halls, telling him to walk.
Far cry from the “great and wonderful and caring” orphanage workers
one would hear so widely praised later on.
The caregiver told Brian that this was done because if he didn’t walk, he
would not eat and therefore would not fare well at the next step: the Detsky
Dom. The caregivers didn’t understand that the more Oleg tried to get
up, the worse his legs would get.
The Towells and Oleg were faced with serious physical problems. Oleg, to Brian’s observations, would need some sort of orthopedic surgery to straighten his legs. The sooner, the better. The child had to get out of there to literally save his life.
Since he was unable to get around easily, he was the whipping boy for the other
children in his group and was continually being hit and bitten by the other
members.
Whereas Elena, the favorite, was receiving paraffin treatments for her rickets,
Oleg’s rickets condition was left untreated, only to be worsening.
Brian wanted to know what had become of the laminated book that had been brought
over to Oleg in February by the BBAS family, the book Alysha had taken such
great pains to compose. It was not amongst the child’s possessions.
Where had that book gone and why wasn’t it with Oleg?
Had it even been given to him?
Brian questioned Tatyana Dmitriyeva about it. She stopped and then said “Oh,yes, that family did give me a book — but I have it in a drawer.”
Brian was incensed. Alysha had put
her heart and soul into making that book for Oleg — laying out the photos,
writing the words in Russian and English — and Tatyana hadn’t even bothered
to give it Oleg after the family had handed it to her when they got there.
The next day, Tatyana retrieved the book from its drawer and at last Oleg was
able to turn its laminated pages and see his new brother, sister, mother and
grandparents.
Ludmilla the orphanage director was impressed by Brian’s swift rapport with
Elena and was overwhelmed by his care towards Oleg.
Surely these kids were meant to be with this man and his wife in America.
During the course of the three days and six visits that Brian and his mother
were to take to the orphanage, he was disgusted that Oleg would be brought out
to him every single time wearing the exact same urine-stinking threadbare
garment. The other families’ children would clothed in different outfits
each time.
Brian asked to speak with Oleg’s caregiver; he had learned from Elena’s
caregiver what she liked and didn’t like; she seemed to have a better, more
caring relationship with Elena than Oleg’s caregiver.
When Brian asked Oleg’s caregiver what Oleg’s likes and dislikes
were, she did not even know or care.
On the second day, Brian gave Oleg a Matchbox car to play with.
Usually, before he left he took the toys back so he could let Oleg play
with them when he returned. Brian
did not want the other children to steal Oleg’s little car.
But Oleg took this matchbox car and hid it within his urine-stinking outfit,
unbeknownst to Brian. The next morning,
when Brian went to the orphanage and Oleg was presented to him, Brian was
aghast; covering Oleg’s tiny body were bite marks from other children.
And then, to Brian’s surprise, Oleg handed Brian back the Matchbox car that he had been hiding all night from the other children. They had bitten him to get that car from him. But Oleg had held on to that tiny car with all his might.
The caregiver actually told Brian after this second visit that Oleg had asked
where his “papa” went and could he please come back.
No wonder he had asked that!
It seemed to Brian that the girls in that orphanage were treated better than the
boys; they appeared chubbier and more vivacious, while the boys appeared thin
and developmentally delayed.
During his six visits in three days, both children opened up considerably to Brian and his mother. The orphanage director was pleased that Elena wanted to go home with him.
After the second day, she was dumbfounded that Oleg, who was known to be diffident and unspeaking, was combing Brian’s hair and climbing up into his lap. The director had been under the impression that Oleg didn’t like men (not that there were many men working at the orphanage). To Brian, Ludmilla appeared like she wished Oleg and Elena could leave with him as quickly as possible.