Chapter Thirty-Two:

The Whitwells Go To Russia

   

    Two weeks after returning from Russia we spoke to Charlene and told her about Cyril’s life and death.  Charlene was as stunned as everybody else we had told. All this time Charlene and Allan were waiting for their travel date to Izhevsk.  When their son made it home, he was 15 months old.

   For reasons known only to those in Russia and at BBAS, the Whitwells waited until February to pick their son up.  Between October and February, “the judge” in Izhevsk tossed all sorts of unruly paperwork requests at them: post-placement promises, updated medicals, updated tax returns, updated financial forms – all notarized, certified and above all, apostilled.   Add insult to injury and frustration, some of the so frantically collected documents by Charlene were “lost” once in Russia.  This caused some delays with the court date.

    It was with great relief, then, their travel date was received in mid-January.  They were perturbed to learn, however, they needed to be in Izhvesk for five days prior to the court date.  No reason was given as to why they needed to add an extra, costly five days to their stay.  All told, the Whitwells would spend a total of 20 days in-country.  At BBAS daily adoption rates.

   They were never given a reason for this, and to top that off, their total stay in Russia was 20 days. And at BBAS rates. 

  During their 20 day jaunt in Russia, the Whitwells learned the real reason for the loss of their first referral: a cousin had come to the orphanage to claim the child.   This information gave them closure and contentment.  At least that child had found (hopefully) a loving, secure home in his country with members of his biological family.  Which begs the question:  Why did Denise concoct a story about how the baby's referral had been lost, instead of telling the Whitwells the truth. None of us could figure out.

    When their son came home, he was 15 months old. His health was fair. Unlike Cyril, he was on the American growth charts, was able to walk, crawl, climb and ate “like a horse.”  He had a set of healthy lungs and kept his mom and dad on their toes.  Yet, like Cyril and Ekaterina's medical report, their son's medicals were incorrect.  He came to them from the orphanage with an ear infection, nasty bronchitis and eczema. 

    Their time in Russia was grueling. Charlene told us the facilitator and judge in Izhevsk had known about Cyril’s death and spoke freely of it.  The facilitator and judge didn't know Cyril's name or our names. Upon Charlene telling them she knew the American family involved and were all on friendly terms, the facilitator revealed that the cause of Cyril’s death was intoxication. That the parents had been drinking!

  Charlene corrected her and told her that the baby had been sick and that it was not way the Cases’ fault the baby died.  

    Cyril’s death, at least in Izhevsk, did have the same fallout as it had in Perm at the same time.

    The Whitwells and Liz confirmed the children in January/February 2000 were not allowed to stay with the adoptive parents during the 10-day wait, at least in those two regions.

    The Whitwells fought and endured another court case to get the judge to let them take their son back to their hotel from the orphanage.

    To make matters worse, the social worker, the orphanage doctor and various people had the “right” — and exercised it — to drop in and check on them with the baby. 

    They allegedly cited Cyril’s situation to justify doing this. Word was going around that Americans killed babies in Russia.

    They would also see some more of the system’s ugliness first hand.

    Before they left Izhevsk , the facilitator handed them a videotape, allegedly of referrals. They were instructed to send it to Denise Hubbard (or Dennis Gornostaev) once they returned to the United States.

   When Dmitry in Moscow picked them up at the airport, (with no Julia, I may add — looks like she ended up leaving for a better-paying position after all), he asked them if they were given a videotape. They said yes. 

   Dmitry shook his head. 

   “You’re not taking it to America” he said.  “Please give the tape to me.”

   They handed him the tape. No other proof was necessary as to the split between Dennis and Denise.

   And it wouldn’t surprise us if she lied to the families in America who were expecting these referrals. If there were any families to be had.

    What’s one more broken heart, after all, when you’ve already trampled at least two other families’ hopes and dreams into the mud for the greater glory of your agency?

    Sadly, the chicanery didn’t end with the adoption.

   Towards the end of April, we sent Charlene Whitwell to the ICAR site to post their experience with BBAS. A week later, she received a telephone call from Denise claiming to have “found” her comments. Charlene had posted she felt they had been misinformed and overcharged for their child's adoption.

   Charlene was hurt, to say the least by Denise's actions and words.

    Denise asked her to type a letter detailing their complaints and mail it to Building Blocks.

   “Since she asked me to, I did it!” Charlene wrote. “In retrospect, I wish I hadn’t done it, because it’s all in the past now. But I was angry, and so I did it.

   “[I l]et her have it about [their son]’s HIV test, lost documents when we got overseas, the lie regarding our first referral loss. Basically we listed everything we were not pleased with. 

   “Since then, she has cut off contact with us. I can only hope and pray that she is decent enough to forward our post placement reports on to Russia after we send them to her. I would think she would …”

    In July 2000, as I was checking out the ICAR site myself, I went straight through the roof. 

   Charlene's post had been removed. Our slight post had been removed as well.

    While attempting to resubmit it, a bizarre message popped up on the computer screen. I emailed the person in charge and went ballistic, threatening them with legal action if we were not allowed to put our post back up. He claimed that it was a “scripting error” that had caused this problem.  This was before Amrex had begun its Transparent Systems software.

    Perhaps that was the case.  As far as we were concerned, Amrex and Denise Hubbard had caused our post and Charlene's post to be taken down.

    In the end, we got what we wanted and our post remains — dead last.  The Whitwells’ post was never reinstated.

    Denise never forwarded on the Whitwell’s postplacement reports to Russia, Instead,  she forwarded them on to Amrex.  

    Why did Denise send them Amrex when the Whitwells did not deal with Amrex?

    The Whitwells worked the problem out.  We discuss their post-placement issues here.

   Currently, the Whitwells report that their son is a handful, is bright and catching on to life in America.  We and they remain in email contact, and she and her husband have added to their family: another Russian, a baby girl from St. Petersburg joined them in December 2001.  And, happily, they added a biological sibling two years later - a little boy.  The Whitwells continue to advocate and donate for their son's orphanage in Izhevsk as well.

   Needless to say, they used another agency for their daughter's adoption. 

    “Liz” and her husband traveled there in February 2000 to adopt their baby boy. Thanks to conversations with us and Linda Wright, they were well prepared for what to expect — and fortified with medications from their pediatrician.

     By that time, the orphanage director Dr. Kolodkin's feet were being held to the fire. He was unpleasant to them as he had apparently been the one held responsible.

    Most importantly, a new rule had been instituted in Perm: parents could not take their babies out of the orphanage for the waiting period. Instead, the parents had to visit the baby every day at the orphanage.

    While Liz  and her husband were in Russia picking their son up, Linda Wright called them. They told Linda that their baby was small and thin, much like Cyril had been.  

    He did, however, eat voraciously, unlike Cyril. They didn’t like the attitude they were shown by the orphanage director, but in the end, their son came home.

    They also told Linda another story worth repeating here. 

    Another family traveled with them at the same time. They were using the Adoption Center of Washington to adopt their daughter from the same orphanage. Happily, their daughter was okay as well. 

    Linda would later ask both of these families of they could obtain any information on Ekaterina, but all to no avail.  

    Linda was indeed still concerned for Ekaterina; she had wanted to make sure that she had not contracted what had led to Cyril’s death. She hoped and prayed for the best outcome for the little baby girl she had traveled halfway around the world to adopt.

      I am happy to say that although Liz’s baby was tiny when he came home, he has since thrived in the years since he has been home. He has no developmental delays and Liz reports that he keeps her on the go. This is the way things should go.

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