8/19/05Winston Churchill once called Russia a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma. But for Victoria and Richard Reynolds, Russia has provided answers instead of riddles and mystery.

The parents of three grown children, the couple missed the challenges and rewards of parenthood. They had been considering adoption for several years when Victoria read an article about Russian orphans who find themselves in dire circumstances after being released from state care at age 16.

The teen-agers, many of whom have spent their entire lives in an orphanage, are sent to live alone in halfway houses that often also house the criminal and mentally ill. Russian orphans frequently are forced into prostitution or drug dealing to survival and have a life expectancy of 23, Richard said.

"There are a lot of kids in the U.S. - we're very cognizant of that fact," he said. "But the kids in our foster system have foster homes, they are eligible for the same educational opportunities other kids are - and they live."

They turned their eyes eastward, deciding to chose a child from the Ukraine because the costs associated with adoption are less prohibitive and the process a little easier than going through the Russian system. They targeted the coming year as the appropriate time financially to begin the usual adoption process which involves traveling to the child's country, picking several children from photographs, meeting them for a short period of time and then beginning months of paperwork.

In the meantime, they opted to serve as a host family for AdoptionArk, an Illinois-based adoption agency that specializes in international connections between families and orphans. The agency was sponsoring a summer vacation program that brought 30 children, 14 from the Ukraine and 16 from Russia to meet Fresno area families. The goal of the program is primarily to give the children a summer experience but it also serves as a way for American families to meet children they may wish to adopt in a more relaxed setting.

All the careful plans changed when they met 12-year-old Katya and 11-year-old Dimi (short for Dimitri) at a pool party that was part of the children's three-week trip west.

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"The moment we met, we knew they were the kids for us," Richard said.

Katya, an animal lover, was immediately attracted to Richard because he had brought the family's bloodhound, Hunter, with him. She and Hunter would later become fast friends, even sleeping together on her first night in Lompoc.

Dimitri's entrance was a bit more dramatic.

"We had to wait for Dimi," Victoria said. "The car pulled up and Richard said, 'That's our boy.' I turned and he turned, he smiled and I smiled - it was an instant thing."

Although they had spent hours patiently repeating Russian phrases in anticipation of their meeting even practicing in the car on the drive to the party, it all went out the window when they were face to face with Dimi and his cousin Katya.

"They kept saying, 'privet, privet," which is like saying 'hi' - we just stood there," Victoria said.

But language did not prove to be much of a barrier during the rest of the children's stay, which included trips to Disneyland, Refugio Beach and Chuck-E-Cheese as well as more mundane activities such as washing the car, and plenty of 'downtime' at home, just relaxing.

The Reynolds did manage to use some of their halting Russian, although they were often corrected by their young charges.

"Every time I'd say something wrong, Dimi would say 'Nyet'," Victoria said. "But we would communicate by hand signs and faces."

The children also read and speak some English and they speak the universal language of computer games. Because potential adoptive parents often take gifts of videos with them to the orphanage, the pair also had a more than passing knowledge of American film and had seen all of the children's videos in the Reynolds home library.

"They knew all the dialogue. Spiderman is the big hero," Richard said. "Our son left his Xbox here when he went to college, they knew those games - pat."

By the end of the visit, the Reynolds knew they wanted to adopt both of the children they had hosted. The Reynolds also knew Dimi had a 10-year-old brother who was unable to come on the trip and because they felt strongly that siblings should not be separated they would need to arrange for three adoptions instead of two.

But Russian regulations required that they say nothing of their intentions to the children, who would be asked if they would like to be adopted by the family after they returned home and had resumed a more normal routine. It comes as a surprise to many of the host families that children often decline the offer of adoption, Richard said.

Such was not the case this time, the children all (even 10-year-old Yeugneay, known as Yaney) enthusiastically agreed. The family keeps in touch by telephone but now faces months of paperwork and the waiting.

"The hard part now is the waiting," said Richard. "Now we miss Dimi and Katya and even though we've never met him - Yaney."

Shelly Ingram can be reached at 736-2313, Ext. 105, or singram@lompocrecord.com.