Sorry for the delay! We have not looked at email since the morning we went looking to separate from Maxim...
So Maxim is ten years old and does not have any issues - he is healthy - he sees fine, he thinks, breathes, walks etc. fine. He can read, speak etc. Apparently when the children got taken from their mother -three years ago - she was not feeding them and they were left at home alone to care for themselves. The father was in jail and the mom was drinking. So Maxim was almost 7 at the time, Sasha would have been 5, Christina 4, and Tania 3...
The three younger kids were moved to the orphanage in Severdonetsk and Maxim was brought to the local orphange in Teplogorsk. We beleive that Maxim was kept in the local orphanage as they needed the numbers.
The orphanage that Max is in is a special needs facility - although the photos on the wall of the place do not show anything of this nature. It was told to us by the SDA that this fourth child had mental retardation and would be no problem to separate. They had no photo attached to the referral and no further info. The inspector of Severdonesk thought he might have cerebral palsy so we expected a child drooling in a bed in a room with others. The Inspector of Teplogorsk (well actually she is in another city - don't ask me to name it - it is certainly Russian to me, ha!) anyway the new Inspector showed us a picture of the fourth child and we had to ask, what is wrong with him? She said, I think he is normal!
So here is what the medical doc told us when we visited Max the second time... he had like a T70 (something like that, Sasha the facilitator might remember better) which means some technical mental slowness.. but he is quiet and when the Doc explained that Maxim is emotional, Sasha asked "is he aggressive," and she answered "no, he turns in."
So what we can figure from what we have seen, and heard from him as well as the caregivers and director is that Maxim is a quiet and shy boy that when he gets overwhelmed - he shuts down and goes inside himself and can't express his feelings well so he shuts up/down.
Our thought too on Maxim is that he was overwhelmed with the conditions of things with the three other kids when their mother was drinking and not caring for them so he was left in charge. He might have shown fear and scareness differently so they thought their was something wrong with him. He is a very small child, I think he is smaller than Sasha who is 2 years younger than Maxim. But Maxim appears to be fine!
So hope that brings you up to speed!
Erik and I have an Au Pair from Ukraine that is currently at our house in WDC. Her name is Mariya (she goes by Masha) and she is on the cc line. Also Clinton Blair and Jennifer Bindhammer are dear friends in the DC area. Clinton was involved with getting the paperwork picked up from DATZ and getting it to apostilled and fed exed to Kiev. He communicates with Jana well. He may be able to assist again (I thank you Clinton for putting you involved again!)
Masha is Russian and a Ukraine speaker, and this is her fourth family she has been with. She will be with us til the summer. She is currently working to fit two bunk beds in one room at the house.
Our house is a three level house (but we separated the lower level from the top two to accomodate a half bath so it took the place of the stairs) so you have to go thru a separate entrance to get to the lower level. The lower level is rented to a dear gal named Tammy.
The main level of the upper two level (our part of the house) has a half bathroom, a front room, dining room, kitchen and family room with front and back porch and a back enclosed yard. The upper level has 2 bathrroms, and 2 full bedrooms and a small third bedroom. Currently Masha, the Au Pair, is in the third bedroom.
Erik had more time off than I do and will likely be staying home a bit when we return home. We will have the Au Pair helping with getting a routine down as well as continuing with the language transition.
Erik and I started looking into schools for the children before we left and Masha has gone to a few of them to observe and see what is offered to the kids.
Masha has a teaching education and is planning to help teach the kids English and get them more accustomed to the culture change.
Masha is 25 years old and is a very responsible lady! She has been translating things for us from both Russian to English and vice versa in order to communicate with the orphange staff here as well as with the kids and the caregivers.
We have had Ben Robinson's sister in law with us at the orphanages this past five days and she opened up conversation with the kids and the English/Russian language lessons have begun. This is a great change as two weeks ago the three kids were not interested in learning English. We have three workbooks and they have gone thru one of them so far.
Erik and I are learning and picking up some Russian language as well. It is showing that we are becoming more credible with the kids as we learn more words! The concern from Christina (the 7 year old) two weeks ago was that Mom and Dad may not understand what toy she is asking for.
I think that answers your questions.
****** If everyone on the cc line (Masha, Clinton, and Jennifer) contact Amy that would be great! I appreciate all your assistance on this.
Amy - I sent photos of Maxim and I think you should have others from the email/s sent. So you know who we are with out here.
All - please check out the blog... and if you could sign up/sign on - whichever is the option than you will get updates emailed to you when their are updates. A dear friend Erick Wand is updating the blog as he can.
Thanks all!
-Heidi and Erik Brun
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