Hello from Kiev!!! My name is Sash Blevins (a recent high school graduate and a soon to be freshman at Belmont University this fall) and I am Marti's nephew and one of her travel partners on her trip to the Ukraine this June. Marti and I have been discussing for years about the possibility of me coming on one of her MDI trips here to the Ukraine, you must understand that I have a special interest in the Ukraine given that it is my home country. You see I was born here and lived in an orphanage here in Kiev until I was two. Then I was adopted by a family from Indianapolis, Indiana and have lived there for the past 17 years. So it has always been a desire of mine to return to my birth country. After many discussions and years of saying that I wanted to accompany Marti on a trip to Kiev, I finally pulled the trigger and here I am.
I had several things that I wanted to accomplish while on this trip. First I wanted to come and understand the country that I was born in and lived for two years. I wanted to see what DNA was like in comparison to other Ukrainians. Secondly, I had the privilege and opportunity to visit the orphanage that I was an orphan at. It was on our third day, Wednesday June 2nd that we visited Birchwood, the baby house the I lived in for two years. The "orphanage" was renovated in 2005 and houses anywhere from 75-125 babies. It is a house mostly for the babies who are very sick (HIV positive, Down Syndrome, and other illnesses). It has recently moved to this kind of orphanage within the past couple of years. We were able to tour some of the orphanage, which is broken up into three classes based on the age of the child. We then met with the head of the orphanage Valentina, who has been the head of the orphanage since it started meaning that she was there when I was, and she remembered me. We brought along a small photo album that showed pictures ranging from my time in the baby house to present day. Valentina was delighted to see the pictures of one of her children whom she cared for had grown up. She went on to say how fulfilling and rewarding it was to see her work, time, and effort being translated into an orphan having a home. She then said that she would find my record and tell me what she knew.
So in the meantime we went out in the yard and several babies were in their strollers napping (hey who wouldn't want to nap outside on a sunny 70 degree day). We mingled over there, and it was there in that moment that I had my epiphany. I sat there on the bench and slowly rocked the baby as they napped. Looking into their eyes I realized that 18 years ago I was in the same place that they were now. I was there in a baby house, an orphan, put into this place because my parents were either drug addicts, alcoholics, or simply didn't want me. But a year and a half later I was adopted, put in a new family, given a real mom and dad who loved and cared for me, and I was given hope. Holding that baby, looking into their beautiful and innocent eyes I wanted to say to them that there is hope.
Valentina was able to find out new information about me. In 1991, the first year that this orphanage opened they received just over 84 babies. I was the 53 child received. My name was Fazliev Alexander Igorevich and I stayed in the hospital till September. My mother who was 18 years old relinquished her custody of me a few days before I as born. They say that no father was present and because of this they believe that my mother had me out of wedlock and was embarrassed to tell her parents about me because they idea of being pregnant before marriage is looked down upon heavily in Ukrainian culture. They say that my father was probably Ukrainian and my mother was Bashkirian (a people group who live in the Ural Mountains and are known to be smaller (curses) and healthy people who are known for living long). I was one of the first babies adopted. After learning all of this we had to bid a farewell to Valentina and the others at Birchwood, but only after thanking them for their efforts and live they show to these orphans. They told me that the children know that whenever they see Valentina that a child is being adopted, knowing this the children always run up to Valentina when they see her and say, "Bring me mama too." I am still processing all that I saw Wednesday, but let me tell you that it was a once in a lifetime experience to visit my first home, see where I lived, visit other orphans who were much like me, and to do that all with my two loving parents standing right beside me.
Many of you have already the amazing story of Tanya Baranova, director of MDI's Journey to Freedom Ukraine program.
