This is post 3 of Neil’s Notes from his trip.

Monday, October 1st.

Today was to be Dima’s day of adoption. Everything that could have happened, happened as far as enabling this to go forward. We left at 8:00AM with David Campbell, Olia Valkovich and I. We headed first for Bihov to pick up Olga the adoption agent and next to the home of Rita Kuntikova who lives with her husband Igor.

They have raised 28 children.

Rita has many questions about Dima, some of which I can’t answer but she agrees to have him pay a visit to see how he will get on in this new environment. We have tea and cake and finally head off to Glusk.

We arrived at the Vesnovskii Orphanage Home and met with Klimovich Viacheslav Vladimiravich the Director. He agreed to the principle but wanted us to first have a time with Dima to see about compatibility.
The next two hours were heartbreaking as I watched Dima demonstrate his complete lack of control. His impulsive behavior, memory loss, total lack of any focus and at times highly aggressive behavior without provocation, all told of the damage he had received during his bazaar childhood with his mother Larisa Kustikova.

With six preschoolers and gas appliances there is no way for Dima to be placed in this household or any other that lacked two well-trained adults that could devote themselves to his care. We returned to the directors office and shared our concerns
Could he be given this type of one-on-one care here or should he be moved to different hospital that would address his specific needs. Hospitals, however, are organized regionally not according to different treatments – they are all equally non-specialized.

There is an Irish group that has been of great help to Dima’s hospital. Perhaps we can work with this group to assist in the hiring of extra psychiatric one-on-one trained professionals to see if this might ready him for a summer with the Kuntikov’s and possible future placement there. Rita has not closed any doors. She did make total sense to me in her decision to not go forward at this time.

Kuntikova Rita is a rare woman and a wonderful loving mother. Her success with children is amazing and I will bring the support of her foster home before the CAC board at the next meeting.

Needs: Huge needs list here: 6 preschoolers, 12 attending local school and 4 in university or career training, beds are in terrible shape, winter boots (big time), pots pans, dishes, towels, etc, etc Set up a room for packing for this family

David Campbell paid a visit to his Orphan education Program Child, Nina, a diabetic in Babrusk. I met with a girl named Natalia in Mishchitsi, near Babruisk. She was reached for on a French Canadian program that reunites persons who have lost touch. I took photos and a short video to be sent via Dave on the internet to TVA.