Birth Family Contact Resources
After attending an adoption conference in 2003, I learned that many families are contacting their child's birthmother. Today (2007), this trend to do an "international search" is growing rapidly. This is a very personal decision and one that should be made with much thought and consideration. My husband and I decided to make contact with all three of our children's birthmothers. We have since exchanged Christmas/Birthday cards, additional letters and pictures over the years. All three were extremely grateful for the letters we sent because they now have peace of mind knowing that their child is well cared for.
We used Victor to translate our letters. There are several other that will provide the same service (see list below). You also have the option of using a "Searcher" to contact your child's birthfamily. I have several resources listed below that come highly recommended by families on the Yahoo Birth Parent List.
*Scroll down for the list of searchers and translators.
This is how Victor's Service Works:
We first contacted Victor by email (His info is in the list below). I sent a short email introducing myself and family. He sent us an email explaining how his service works. He sent us sample letters to give us an idea of what to write. We wrote our letters and emailed them to him. We also sent two photos of each child (We scanned and emailed them). He printed the photos and sent them to the birthmother, along with the translated letter. I had the addresses for their birthmothers (I was missing the zip code for each. He was able to look that up for us.) The address for each birthmother was listed in the court documents that we received while in Russia. If you do not have the address, he charges $30 to locate it for you (He can do so if you have the full name, approx. birth date, and region the person resides). He sends the letter by registered mail from Briansk, Russia with a delivery notification receipt attached to it. At this time, we sent a check to his agent in CA. When the recipient gets the letter, the receipt is sent back to him. He then scans the receipt and sends it to you, this way, you know for sure that someone signed for the letter. If you get a reply, he translates it into English and sends the translation by email. He also scans the original copy of the letter and sends that to you also, along with the front and back of the envelope. If there are photos, he scans them and sends them by email. After receiving the letter, you then send a check to his agent in CA. His service is confidential. The recipient will know only his PO Box address in Briansk to send a reply to unless you wish otherwise. When we received our letter, we had a friend of ours (She speaks Russian) read the original letter. The translation was very accurate. The letters and photos are precious gifts that we will save for our children. We have taken the photos, saved them onto a disc, and had them printed on high-quality, photo paper from a professional (Lakeside Camera does a great job). All communication was done through a third party, Victor. The birthparents do not have to have your contact information or real names if you choose not to.
Other adoptive families have asked us if we have shown the letters and pictures to our children. Yes, we did show them the pictures and told them about the letters. Before we ever wrote to their birthmothers, we read children's books about adoption to them, told them their adoption stories, show them their lifebooks, read books about the topic written for adults and really prepared ourselves so that we would know what was age-appropriate for them. We want our children to feel completely comfortable in coming to us when they are confused or have questions. We want them to know that it is okay to discuss anything that is on their mind and that they are not "hurting our feelings" when they have questions that they want to ask about their birthparents.
If you are considering searching or have already started, I highly recommend that you join the Yahoo Birth Parent Group. Here, you can find answers to most of your questions and connect with others that have searched in your child’s birth country. This is a great “first step”! The group is growing by leaps and bounds and the majority of members on the list have adopted children from Russia. You can also search their database for references and other resources.
To join, go to:
Description of the Yahoo Birth Parent Group:
This group is for those who have adopted internationally and are contemplating contacting their child's birth parents or birthfamily. It is also for those who have already established contact with their child's birth parents or other birthfamily. It is a safe place for us to share our hopes, desires, and fears and explore our emotions surrounding this topic.
Adoptive Families Magazine had an article about birthfamily search in their April 2007 issue, “Special Report: Searching Abroad for Birthparents”. For resources listed in this article and sample birthmother letters, visit their website at: www.adoptivefamilies.com/birthfamilysearch
Searchers & Translators in Russia, Kazakhstan, Ukraine:
To find out more about the services provided, either visit their website or send an email asking for details about their services. Some of them are “searchers” and others are “letter translators”. The different is that some will translate and mail the letter for you in Russia (You send them the letter/scanned photos by email and they translate and send in Russia. If the birthmother responses, she does so by mailing the letter back to the “letter writer” in Russia, who translates and send to you by email). “Russian Searchers” will actually go to their home, tell the birthmother why they are there, and do an interview, take photos, make observations, etc. If you do not have an address for your child’s birthmother in their adoption paperwork, some of the following resources can do an “address search”. To hear from others that have used the following resources, I highly recommend that you join the
** These are searchers/translators used most often by those on the Birth Parent Yahoo List.
Ukraine Family Finders
Alexander Chizhenok (Russia)
Alex is a journalist in St Petersburg. He can easily do work in St Petersburg, but will consider travel to other areas when his expenses are paid.
Irek Bikkinin (Russia)
Penza, Ulianovsk, Tambov, Riazan, Nizhniy Novgorod, Saratov, Samara regions
Tatarstan (Kazan), Mordovia, & Chuvashia. Later, I could be able to travel to Orenburg region and Republics of Bashkortostan (Ufa), Mari El (Yoshkar-Ola) and Udmurtia (Izhevsk)
**Ruslan, Anna Sternad (Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Russia, Belarus) - Searcher
anna@internationaladoptionsearch.com
**Tony/Tanya Carruthers (Russia) - Searchers
It is probably best to send an email to all 3 email addresses.
**Victor Sluczewski (Russia, Ukraine, Kazakhstan) - Translation, mail delivery, and address searches.
It is probably best to send an email to all 3 email addresses:
Add all 3 addresses to your address book, and/or check your spam file if you have no reply.
If you send image files for big attachments, please use
RussianFamilySearch
Telephone 3 Way Translation Services in Russian and translations (in Russian - for any FSU country)
Elena Henrikson
541-672-3971
Legalife
This is a law firm in Moscow. They are probably expensive but might be of help
if you hit a dead end on getting documents, etc. They speak English, Italian &
Russian.
Finding Siblings
* Please research the above resources carefully and thoroughly. Contacting birthfamily can be a complicated and emotional endeavor. The user of the resources listed should consider information received as a starting point for the user's own research. The resources listed are not adoption professionals.
