ROSTOV REGION ADOPTION STORY
Parent referral for the Rostov region
It is my pleasure to act as a referral for the Rostov region. After all, we have already planned that Lara’s sister will be coming from there…we would even love for her to come from the same baby home, Baby Home #4. However, I have to say that all of the Rostov baby homes are of very high quality. I spent the whole month of March in Rostov and met a lot of couples adopting. They all were very impressed with the conditions their children were living in.
As far as not having a lot of advance information: initially, we were concerned, as we had been so prepared for advanced info after all our reading, etc. But then, we really felt that even if you do get advanced information and a picture, etc—you really still can’t “know” until you see a child in person. Once you see your child, you can email digital pictures and even digital videos to your doctor in the states. We have both a digital camera and digital camcorder. The business center at the Intourist in Rostov has Internet, computers and a T-1 and LAN Network with which you can download and email all your pictures or videos. My husband brought his laptop with him and hooked it up to their LAN network. To tell you the truth, we never did send our digital videos to our doctor, as we accepted the referral the day we met our daughter. We sent her many digital photographs though and she affirmed our decision, together with the medical history we gave to her by email.
One thing to keep in mind about not having a video: more and more regions of Russia are moving to eliminate the video altogether. The Ministry of Education hates the practice and is urging the regions to outlaw it. It is predicted that eventually it will be illegal everywhere to give advanced videos.
More about the quality of any referral you would get from the Rostov Region: my husband is a physician and was so impressed by the quality of medical care the children receive there. There is an average of three physicians on staff at every baby home—one MD is always on for every shift. There are about 3 nurses or so and many caregivers. They are hyper-vigilant about the health of the children (to the point where it was almost too much…but better too much than too little). There were days when we were asked to wear facemasks if they felt there was something going around. This was the same experience of all the couples we met—no matter which baby home their child was in. There is also a head child development teacher in every home together with several child development teachers under her. The head teacher tracks the children’s developmental milestones each week and make recommendations to the other teachers and caregivers as to what type of stimulation, etc. the child might need to meet the required milestones. Lara, our daughter, is actually ahead (by the Denver Developmental Scale that pediatricians use) by 2-3 months. She is 10.5 months old now and her milestones are that of a 12 to 13 month old.
The caregiver/child ration at Baby Home #4 (and most of the others that I heard about from other couples) was 2 caregivers to every room of 8 children. We felt that was excellent—that is a 1:4 ration. I have to tell you that we felt the care in the baby homes there was better than most day-care situations here in the States. The children eat so well there (they are all on a Similac-equivalent 3 times/daily and then are given everything else for meals—Lara eats everything and I have heard the same from the couples I am keeping in touch with since we got home). The children in Rostov region all wear Pampers and Huggies.
Another good thing about Rostov is its manageability as a city.. It is neither too small, nor too big. It is a university town and full of the vibrancy that students bring. It has plenty of great coffee-dessert cafes, Italian and other European restaurants, a McDonalds (if you get homesick), a Western style supermarket where you by anything from Huggies to Pringles, to Gerber and organic baby food, to fresh squeezed orange juice and rack of lamb. The prices are like here—maybe a little cheaper. There are also plenty of shops along the main boulevard (the one that the Intourist Hotel sits on) and a theater right across from the Intourist where you can see the ballet for $6.00 (we had front-row seats for $6). There is a circus, a museum, and plenty of movie theaters. If you bring a lap-top with DVD player, you can literally buy all the current movies for $4 (the cost of renting them at Blockbuster).
May, 2003
