We are Jim Duncan and Janie McMahan from Austin, Texas. We have a 23 year old son, Wade; he is Janie's biological child. Wade lives and works in Austin. Our 16 year old son, Yaroslav (Yarik) was adopted from Russia at 11 years of age from Ivanovo, Russia. Our 13 year old son, Ilya, was adopted at 12 years of age from the Gagarin boarding school in the city of Gagarin, in the Smolensk region of Russia. We were able to fund Ilya's adoption with help from A Child Waits Foundation.

Ilya is generally healthy. We did have to have him evaluated for some treatable conditions such as nocturnal enuresis, strabismus and dental issues resulting from poor dental hygiene. We had Ilya evaluated by a pediatric urologist when he arrived home with us. Fortunately, there were no physiological reasons for his nightly bedwetting. Medication was prescribed but that was not successful in treating the condition. We eventually had him wear a monitor at night, which alerted him if he was wetting the bed. Ilya was motivated to find a solution to the problem, and the monitor helped tremendously. We are happy to report that he has outgrown the bedwetting and does not have to worry about it anymore. Ilya now wears glasses to strengthen his "lazy eye." That has also been helpful to him. He had to have two root canals, two dental fillings and two tooth extractions!

Ilya lived in an internat, or boarding school, in Gagarin, Russia. The internat included several buildings grouped together, which included a school building, a residential "dormitory," and a kitchen/dining building. The school, while certainly not up to our standards in the U.S., was fairly nice. It included a computer lab for the children, which had been donated to the school. The dormitory was not in very good condition, in our opinion. We have an older son from another city and orphanage in Russia, and Ilya's living quarters were not in as good a condition, comparatively. The building was worn and in disrepair. We were there in the spring time and it was a bit "smelly" inside the building, as well. The children's rooms were sparsely furnished, but each child had a bed and a small area where they could keep any personal items or clothing. Our experience and observation of the two orphanages we have seen in Russia is that the orphanage directors and caregivers do the best they can with the little they have. On a positive note, the surroundings of the Gagarin internat were pretty. The birch trees were tall and beautiful. The grass was green. The children were out in the fresh air playing.

Russia - June 2004

Since this was our second trip to Russia, we had a pretty good idea of what to expect. Our first trip to Russia was in the winter, so being in Russia in the spring time for our second trip was very nice. It's a beautiful country.

When we arrived at the internat in Gagarin, we initially went to the office of the orphanage director to meet her and visit with her. The "inspector" for the region was there, as well as an orphanage social worker. We were told that Ilya had a bank account, which was now under our control since we were now his parents. That was a little surprising. We offered to purchase anything the orphanage needed with the money in the bank. We were taken to the bank to sign some paper work and then given the funds in Ilya's bank account. We were then taken to an appliance store and purchased a television, VCR and some soccer balls and basketballs for Ilya's orphanage group. That entire situation was surprising and a bit puzzling to us. We had never heard of a situation like that. We suspect, after reading some of the documents related to Ilya's father losing his parental rights, that the funds came from some sort of wage garnishment from his father, but we are not certain of that. And, the money was not a large sum, by our standards….around $350. However, it was substantial to the orphanage.

We found everyone we met in Russia to be very helpful and happy to see a child find a good home. Our MOST interesting interaction with anyone was when we got to meet Ilya's "second grandmother." We found out while we were in Smolensk that Ilya was very, very close to a woman who was a neighbor and good friend of his maternal grandmother, who is now deceased. "Baba Toma" was heartbroken to see Ilya leaving, but happy that he was going to be in a good family. Toma came to meet us at our hotel in Smolensk and we got to visit with her. She brought us a photograph of Ilya's mother, who died when Ilya was 7 years old, to bring back to America with us. We all cried as Ilya and Toma said their very tearful good-byes to each other. However, we continue to keep in touch with Toma by phone and mail. She has been very happy and grateful that we have allowed the two of them to stay in touch.

Ilya with "Baba Toma" ~~~~~~Ilya at orphange with Social Worker

When we saw Ilya in Russia, it had been 11 months since we put him on a plane to return to Russia. The previous summer, Ilya had been in our home for six weeks through Kidsave International's Summer Miracles program. It was very exciting and emotional to see him again. He had a huge smile on his face when he walked in the orphanage director's office to see us. Janie said to him, "Ilya, you look older!" His response via the translator was "You look older, too!" (Just what a 50 year old woman wants to hear! Ha Ha!) It was like no time had passed and we were all just as comfortable around each other as we had been the previous summer when he was in our home. It was great!

We believe Ilya has integrated very well into our family. The adjustment, particularly for older children, can be very difficult. While Ilya has had some "moments," overall he's done extremely well in his adjustment and integration. He has probably been at an advantage since he has a brother who is three years older, who is also from Russia, and had to go through the same process of adjusting to life in a family, a new country, new language, new friends, etc.

Things are going very well. Ilya is 13, almost 14, years old. He's a typical American teenager in many ways. (Is that a good thing or a bad thing? Ha Ha!) He's made great progress in school and his teachers are very pleased with his progress. Our families have accepted him as if he has been with us from birth (as they have treated his brother) and none of us can imagine life without him! He's a great kid!

We are so grateful for the financial assistance provided to us by A Child Waits Foundation. Foreign adoptions, unfortunately, are not inexpensive and we would not have been in a position to adopt Ilya without the help we received from A Child Waits. We were able to access some personal funds for the adoption of our first son from Russia. However, three years later, we did not have the money available to us to fund another foreign adoption. And, we knew that Ilya should be a part of our family. We have seen God's hand in both of our adoptions. Doors have opened to allow us to bring both of our boys home to us. A Child Waits Foundation was one of the many doors God opened for us to be able to bring Ilya back to America. We will always be grateful to you!

The McMahan's

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