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Serving a volleyball, senior and varsity volleyball player, Jessica Lemus practices her technique while warming up before the volleyball scrimmage at the Jamboree. For more photos of the Jamboree, see Page 12.
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Adoption brings student to U.S. Freshman reflects on her adoption, recent halt in adoptions from Russia By Kendall Pritchard At the age of 5, while most kids were outside with chalk on their driveways or riding their scooters around the neighborhood, freshman Nina Givotovsky only enjoyed these activities in her dreams. Nina, along with her two younger brothers, were born in Russia where she was brought up in an orphanage. “Everything at the orphanage was everyones,” Givotovsky said. “You didn’t own anything — toys, clothes, even a toothbrush.” Nina’s daily life in Russia was strict and unbearable at times. “You have to wake up at [a] certain time, and you could only go to the bathroom at certain times — not when you wanted to,” Givotovsky said. “You had to clean up every last crumb after you ate or else you would be punished. You would eat mostly soups every day with just beats and bologna. The only thing we’d drink was tea with sugar. There were no veggies except beets.” Nina is one of more than 60,000 Russian children who have been welcomed into American homes. But future adoptions of Russian children to U.S. couples have been stopped. In January, Russia banned adoptions between Russia and the United States. “I find it absolutely terrible,” Givotovsky said. “Kids won’t be able to have homes they deserve. Nothing good can come out of it.” At the age of 5, Nina was adopted along with her 3-year-old brother Alex. “Most kids were adopted when they were infants or small, small children,” Givotovsky said. “It was very, very rare to get adopted from age 2 on.” The siblings were fortunate to come to America with each other. Years prior, their youngest sibling was adopted to another family. They don’t know where he is now. Adoptive parents Laura Givotovsky and her late husband started the adop-
tion a year and half before stepping foot inside the orphanage. “We had to be home studied, have a medical examination, fingerprints, extensive background checks, countless court hearings, and it was a 14-hour plane ride from America to Russia,” Laura Givotovsky said. In the process of the home study, their home and everything involved in their day-to-day life was examined. Though the adoption process was lengthy, it was worth it to the Givotovsky family. “The one good thing about the orphanage was we got to say yes or no if we wanted to be adopted,” Givotovsky said. “I don’t really remember me saying ‘yes,’ but I know I must’ve.” Nina worries about the children still in Russian orphanages. According to UNICEF, more than 740,000 children in Russia are without parental care. For many Americans, the adoption ban is seen as retaliation against an American law targeting human rights abuses. “A lot of the adoptions were from Americans, and now closing off the adoptions, kids are just going to get older and will be completely unwanted by families,” Givotovsky said. “Once you turned 18, you were completely kicked out of the orphanage. You have no money, no belongings and no family. You were completely on your own after that point.” Nina and her family have not visited Russia since they left 10 years ago. Now, with the ban, they won’t be visiting anytime soon. Thankfully, she calls America her home now. “I love to read and have a book all to myself and having my own clothes,” Givotovsky said. “The fact I can be anything I want to be [in America] is pretty cool.”
Holding a photograph of herself at age 5 sporting a “very Russian hairdo for little kids,” Nina Givotovsky remembers her past fondly, but looks toward her future. Photo by Gage Nelson
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Vol. 124, Issue 1, Sept.11, 2013