Bring Anya Home Fund
c/o National Grand Bank
91 Pleasant Street
Marblehead, MA 01945
(Checks can be made out to " Bring Anya Home Fund")

May 30st 2006 update: Thank you to all the generous contributors to the "Bring Anya Home Fund." As of May 30th, we have raised $8,000! As most of you know, we made Trip One of our adoption process at the end of April. Meeting Anya was nothing short of miraculous. Nastia and Anya were inseparable the entire trip! Saying goodbye was painful, but we assured Anya we would be back the moment we received a court date for her adoption. Meanwhile, the paperwork continues!

I am currently waiting to find someone to translate my documents and send them over to Russia. We are trying to do this adoption independently, to save money. (But we do have a back-up plan if that proves to difficult!) Independent adoptions are legal in the Kemerovo Region, where Anya lives. I am in touch with several families who have successfully adopted independently & their advice is invaluable. Adoption Advocate Maureen Flatley is still guiding us through the process, answering our never-ending questions, and keeping us hopeful.

I also have spoken at length to Russian Attorney Irina O'Rear, and her recommendations were extremely helpful. We still talk to Anya whenever we can reach her, though lately it has been difficult to get through to her. We also have a wonderful new friend in Kemerovo who has internet access. She translates letters for Anya that I send her via email and hand delivers them to the orphanage once a week! We have also sent several packages over since arriving home. I will be sure to post news over the summer, when we know more definitively what our timeline will be. Thanks again everyone!

Anastasia (Nastia) Cahill spoke with her sister Anya Turovinena for the first time in her life on Thanksgiving Day. It had been twelve years since they had last seen each other, having been separated when Nastia was only 18 months old. Anastasia Turovinena had been taken from her birth mother in 1993 and placed in a hospital for one year. Her mother’s rights were terminated and, after leaving the hospital, Nastia was placed in the first of two orphanages. The facts are cloudy as to why the sisters were separated, but Anya says she went to live with her paternal grandmother for a number of years before entering an orphanage. Perhaps the grandmother could not care for two young children IN any case, they lost track of Anastasia, and would never see her again in the next 12 years. Anya had no idea where her little sister had been taken.She longed to see her sister again, and tried to locate her once she was old enough to ask the right questions. All this time, Nastia nurtured a dim memory of an older sister for years, not knowing if it were a true memory or just a fantasy she had dreamed up during her lonely years as an orphan. She would play “sisters” at the orphanage, and ask her best friend Julia to play her big sister. It was a constantgame during her years at the orphanage. Little did she know that four hours  away in another Kemerovo region orphanage, her sister , her real sister, was thinking of her.

In March of 2005 I walked into  Detsky Dom #5 in Kemerovo and met my daughter Anastasia. She was cautious and very defensive, but her intelligence and big heart shone through her tough exterior. Within months we were home and creating a new life together. Almost immediately Nastia started to tell me of her sister. Just before I adopted her she had received a letter from a girl named Anya claiming to be her sister. In her letter, she told Nastia all about their birth parents and early life together. She wanted her sister to know she loved her and wanted to see her. It had taken her quite a bit of time to track Nastia down, as her orphanage was a full four hours drive from Anya’s orphanage. Nastia was overjoyed at the news. She told me she packed a little bag of the few toys she owned so that when her sister came to “get” her, she could leave immediately. Sadly, someone at Nastia’s orphanage had misplaced Anya’s letter and Nastia was unable to respond to her sister. When I adopted her, her first wish was to find this sister.

While in Kemerovo for our final court date, we tried to locate Anya, but it was a lost cause. No one could give us any information, and we were due to leave within a few days. I promised her that, once home in America, I would get to work on finding her.  My friend Lindsay Wilson had recommended I join a sibling search group run by Mary Kirkpatrick. Armed with only the name of the birthmother, I contacted Mary, who got Alex ______ in Russia on the job. Meanwhile, I started researching orphanages in Kemerovo, assuming that Anya was likely there as it was her birthplace.

Within days Mary emailed the news that Alex had located the birthmother. She confirmed that Anya was indeed in a Kemerovo orphanage…number six. With this critical information, Nastia jumped on the computer, frantic to find a phone number for this orphanage. She located it via one of Mary’s links, and called. She spoke briefly to someone and then put down the phone, sobbing. Orphanage number six had closed years ago. This number was not for the orphanage anymore, and they had no idea who she should contact.  What could she do? I tried to console her and told her we would find a way to locate her, it would just take time. My determined daughter decided she had waited long enough. She begged me to help. I told her that Anya was likely moved to another Kemerovo orphanage. So, Nastia looked up all seventeen listed homes in the Kemerovo area and vowed to call every one of them. I told her that we should pray first. I knew that even if she called every one of those numbers, it was very likely no one would give her information over the phone. But surely God wanted her to find her sister. So she agreed and we prayed, right there in front of the computer. “ God, please you find me my sister.” She then called one of the 17 numbers at random and a woman answered. In Russian Nastia explained, “ I hope you can help me. I am trying to locate my sister. She was in Children’s Home #6 in Kemerovo, but it has been closed. I wondered if you knew where the children from this home were sent.”

The woman responded, asking the name of the child Nastia was searching for.“ Anya Turovinena.” The woman told her to wait a moment. Nastia  waited, and then suddenly I saw her face beaming. “ Mama, she is there! She is there! My sister!” The woman on the phone told Nastia that her sister was indeed a resident of THIS orphanage she had called at random! She asked Nastia to wait while she tried to locate her. After 10 minutes she came back on the phone and said she was obviously out of the building and Nastia should try back later. We were in shock. What are the chances that her sister was in the ONE home Nastia had called? What are the chances that they would even allow them to talk? We were overjoyed. When we called back a few hours later, Anya answered the phone herself. Her voice was so sweet and quiet! The two reunited sisters talked for 20 minutes. I did not dare interrupt, and so I’m not sure of everything that was spoken, but I know both of their hearts were over-full, and their lives were forever changed. Since then, we have called countless times. Nastia and Anya are getting to know one another, and talk like old friends…laughing, even arguing already! It’s a joy to behold. This week we received photos of Anya from Alex who visited her this week. Nastia was very pensive when she saw her sister’s photo for the first time, and asked me to print one . She took it to her room and closed the door. An hour later I saw her holding up her sister’s photo to her face, looking in the bathroom mirror. I think the gift of seeing someone who looked like her overwhelmed her. She was a bit in shock.."

It’s been a few days now, and Nastia seems to have adjusted to this new information. It’s as if her puzzle has been complete. She is positively radiant.  Imagine finally seeing the sister you had only dreamed of? Imagine finally knowing she is a real, living person, with eyes like you, and a smile just like yours? I am so happy for my daughter I could burst. I wish everyone the joy my daughter is now experiencing.

And so now we move onto part two of this wonderful story! Anya wishes to be adopted, and now we begin the arduous task of determining whether it can happen and, if it can, how to possibly finance it! But, you know what, God is good. If Anya is meant to be a part of our family on THIS side of the Atlantic, it WILL happen. With God’s Grace and my daughter’s determination, anything is possible!