We Didn't Need the Past-Or So I Thought

摘要

Last year my husband and i were in St. Petersburg, Russia, meeting the family who had given up our daughters for adoption. I didn't want to go. I didn't want my daughters to go either. Olya and Anya, who had recently turned 18 and 15, hadn't visited since we'd taken them from the detsky dom, or children's home, five years before. It was only after we had flown to Russia and signed them out that we learned that although their father had died and their mother was unable to care for them, they did have family—a rather extensive one for two kids who were supposedly orphans. Not one grandma but two; an uncle, and Dima, the half brother who was too old to be adopted.