SERGEI WRITES ABOUT HIS FAMILIES

FAMILIES

I have two families, my birth family and my family here in America.

The area where my ancestors lives in Russia was originally part of Ukraine so I am actually Ukrainian. My last name was Trush. My father's name was Valeri. My original name was Sergei Valerievich Trush. The middle name in Russian for boys and girls is their father's name. My mom's name was Zina. I remember her looking like my new mother, except with short hair. My sister says I look exactly like my father. I have two siblings; they had the same mother as me but a different father. My sister loved my father, and said he was a really good man. I have a brother who I only vaguely remember; when I was at home he was in the army. My older sister is named Nadezhda Albertovna, Nadia for short.

We did a search for my sister last year because I had not seen her since I was seven. Fortunately, she stayed in the same village so we could find her. We found out that she is married and has a little daughter named Yuliana, so I am her uncle.

When I was adopted, I came into the Kitching family. I met them when I was on an adventurous trip to America with some other boys and girls from my school. I don't really have an first impressions of my American family that I can remember since I was so curious and so excited about everything. I remember things about the trip. There weren't enough tickets for all of us children to stay together. I ended up sitting on the other side of the plane by some American businessman who shared candy with me. He let me watch movies on his laptop. He gave me a box of Kit Kats that he told me to share with my friends. In Michigan, I ended up visiting with four different families before I ended up with the right one.

I can't remember a lot about coming to my house the first time. I remember American strangers picking me up (in Ann Arbor) and I remember it felt like forever to get here. My mother tells me that the man in the house they picked me up from told her to watch me because I"d get into drawers. I remember that. I liked to look in all the drawers and find things that were interesting. Everything was interesting. Especially electronics. My mom took me to the office at St. Thomas and I saw a copy machine for the first time. I loved that! I can remember copying and I couldn't believe it. There were two songs I loved: "Macarena" and "Who Let the Dogs Out?" My mom made me a tape of them and I played them all the time.

I waited in Russia for my family for nine months. Of all the children who were adopted from that trip to America, I was the very last one to get picked up. In Rostov Nadia would sometimes come
randomly to the children's home to see me...so I waited. I didn't know how hard it would be for them to get me.

My American family has a mom and dad, an older brother Aidan and an older sister, Lydia. When my parents came to get me one of the first things they told me was that I was going to have a little brother. I'd been asking for a little brother, but I didn't meet him for almost a year.

My sister Lydia was nice to me, helpful. I used to help her with electronics. I could fix things for her and she was impressed and said that I was a lot more helpful than dad. Aidan was not living at home when I came, so I haven't gotten to know him very much. I hardly know him well enough to call him a brother. All my memories of him he has lived somewhere else. I do get excited when he comes, though. He is cool to have around. He treats us (Ilya and me) like guys, peers, not like little kids.

After I had my family for nearly a year my mom and dad took me back to Russia to get my little brother, Zhenya. It felt weird to be in Russia again, but was exciting to see the things I'd seen before. We went back to the same hotel in Moscow, the Ukraina, where I had been with mom and dad before. It was great to see the things in Ivanovo that I'd seen before. My parents took me back to the Interdom for a visit. I wanted to show myself to people that might have underestimated me when I was younger, kids mostly. I let the kids play with my hand game. We went out in the snow and ran around like the old days. I visited with the director.

I don't remember much about getting Zhenya. The first night we got him we were in the hotel and he couldn't sleep. He kept getting out of bed to light up his shoes that had the little LED lights in them. I remember that he wasn't used to cars and we all were driven in a van from Ivanovo to Moscow. Zhen threw up on that trip. Twice.

That summer we had a visit from a little girl who ended up becoming my sister Anastasia. That was such a nightmare. I don't like Anastasia. She has no common sense. She isn't smart like Ilya and me. It doesn't even seem that she and Ilya are related. She has nothing in common with any of us except Maxim.

Maxim is not part of our family but he has lived with us for longer than Ilya has. He came on a short visit in 2006 and stayed, but hopefully he will move out soon.


Ilya has been my brother for a year. He started out very shy like all of us (except Anastasia). He really likes working; he and I go together into a job that needs to be done and we have fun together and do a good job. We work when we are bored. We do the work, we get it done and we feel proud, and sometimes we get some kind of a reward. Not always.

My American parents are nice. I haven't stopped to put words to how I feel about them. It just does not seem right to write about them though. It seems insecure. Some things are private. I don't think about things that are obvious, right in front of me. But I think a lot, more than people would imagine.