- Andrey should be dead, and he knows it. Ask Andrey what
was meant to happen to him and he will gesture at his legs, making a cutting
motion. He mimes a knife slicing open his chest and his heart being pulled
out, and then he draws his finger across his throat.
-
- It was his grandmother, Nina Tkacheva, who came up with
the plan. Abandoned by his mother, Andrey was living in an orphanage outside
the town of Ryazan, about 130 miles south of Moscow.
-
- Then one day, three years ago, Tkacheva turned up to
collect him. She had arranged for a wealthy friend to take him to Disneyland
Paris, she said.
-
- Andrey was as excited, as any five-year-old would be
at the prospect of such a trip. He went with his grandmother to the big
square with the fountain in Ryazan, and while she chatted to the expensively-dressed
businessman who was going to take him away, Andrey sat with his Uncle Sergei
and Aunt Larisa in a nearby cafe. The businessman handed Tkacheva a bag
- and suddenly the square was full of police officers.
-
- "Whatís the problem?" Tkacheva asked
the police. But they knew the truth. The bag was full of dollars - £65,000
worth of dollars - and there was no trip to Disneyland. Tkacheva had sold
Andrey so that he could be taken out of Russia, killed and his organs used
for transplants in a foreign clinic.
-
- Scared, Andrey tried to run, but he was rugby-tackled
by a policeman. His aunt and uncle were arrested. Andrey did not understand
what was happening. All he knew was that his ticket to Disneyland was disappearing
into a police van and he was going back to the orphanage. He burst into
tears.
-
- A policeman, trying to console him, handed Andrey a bar
of chocolate. Still unaware of what his grandmother had done, the boy broke
it in two and ran over to her, offering her half. The police led him away,
put him in a car, drove him back to the orphanage and the room he shared
with eight other children.
-
- And there the story could have ended, had it not been
for Shaun and Josephine Moncur. A couple of evenings later, they were watching
the television in their home outside Glasgow when a news report from Russia
came on. It told the story of Andrey and reported that Nina Tkacheva, 54,
was now facing ten years in jail.
-
- But what caught Mr and Mrs Moncurís eyes was the
picture of the fair-haired boy. He was the spitting image of their own
son Andrew, eight. Then Andrew walked in and found himself looking at what
appeared to be a picture of himself on the television. Something clicked.
The couple decided they would try to adopt Andrey.
-
- It was the start of a battle against bureaucracy that
lasted almost three years and only ended this June, when they flew back
to Britain with Andrey at their side.
-
- Ask Mr Moncur now what it was that made them do it and
he still finds it difficult to explain.
-
- "I donít know what it was," he says.
"Weíd never even thought about adopting a child before Until
we saw his face.
-
- "There are millions of kids whoíve got stories
worse than his, but seeing the face on the television it was like seeing
one of our own kids. And there was the betrayal of his granny - I think
that was it. And there was the thing with the chocolate and how he broke
it in half and gave some to his granny. He hadnít a scooby about
was going on."
-
- Mr and Mrs Moncur already have five boys of their own:
Barry, William, Mark, Andrew and Ross. They live in a big house away from
the city and run their own business.
-
- They could have put the fact Andrey looked so much like
their sons down to coincidence and left it at that. Instead they started
making inquiries, contacting the news organisation that put out the story,
discovering that Andrey had been taken back to the orphanage.
-
- "We were quite concerned," said Mr Moncur.
"We were told he was in care in Ryazan. We thought he would be adopted
by a Russian couple because of the exposure it had. It was news here so
we thought it would be so much bigger over there,
-
- but that was not going to happen because of the situation
over there. They donít have a culture of adoption."
-
- It looked like Andrey was going to spend his childhood
in the orphanage, where the director believed in the importance of outdoor
physical exercise, even when the temperature stood at -24C.
-
- The Moncurs then contacted the education department in
Ryazan. They had decided to apply for adoption. Mrs Moncur, meanwhile,
enrolled on a course at Strathclyde University to start learning Russian.
-
- The application process was a battle from start to finish.
With eight months of social work investigation to endure and endless shuffling
between government departments, it was
-
- 27 December, 2002, before the paperwork, all 140 pages
of it, was complete. They began to make arrangements to go to Russia.
-
- "We were quite excited - we didnít know what
to expect of the country itself. Iíd never been to Russia before,"
said Mr Moncur.
-
- The temperature in Moscow when they arrived in early
February last year was -20C. There was snow on the ground and a bitter
wind blowing through the station as they stood waiting with their Russian
lawyer for the train to take them down to Ryazan.
-
- The orphanage stood 15 miles outside the city, two blocks
of bedrooms connected by a corridor housing the dining hall.
-
- "The wee man was in suit trousers and a waistcoat,
all dressed up in the best things they could find in his size, but the
trousers were rolled up and pulled up. He looked nervous and I felt sorry
for him," said Mr Moncur, talking of the moment they first met Andrey.
-
- "We were taken through to the nursery section. Weíd
taken some clothes for him - which were far too big because we were basing
them on our own kids - and a little football table to play with him and
he bonded very, very quickly.
-
- "We had been worried about whether he was going
to want to leave - would he want us? - but we were quite overjoyed.
-
- "He was told who we were and he started playing,
and at the end of the first day, at four oíclock, he started putting
all the toys away. He thought he was leaving but the social worker told
him he had to have his medicals.
-
- " We felt heartbroken, but he told her, ëWhy
do I have to have medicals, Iím perfectly healthy?í He knew
he was OK, he knew that no-one would be prepared to part with all that
money for something that wasnít perfect. He knew what had been planned."
-
- Next to their hotel in Ryazan was a play area and the
couple asked permission to take Andrey back with them, but that needed
the agreement of the orphanage director and he was away. Andrey was deflated.
-
- On their last day, though, word came through that the
director had agreed. "We got him to the play area and he only had
an hour but he crammed one hell of a lot into that hour. He played on everything,"
said Mr Moncur. "He rushed back and told the social worker, ëNow
I believe they will come back for me.í That was quite touching -
it was a good point for us to leave on that note."
-
- For six weeks the Moncurs had to wait, the cooling-off
period allowing all sides to think about what they were doing, but finally
word came from the lawyer to say that they had a court date.
-
- Back to Russia they went. The courtroom was a bare, intimidating
room, a steel cage at one side where prisoners would normally stand. There
were questions, pauses for translation and then it was over. "The
judge said to us, ëCongratulations, you are true friends of Russia
and we are forever in your debtí," recalled Mr Moncur. "After
that, it was just putting the paperwork together, getting the adoption
certificate and the birth certificate."
-
- They couldnít wait. They spoke to the orphanage
and the staff agreed that they could drive over and take Andrey back to
the hotel while they waited.
-
- "He was playing with the other kids but as soon
as he saw the car he rushed over and there was a big hug for mum. He was
quite boisterous - he wanted away there and then," said Mr Moncur.
"He was very nervous in case we changed our minds."
-
- Andrey said goodbye to his friends and got into the car
for the drive back to the hotel, where they had arranged for an extra bed
to be placed in their room for him. They need not have bothered. That night,
for the first time, he slept between them in their bed.
-
- The next day, they went for a walk around Ryazan, Andrey
excitedly pointing out to them the square.
-
- "He told us, ëThis is where my granny was lifted.
She was going to sell me for organsí," said Mr Moncur.
-
- Waiting for a visa from the British embassy, there was
another delay. Andrey, seven, had to be interviewed before the visa could
be granted. He was asked if he was excited about going to England. Andrey
replied crossly that he was going to Scotland. Was he excited about going
on an aeroplane? Andrey had had enough. He told the embassy woman that
she was an idiot and he was not answering any more stupid questions. The
translator paraphrased, diplomatically. With their flight due to leave
that night and with the embassy due to close in two minutes, the visa was
granted.
-
- They arrived at Heathrow the next day, 26 June, Andrey
initially disappointed that he was in England, not Scotland, but he made
a friend on the train journey north and it was quickly forgotten. When
they arrived at his new home, he disappeared to explore.
-
- At first, Andrey could not see the point of learning
English - after all, he could say "no" and "ice cream"
and what other words could a boy need? - but he is listening and picking
up words. He gets on well with their other children and is going to school,
accompanied by Mrs Moncur, although only for the mornings at the moment.
-
- More than two months after he arrived, the Moncurs are
pleased with the way he is settling in.
-
- He sleeps alone and suffers no nightmares. But ask him
what happened on that day in October three years ago and he still remembers.
-
- ©2003 scotsman.com
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- http://www.thescotsman.co.uk/index.cfm?id=980832003
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