From Russia With Love
How two little boys who were best pals in a Russian orphanage brought two American families into a lifelong friendship
By Melba Newsome

PARENTS MAGAZINE – SEPTEMBER 2004 issue

At the Dallas/Fort Worth airport, in the international terminal, 4-year-old Trey Heaton paced back and forth. He ran to the elevator doors every time they opened, only to be disappointed when strangers emerged. Then, after an hour, the wait was over. The doors opened, and his best friend, Vladdy, was there. The two boys rushed toward each other, hugged, and screamed with joy. Three weeks earlier, Trey and Vladdy had said tearful goodbyes to each other in a Russian orphanage. Now, the boys, ecstatic, were rolling on the floor and chattering in a language their parents barely understood—their happy reunion the final step of two couples’ yearlong effort to fulfill their dream of adoption.

Born to Be Parents
In January 2001, Ruth Ellen and Bill Heaton visited the Buckner International Adoption agency, in Dallas. The couple had been married ten years and was ready to bring a child into their lives. “Adopting an older child who needed a home felt like the right choice for us,” Ruth Ellen explains.

A month later, Kari and David Hunt made the 200-mile trip up from Austin to the same agency. “David and I were trying to get pregnant and had learned that we needed fertility treatments,” Kari explains. “We had always talked about adoption as an option and ultimately decided to go that route rather than taking the drugs.” After some initial investigation, both couples had separately decided that an international adoption would be quicker and easier than a domestic one. In late June 2001, during the agency’s mandatory two-day international-adoption seminar, the Hunts and the Heatons met for the first time and hit it off right away. They stayed in close contact after the weekend and quickly came to rely on one another via long phone calls and frequent e-mailing during the sometimes frustrating adoption process. “We were all at the same point—waiting to get that call—so we’d turn to each other for support, Ruth Ellen says.
At the orphanage, Trey walked right up to Ruth Ellen, handed her a bunch of flowers, and said, “Hi, Mom,” in Russian.
The call comes from a caseworker who tells the would-be parents that they have a child. The Heatons got the news first. Their son, 4-year-old Trey, was waiting for them in a St. Petersburg orphanage. Ruth Ellen and Bill subsequently received a package with medical information and a video about their little boy.

“When Bill and I saw the video, we knew instantly that he was the child God had picked out for us,’’ Ruth Ellen recalls. “We watched that video about 50 times anti showed it to everybody we knew.”

Kari and David were thrilled for the Heatons but anxious for news of their own adoption—which they got just a week later. When photos and a video of 3-year-old Vladimir arrived. The Hunts were smitten.

“The minute I saw Vladdy’s face, I knew I was born to be his father,” David says. “He showed such hope and confidence. I thought, ‘How amazing that a child in that situation can he so happy and self-assured. I felt right then that we had a true connection.

As the Hunts and the Heatons waited to travel to meet Trey and Vladdy, they watched the videos repeatedly and discovered something amazing: “After a while we realized that Trey was in Vladdy’s video and Vladdy was in Trey’s,” Ruth Ellen says. “We talked to the translator, who confirmed that not only were they in the same orphanage, they were best friends. We couldn’t believe it.”

Before the Heatons left the orphanage that day, they also met Vladdy. He asked, “Where’s my morn and dad?” Ruth Ellen almost cried, “They’ll be here soon,” she told him, then gave him a package the Hunts had sent that contained videos, pictures, stuffed animals, and his very own blanket.

The Heatons spent several hours each day with Trey, and after six days, they headed back to America, believing it would be only a few weeks before the adoption was complete and they could bring Trey home.

Unfortunately, the weeks stretched into months; a bureaucratic backlog in Russia had slowed all adoptions to a crawl. By the time the Heatons were summoned back to Russia at the end of November, Kari and David had yet to make their first trip and were starting to wonder whether they would ever meet the little boy they’d fallen in love with. “That was the hardest time for me,” Kari says. “I cried a lot. It broke my heart to think of our little boy waiting for us to come get him,”

Finally, the agency told them everything was a go, and they were off to St. Petersburg in December 2001. “Meeting Vladdy was even better than we’d imagined.” Kari says. “He came running out with his arms wide open and leaped into my arms.”

The Heatons were still in St. Petersburg waiting for Trey’s adoption to be finalized during the Hunts’ first trip to Russia, When the Hunts returned to Texas, they took solace in the fact that their new friends were still there with Vladdy. Finally, on December 7, 2001, Trey’s adoption was complete, and three days later, the Heaton family flew home to Dallas. By this time, the Hunts’ final adoption date had been set. David and Kari flew back to St. Petersburg, and on Christmas Eve, Vladdy officially became Stewart Vladimir Hunt, and the new family celebrated its first Christmas together at a Russian McDonald’s.

All Babies Come From Russia!
A lot has changed in the two and a half years since the two little Russian boys were transplanted to Texas. For eight months, the Hunts and the Heatons met halfway between their homes at least once a month so that Trey and Vladdy could be together. Then came another turn of fate: A recruiter called David with a job opportunity in the Dallas area. The Hunts were thrilled. They relocated and bought a house near the Heatons. Today, the boys live just a few miles apart and see each other almost daily.

Although Trey and Vladdy were adopted as preschoolers, they experienced many firsts with their parents—first car ride, first time in an elevator, first time they had toys they didn’t have to share with a dozen other children. They learned English quickly and have adjusted remarkably easily to their new lives. Like most 5- and 6-year-old boys, they love playing video games and building forts in the backyard.

“The minute I saw Vladdy’s face, I knew I was born to be his father,” says David Hunt.

The Hunt-Heaton friendship continues to grow as well. Kari and Ruth Ellen have become tireless advocates for adoption and orphan care, hosting seminars on adoption basics and writing a book titled You Can Afford Adoption. They’ve also started a business together. A Mother’s Charm (motherscharm.com) is a jewelry company that sells charms for bracelets with special pieces tailored for adoptive mothers. Ten percent of the proceeds goes to the adoption agency that Kari and Ruth Ellen credit for giving them the most wonderful gifts of their lives.

In March, David and Kari returned to the same St. Petersburg orphanage to adopt their second child, 15-month-old Inna. To Trey and Vladdy, it’s the most obvious place to get a baby. “The boys think all babies come from Russia,” Ruth Ellen says.