Truth is stranger than fiction, especially in the latest adoption case where I volunteered to help with finding the birth family. Five possible relatives were contacted on two Russian social networks to help give the adoptee information on her life and family in Russia.
No one, except for a woman named Lyubov (Russian for Love) would help the adoptee, I’ll name Sara, get answers about her birth family. My name Vera is Russian for Faith. So it really took Love and Faith to end the mystery of Sara’s adoption.
At a last resort, I contacted Lyubov on popular Russian social network VK.com. The relatives on OK.ru weren’t interested in helping Sara. Lyubov‘s pictures showed friendliness and kindness in her face. The truthfulness of her appearance was proven when she responded with so much excitement that Sara was looking for her birth family.
To make Sara’s reconnection with her birth family emotionally safe as possible, I had her create a profile on VK.com with her birth name, birth date, birthplace and a photo from her adoption. Her birth family doesn’t know the name she was given by her adoptive family, her e-mail address nor phone number.
Information has been exchanged a few times and the process of completely reconnecting will take time but I made sure this is the correct family. As in the last adoption case I voluntarily helped with, I withheld information to see whether Lyubov would give it up.
Sara knows she has a brother, whose name and birthdate are known. I wrote to Lyubov that Sara knows of a brother and that is it. Lyubov knew the brother’s name immediately. That was the confirmation that Sara needed that Lyubov really was family. She is her aunt but very close in age to Sara.
The final confirmation that proved Sara has found her birth family was the photo Aunt Lyubov share with Sara that shows Sara, her mother and brother. Sadly nothing is known about where are Sara’s parents and her brother.
The brother was adopted in Russia and likely has a new name but there is hope that Sara could reconnect with him. If he remembers her personal details, her profile is on VK.com, waiting to be found.
Sara was adopted about 16 years ago and it only took about a few minutes to find her relatives on social networks, thanks to my knowledge of Russian. Finding family in the former USSR is as simple as learning the Russian alphabet from Wikipedia, copy the new name in Russian and paste it into Google or Russian social networks.
Nothing beats the feeling of experiencing the excitement of long-lost family being just as enthusiastic for being found again and told that they were not forgotten.
Related posts:
On a journey to connect Russian adoptees with their homeland family
A bonus find for the adopted Russian brother and sister
Find Lost Russian & Ukrainian Family 
Hi Vera, I have been following your Blog. We have a 22 year old son adopted from Ukraine orphanage at age 4 1/2. What do you charge to search for bio families. I am not sure how much info to provide for the search, etc.. on VK as we hired someone off the internet a long time ago but think it may have been a scam. Thank you,
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I don’t charge anything. Send me everything you know about the birth family: parents’ full names, birthdates/birthyears, old addresses and other known children to me at mail.ru. My e-mail username is bepa.miller.
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