Chapter Four
The Crush
But an unexpected trauma was going to occur to Alysha on March 21 which literally changed their adoption plans for good.
Worse. Not only their adoption
plans, but literally Oleg and Elena’s chance for a life in America.
But they didn’t know that at the time.
It happened two days before BBAS was to call the Towells with their travel date information. Alysha was traveling down with a friend to Dallas, Texas for a horse show that her friend was riding in.
The day was a dreadful one — wet, stormy and an unusually ferocious
wind was blowing as they traveled. The
horse that Alysha’s friend was planning on riding was a lovely mare, all set
and ready to go.
Alysha
was helping her friend escort the mare into her trailer for the long ride.
They wanted the mare warm and dry. Alysha
had the misfortune of getting into the trailer with the mare when the door was
shut, leaving Alysha in the trailer alone with the horse.
It all
happened so quickly. An inadvertent tap of a lost umbrella from a passer-by on the
trailer’s window spooked the mare.
She reared up and in doing so, threw Alysha to the floor. She continued to kick and trash about, searching for a way out of the trailer.
By this time, Alysha was injured; her friend managed to get the door of
the trailer open, and escorted the mare out. Upon seeing Alysha, slumped in the
corner, beaten by the mare’s hooves, she immediately called an ambulance.
The
very worst was that Alysha’s knee was crushed and she was badly bruised. She
could not walk.
As
Alysha laid in the ambulance, all she could think of was how she would not be
able to go to Russia and retrieve her children.
Two
days later, on March 26, Alysha went to an orthopedic surgeon and was informed
her knee injury was severe. She would need immediate surgery to have her tibial plateau
replaced with a bone graft, an exceedingly painful procedure.
After
the appointment, a dismayed Alysha called Wendy to tell her this devastating
news. Ever-ebullient Wendy was dismayed
but told Alysha that she was going to call the Towells a little later to tell them that
— they had a courtdate for April 16, 2001 in Blagoveshchensk.
It was
bittersweet. How could Alysha travel in
her present state? Would they have to postpone their trip?
They could not, at least if Brian wanted to go. He was free to go at that time, but not too long thereafter he had some scheduled mandatory duty. There was absolutely no way he could expect to get excused from that.
Wendy
told Alysha that she would contact the “Russian agency” [i.e. Amrex] to find
out if paperwork could be changed so that at least Brian travel and get the
children. Was Denise the one who
called Amrex or was her scatter-brained assistant Wendy the one who dealt with
Amrex that day? We don’t know.
Two days later, Wendy called back. The “Russian agency” had told her Brian could petition the court by himself and attend the court hearing without Alysha. Wendy imply that this information had been obtained directly from the Russian judge.
However, it was imperative that Alysha receive a letter from her doctor stating why she could not be at the court hearing; she obtained this with alacrity and it was sent along with Brian.
It
would be best if Brian could travel with somebody in Alysha’s absence to
help with Oleg and Elena.
Alysha was distraught. She truly believed
all those stories she had read on the Internet about how, once the children were
in your arms, all the waiting, the idiotic paperwork and the frustration
just magically disappeared once you held them.
She had desperately wanted to go with Brian to Russia and hold Oleg and Elena in
her arms, but alas, the cruel vagaries of Russian adoption had begun for them.
In the end, Alysha would never, ever get to hold Oleg or Elena; all she would
have in the years to come were their photos and the videotape her husband would
make in Russia.
Brian’s mother, Mrs. Dorothy Towell, agreed to accompany Brian on the long
trip to Amur in place of Alysha. It
seemed a miracle that she, who had been a bit apprehensive about the adoption in
the beginning, would be willing to literally travel half way around the world to
retrieve her new grandchildren. Surely
things were looking harmoniously up for their family.
Their next obstacle was having Alysha’s mother come over and help out with the family since Alysha was physically unable to do any housework.
She did, after all, have Tiffany and Brody to look after, and having her
mother there would be a source of comfort and help to her in the horrible weeks
that were to follow.
With their visas obtained, their bags packed with clothes and gifts for Oleg and
Elena, and their hopes and dreams still firmly in place, Brian and Mrs. Towell
left for Russia in mid April. Brian
carried $12,000 in cash for the “Orphanage and International Fee” to be
given to “the overseas coordinators” as specified in BBAS contract.
Brian’s mother was carrying $4,000 in cash in case of an emergency.
Alysha, sitting in her wheelchair, was under emotional duress at the airport as they waited to leave.
“I wanted,” Alysha wrote, “so badly to throw away my wheelchair and
get on the plane no matter what, but I couldn’t.
My husband leaned over to kiss me goodbye and told me not to worry that
my tears were temporary, he was going to come home with our angels.”
Watching their father leave was difficult on Tiffany and Brody.
Tiffany cried out to her father as he and Mrs. Towell were walking down
towards the gate, “Don’t come back without my sister, Daddy!”
From the airport’s windows they stood weeping as Brian’s airplane fly off to JFK. In the months to follow, many, many more tears would be shed, far more than they had ever thought possible.
It would be three days before Alysha would be able to contact Brian in Blagoveshchensk and hear of his adoption ventures in Russia.