Struggles into Memory

               One may always say their life is the worst but Olga Krinitsyn of Minnesota has gone through what may seem like even worse than worst.

               Olga Krinitsyn, 42 years old, has been living in America for 20 years. Immigrating from Yekaterinburg, Russia she left what we call struggle, and to her, home. She remembered, “When I first came here to America and when I got married, that whole first year I cried so much. I wanted to go back home. I knew nothing that could help me live the life in America.”

(Olga in Belarus)

               Communism of the Soviet Union was founded on January of 1912 and dissolved on August of 1991. Living through all its struggles, Olga states,”If it wasn’t God, I wouldn’t be who I am today. The life was very hard there. The only way we could buy products was with coupons. Money was rarely seen.” The Soviet Union had very many catches for those that wanted to be members of the communist party. Wikipedia.com stated, “Those that were part of the communist party, enjoyed many perquisites denied to the average Soviet citizen. Among those perks were shopping at well-stocked stores, access to foreign merchandise, preference in obtaining housing, access to dachas and holiday resorts, being allowed to travel abroad, sending their children to prestigious universities, and obtaining prestigious jobs (as well as party membership itself) for their children.” Life was very hard, if one did not join the membership.

               Olga was a Christian and believed in God. Those who stood for their faith never accepted the membership of communism and she stood firm in her belief. In school, students were pushed and forced to join the Young Pioneers; after a while they would graduate to Young Communist League. “I had many students and teachers tell me to lie to my parents and secretly join the Young Pioneers. But if I lie to my parents, I lie to my God. It was wrong and stood against it.”Olga confirmed, “there was also a point where I could have gone to college and continue my career, but due to that I was not part of the Young Communist League, I never had the opportunity to further my career.” Olga looked at the party in a disgusted way and so regret of not joining had never crossed her mind.

                Winters were the hardest in that part of Russia, and being an enemy of the country did not ease situations. “We had a small church that had to secretly gather, because if the government found out, the pastor or leader would be put to jail. In the winter sometimes we gathered outside, deep in hidden forests and have our church services there” Explained Olga with a distant look in her eyes. “Sometimes we’d be caught sometimes we were able to Praise God the whole way through.”

               Yet so much happened, Olga Krinitsyn was able to hold through her life and still have the desire to stay at her homeland, rather than rushing out of it. Sometimes the memories that are harsh to remember are those that are best to be thought of.

A Fulfilling Child

When a life has priorities, it’s time runs faster than they really thought it would! Well that’s exactly what had happened to Nutrition teacher, Jill Gromberg of Anoka Ramsey Community College.       

She had been married to her husband for a round amount of years and they had both been deep into their professions. Continuing in school and busy in work, they had both finished with masters degrees. Due to such fast paced life, they constantly postponed having kids and then it hit them that they needed that one thing to continue their family. So other options appeared and one that was most convenient was, adopting.

Coming from a family that had been in a typical situation, Gromberg had a brother with Down syndrome. Doctors had predicted that the likely cause of this was, of her mother’s age. Jill had agreed that having a Down child would not be problem but she had her mind on doing something that would benefit someone and benefit her and her husband. That’s where their journey of the adoption process began.

            She stated boldly, “In our family our relatives have adopted kids in the past and so we knew how it would go and we were prepared for it.” Beginning with the choice of what gender they had most wanted. They did not care if it was either a boy or a girl. They were happy with either one. There was one thing that had made them get a boy in particular. “We knew that there is a tendency for people to adopt girls. They say that girls are easier. Because the majority of people adopt girls and if we didn’t choose, they would choose for us and it would most likely end up being a boy. That was fine, we were open for either.” Explain Gromberg.

Picking a gender was one of the easy points of the process but when it came for from where they wanted the child, it was tougher than expected. Going through the Children’s Home Society and Family Services, they were offered from multiples of countries. Gromberg expresses, “For example when we were looking at the options, we were thinking about, Russia, India, and China. But china was going through SARS, and something was going on in India. Russia was open and we were actually comfortable with it. So we aimed at Russia.”

Adopting their son, Ryan, had been a long process and tough. He has lived with them already for six years, being adopted at age 3.5. There were only a few struggles that they had gone through, such as attachments, bonding and language. Gromberg expresses a humorous moment, “ There were times when we were in Moscow, we stayed at a hotel and there were other families that were adopting also, and they would start talking to him and we sensed that he’s telling them stuff like, ‘these people are idiots. They keep talking about yellow buses and red cars.’” But learning and working together they figured things out!

Jill Gromberg and her husband had thought of adopting more kids but there were a few complications that just got in the way of another child.

“I thought the process was really positive. I don’t and never regret it” stated Gromberg, closing the conversation.