(2/4) “I remember it perfectly. They walked into our classroom...

(2/4)  “I remember it perfectly.  They walked into our classroom while taking a tour of the school.  They weren’t even looking to adopt.  Their friends had come to adopt one of my classmates, and they were merely tagging along.  I was scared of them at first.  But Anna nudged me to the front of the class.  She encouraged me to give them one of my paintings.  And the next day the orphanage director called me to her office.  She said the Italian couple wanted to speak with me.  They talked to me for an hour, and at the end they gave me a bag of oranges.  I handed them out to all the other kids at the orphanage.  I think the couple was touched by this, because that’s when they invited me to visit Italy.  Anna prepared all my documents.  We visited for several weeks.  They brought me all around Italy.  I could tell they were friendly, but I was still frightened.  They lived in such a big house.  They were giving me so many things.  And I couldn’t understand a word they were saying.  I had no idea why they cared about me so much.    They told me they wanted me to stay and join their family.  Anna begged me to do it.  She told me that this was my chance to change my life.  But I was so scared.  All my friends were at the orphanage.  So I told them ‘no.’  When I went back to Russia, I lost the backpack with their contact information.  And I didn’t see them again for fifteen years.”
(Florence, Italy)