When nine-year-old Nina was on the plane from Russia to John F. Kennedy (JFK) International Airport last month, she was practicing her English the entire flight for her first meeting with her new foster parents, Ryan and Lori Johnson.
The couple, who currently live in Briarwood, agreed to become foster parents to Nina, helping pave the way for officials to bring her back to the United States.
“She was so pretty; she was so beautiful,” Lori recalled when she saw Nina for the first time at the airport on December 21.
Although all children in foster care have a unique story, Nina’s is quite extraordinary.
She was born in the United States in May of 1997, and, shortly after her birth, her mother decided to return to Russia to raise Nina. She spent most of her childhood living with her family in Russia until her mother died of cancer about a year ago.
Although Nina still had some family members in Russia, they could not care for her on a permanent basis and Nina was placed in an orphanage. While she was there, a U.S. official in Moscow learned that there was an American citizen, Nina, in the orphanage, and officials began contacting social service agencies about the possibility of bringing Nina back to America.
In November of 2006, Katherine Stoehr, Interim Director of the Office of Placement for New York City’s Administration for Children’s Services (ACS) received a call about the case, and she began reaching out to agencies within the City in hopes of finding a Russian-speaking foster home for Nina.
Shortly thereafter, she received a call from Forestdale, a Queens-based social services agency saying that they had found a foster family for Nina - the Johnsons.
“It was like finding a needle in a haystack,” Stoehr said. “I was thrilled that day; it was all I was talking about.”
The Johnsons are a new foster family. With a biological three-year-old daughter, they recently learned they could no longer have children of their own.
“We looked into adoption, and we found out that the best choice for us was to foster a child and then see if it would work out for us to keep the child,” Ryan said.
In October, the Johnsons had just agreed to become foster parents to a three-week old boy placed through Forestdale, so the agency was familiar with the family. They knew that Lori was born in Russia and that she spoke the language fluently, and that Ryan could speak the language well enough to communicate effectively.
“Because we were listed as speaking Russian, they [Forestdale] called us when this amazing story developed,” Ryan said.
Although they had agreed to help, the Johnsons received another sign they felt reaffirmed their belief that they should do this.
Ryan was riding the subway home from work one evening, scrolling through his palm pilot reading the Bible, something he often does. During this day, he came across a passage from James Chapter 1 that said true religion is to help orphans and widows in distress. It resonated with him. Less than an hour later, he arrived home and picked up his mail. Inside was a pamphlet from a non-profit organization with the same passage from James on the cover.
“In a way, it’s good to know that God is more than just a theory,” Lori said. “He’s interested in our lives and the lives of little children.”
While the Johnsons had agreed to foster Nina, they wanted to speak with her first in order to get to know her.
The U.S. Ambassador in Moscow invited Nina to a party at his residence giving her the opportunity to interact with other Americans, and the agencies arranged for a phone call between Nina and the Johnsons to take place.
“We thought we blew it because she hardly said anything, but she was just so nervous,” Ryan said. “But, after that [the party] and the phone call she decided that she really wanted to come to America and take the chance of this new family.”
While U.S. officials made the final arrangements to bring Nina to Queens, the Johnsons started preparing for adding a third child to their family.
The Johnsons, Stoehr and another representative from ACS met at JFK airport on December 21, eagerly anticipating the arrival of Nina and the social service worker who accompanied the girl from Russia.
“I was expecting her [Nina] to be petrified, but she was really brave,” said Stoehr, who can speak some Russian after spending time in the country while working in the Peace Corps.
After Lori and Ryan introduced themselves to Nina and they gathered all of her luggage, they all rode to the ACS Queens field office to take care of some technical work.
“On the way she was fascinated by the planes and all the holiday lights,” Stoehr recalled.
After the examinations, they all returned to the Johnsons’ home for dinner, and Nina immediately began interacting with the other children and playing with the toys.
Before Nina’s arrival, Ryan and Lori prepared a speech to tell Nina that she could call them uncle and aunt for now, and then one day, if she wanted to, she could call them mom and dad.
However, they never gave that speech.
On the second day, Nina began calling her new foster parents mom and dad.
Since her arrival, the Johnsons believe Nina has adjusted well. The family traveled to Virginia for Christmas and spent four days with Ryan’s family, who showered Nina with gifts, and gave her the opportunity to interact with other children.
She is already enrolled at a Queens public school and taking English as a Second Language (ESL) classes and the Johnsons believe she will be able to communicate in English by the summer.
While there have been adjustments for Ryan and Lori, quickly going from one to three children, they said it has truly been a blessing.
Under regulations, a foster care child stays in a foster family for at least six months, but the Johnsons are hoping for something longer and more permanent.
“We’ve fallen in love with her, and we really hope that everything will work out for us to adopt her,” Ryan said.
Editor’s Note: At the request of the Administration for Children’s Services, The Queens Courier agreed to change the name of the girl and her foster parents in the story in order to protect the privacy of the child.
