On July 15th 2002 a little man named Boiko Katev was born in
a hospital in Samakov Bulgaria to a young unwed mother. It soon became apparent that he had a condition known as OI
or osteogenesis imperfecta. He was given up to the state as the birth family could not care for him and maybe
someone-somewhere could give him a better life. At the same time on the other side of the world a family in NC had just
had a child with the same condition and were beginning the long journey of learning the disease process and how best to make
the best life for their birth daughter.
The little boy was transferred from the hospital to another speciality
hospital in Sofia the capital and then moved to an orphanage at 2 months of age. He stayed in this ophanage in the district
of Sofia until he was 9 months old and then was transferred to his final destination in Bulgaria. The village of Buzovgrad
near Kazanlak held the Maria Luisa Hospital for the Disabled and it was to be his home for the next 2 years exactly.
For the first 2 years of his life the nursing staff and aides where afraid
of hurting him and would not hold or play with him for fear of breaking him. Whenever he would break they would leave
him in his crib with one toy. He became very withdrawn and could not develop normally. He recieved no special
medicines or therapies and his condition worsened. They did not understand better to break and be
loved than to not be loved and held. At the same time a half a world away a little girl was developing right on
track (if not ahead of time). She was started on medicine at 4 months to increase her bones strength and was recieving
physical therapy and water therapy as well as all the love a big family can give. No handling was held back and
she was getting stronger and more personable by the minute.
When this litte boy was about 20 months old, the family a half
a world away found out that he existed and that he had fractured 5 times after birth. They had no picture or other information
to go on but still decided that they could not allow this child to wither in an institution when his only crime was being
born in the wrong country under the wrong circumstances. At the same time that the family found out about
the boy, the director of theorphanage had had it with her staff and hired a caretaker for just this child. This woman
was to become a predominant figure in the little boy's development. She would spend 6 hours a day with him and
take him home on weekends and it was under her care they he started to blossom.
The whole process in the US started on May 19th 2004 with a homestudy
to verify that the family was good and stable and safe. Many documents had to be obtained like birth certificates, marriage
certificates, passports, fingerprints from the FBI as well as letters of employment and bank statements. All these docments
had to be certified and stamped and then everything was sent to Bulgaria and registered on July 29th 2004. More
documents were requested and as of September 15th 2004 everything was in order and the wait was on.
On Dec 15th 2004 the American family got the wonderful news that BKP
was being referred to them and they must travel in the next 2 months to visit. They travelled Jan 18-23rd 2005
and spent 5 short days with their new son. It was love at first site for Mom & Dad and leaving was the
hardest thing. They were able to start him on the bone strengthening medicine though and he looked stronger even
before they had to leave.
Luckily for them they made two great friends through the internet in
Kazanlak and so they had good communication with Elena(Avery's caregiver). They were able to get information and pass
along information to another family who was also getting an OI child from this orphanage as well. The court process
began and their attorney did a fabulous job of pushing for processing and so what usually takes months took 60 days.
On March 15th 2005 Avery Boiko became part of a real family. On April 15th 2005(exactly 2 years to the day)
he left the orphanage in the custody of his real parent and would always be part of our family. He was able
to do a gradual transition over 4 days from his foster mom to his adoptive mom and it made for a much smoother calmer
transition.
Immediately he began to explore his environment. He travelled to Sofia with
Mom and after the business stuff was done he got totravel around the city and take a car ride to see the city he was born
in. Lots of photos were taken to document this historic event.
His first flight went very smoothly and he travelled without problems 15 hours from
Bulgaria to Charlotte NC where he became an American Citizen on April 21st 2005.
