Whitewater woman adopts three Buryat children
Released: October 27, 2005
“I had no idea that adoption would have such a significant impact on both my personal and professional life,” said Whitewater resident Suzanne Popke on her recently published book, “Siberian Pearls: A Buryat Journey.” The adoption of her three children has influenced her work as an author, psychologist and public lecturer on adoption issues and the Buryat culture.
In 1997, Popke was a single woman living in Michigan when she decided to adopt a child. After many attempts, she found an opportunity through Lutheran Social Services of Wisconsin and Upper Michigan to adopt a child from the newly-formed Republic of Buryatia in Siberia. “There is no foster placement program in Buryatia, so if a family cannot take care of a child, the child lives in the orphanage until the age of 16. Then they are on their own,” Popke said. There are virtually no jobs available in the area so many teenagers turn to crime and prostitution as a means of survival.
At the time, she knew nothing about Buryatia or its culture. After much research, Popke found that the Buryats are an indigenous Siberian people whose population is estimated to be about 370,000. Located in central Asia, Buryatia borders the Irkutsk and Chita Regions of Siberia, the Republic of Tuva and Mongolia.
In 1998, Popke took her first trip to Buryatia to adopt two-and-a-half year old Zachary Andrew. She lived there for a number of weeks, learning about the culture and getting to know Zachary before returning to the U.S.
According to Popke, she had only seen a picture and a two-minute video of Zachary before she met him, but she recognized him as her son as soon as she saw him and thought, “He’s the cutest kid I have ever seen.”
When Zachary was three years old he asked for a brother or sister that looked like him after being asked by another child at his daycare why his mom didn’t resemble him. It was then that Popke once again began the adoption process to find a sibling for her son.
In 2001, Popke took her second trip to Buryatia to adopt two more children, three year old Hayden Talgat and one year old Alexander Ardis (nicknamed Sashi). It took Popke three years to go back to Buryatia because of historically bitter Siberian winters and changes in the international Russian adoption laws.
During both of her trips, Popke kept a journal of her experiences. It wasn’t until she returned home and had many people interested in reading her journal that she decided to publish a book. Her book, “Siberian Pearls: A Buryat Journey,” recounts her travels to Buryatia. Popke is also writing a sequel to “Siberian Pearls,” “Siberian Pearls: the Buryat Journey Continues Overland,” which will describe what happened after the adoption and their life in the U.S.
Popke works as a psychologist for the Wisconsin Community Mental Health Counseling Centers in Whitewater and Elkhorn. She has a variety of clients, including adults with learning disabilities or emotional problems, people learning how to improve their families and is trained to do direct interventions with parents and children. “Since adopting my children, who all had special developmental needs, I have a much better understanding of families with challenging children,” said Popke. Working at the Wisconsin Community Mental Health Counseling Centers provides her with the flexibility to spend time with her three children.
Popke is also a public lecturer on adoption issues and the Buryat culture. She has spoken at many classes in the education, psychology, international studies and sociology departments at UW-Whitewater. She also lectured at the World Affairs Seminar at UW-Whitewater this past summer on the effects of globalization on indigenous people in which she used Buryats as an example.
As a follower of the Baha’i faith, Popke is also involved in the UW-Whitewater Baha’i club. The central theme of the Baha’i religion is humanity as one single race and its unification in one global society. The Baha’i club’s interest in prejudice started the idea of the Institute of Healing Racism at UW-Whitewater of which Popke was coordinator during the 2003-04 academic year. She feels strongly about the Institute for Healing Racism because of her family’s dynamics. Popke said, “As a multicultural family you have to be prepared to deal with racism.”
Popke lives in Whitewater with her husband, Robert Siemann, a UW-Whitewater professor. Their children Zachary, age 9, and Hayden, age 7, attend Lincoln Elementary School in Whitewater and the Center for Communicative Disorders at UW-Whitewater. Alexander (Sashi), age 5, attends the UW-Whitewater Children’s Center.
To learn more about Popke’s book, visit www.publishamerica.com or contact her at intsim@idcnet.com.
- Shauna Stevens,stevenssm26@uww.edu
