Many of you have asked us the same question that we put to Marina, the CHI coordinator in Novosibirsk: What happens to the children who are not adopted?  As you probably know, the answer is, too often, a sad one; unadopted children may not be doomed to a life on the street, but the odds are dishearteningly high that they will end up there.  This prospect is all the more painful when a 4-year college education in Novosibirsk (which is to say, an employable future -- a life) apparently costs less than $2000 (or about the same as a single 3-credit course costs a Washington University undergraduate).

That's where Children's Home: A Benefit CD comes in.  Not all families are in position to try to save a life by adopting a child themselves, but many would still leap at the chance to help secure a liveable future for Vanya, Lena, Dima, Angela, Tanya and Wolf's many other friends at the children's home.  So, we recorded the children singing a selection of folk songs that we could offer as a CD in exchange for a $10 contribution to a scholarship fund for those who will someday have to leave the orphanage without families to support them.

With Wolf in the hospital most of the summer, the Children's Home CD has taken awhile to get off the ground.  But we now hope and expect to have the CD available for order by the end of September.  We can't take orders just yet, because we are still in the process of setting up the account to accept the donations, but fortunately, CHI 's Humanitarian Projects division has tentatively agreed to administer the fund (pending final approval of the Russian staff -- which is in Russia at the moment).  So if you would like to receive a message when the CD is ready for ordering, please send us an e-mail .