Steve and Tamara Engel were elated when they picked up their new son, Jake, and new daughter, Nicole, from orphanages in Moscow in September 2002.

	Alyssa Cwanger, Post-Gazette Robin and Jake Smith, of Plum, with their adopted children from Russia, Evan, front, 2, and Alexis, 4. Click photo for larger image.

They had worked with Adopt-A-Child, a Squirrel Hill agency specializing in international adoptions. After visiting Russia two weeks earlier for a court date to make the adoptions official, they were back and ready to take the babies -- both under the age of 2 -- home.

When they went to pick up Jake, 23 months, on the playground of his orphanage, another child fell down near where Tamara Engel was standing. She helped him up and brushed him off, and suddenly, about 20 children started tripping and falling down all over the playground, trying to win the same kind of attention.

It was a lightning rod moment in a trip filled with them.

Like public institutions the world over, orphanages in Russia have limited staff and resources, and the tiny residents often don't get the attention they crave.

Since it was founded in 1992, Adopt-A-Child has placed about 800 children with American families. Statistics are difficult to verify, but the group estimates that there are more than half a million orphans in Russia's public foster care system, and because of birth parents' legal custody rights, only a portion of them are eligible for adoption, said Laura Ellman, a licensed social worker with Adopt-A-Child.

They wanted to help

It costs about $25,000 to adopt a foreign child.

The Engels adopted Nicole from a different orphanage in Moscow on the same trip.

At 16 months, she wasn't crawling or talking when they met her and wasn't used to being held, so she didn't know how to hold on.

"She just hung there," her mother said.

But once she got used to her new parents, Nicole's demeanor changed.

"When we started giving her that interaction, she just blossomed," her father said.

But when the Engels returned home, the memory of the children still in Russia came back with them.

They found other parents who had adopted Russian children through Adopt-A-Child felt the same way.

"You see all these other kids, and all they're looking for is attention," said Jake Smith. He and his wife, Robin, of Plum, adopted Alexis, now 4, in August 2002 and Evan, now 2, in February 2004.

"You want to take them all home, but, of course, you can't. There are some who never get adopted and just stay in the system. We kept asking, 'What can we do to help these children?' " Jake Smith said.

Started foundation

Last summer, the Engels, of Upper St. Clair, and Smiths helped to start the Yevgeny Girel Orphans Foundation Inc., an independent charity focused on improving life in Russian orphanages. The group says it is doing it little by little, with donations of money and clothes.

The organization is named for Yevgeny Girel, who founded Adopt-A-Child in 1992 and died in a car accident in 1996. The organization is now run by his wife, Sonia Girel.

The group numbers about 20 people, and includes Adopt-A-Child employees, parents and friends, with Tamara Engel, who is on furlough from US Airways, in charge of public relations.

Steve Engel, a lawyer, was named president of the group's board, and his law firm, Blumling & Gusky, helped the foundation incorporate and become a nonprofit. The group is now looking for corporate donations.

Since last summer, the foundation has raised more than $67,000 to pay for renovations, medical supplies and other expenses at various Russian orphanages, including $20,000 to provide new windows and weatherproofing for a facility in St. Petersburg.

"We've been amazed at how receptive the community has been," Steve Engel said. He likes to tell the story of a boy in Cincinnati who raised $100 on his 11th birthday by requesting donations for YGOF instead of presents.

YGOF held a charity golf outing and auction called Fore Russia's Kids on Monday at The Club at Nevillewood in Collier. Jake Smith is a controller at the club.

Coming events include a dinner dance, a mother-daughter fashion show and Russian culture nights for YGOF families and anyone else who wants to come.

Group members have provided support for each other, the Engels said.

Because another family from the group had been to Jake Engel's orphanage while he was there as a baby, the infant Jake was in their pictures, and the Engels have a baby picture of him.

Now, Nicole and Jake, both clever and talkative at age 4, have friends from their "baby homes" as their parents call them, who live within driving distance and see them often.

"They haven't asked any questions yet, but when they do, they won't be isolated," Steve Engel said.

For more information, visit www.ygirelorphansfoundation.org or www.adopt-a-child.org.