Roselle family excited to meet Gorbachev

Three-year-old Mason Bielski loves to look out the window every Wednesday morning and watch the garbage truck's lift go up and down. When the truck leaves, Mason says bye-bye.

Mason's parents, Brian and Kelly Bielski of Roselle, say the cute routine — one among so many they have created around their adoptive son from Russia — most likely would have never taken place without the indirect help of former Soviet Union President Mikhail Gorbachev.

On Saturday, the Bielskis will get to meet Gorbachev at the World Leaders Forum at Judson University in Elgin. The couple contacted the school and were given sponsored tickets to attend a VIP event scheduled before Gorbachev speaks about “Peace in the 21st Century.” The more intimate event before his talk is open only to Judson students, faculty, staff and alumni, said Mary Dulabaum, Judson's director of marketing and communications.

“We just think that it's absolutely incredible that (Mason) will have the opportunity to meet a man who had a role in creating our family,” Brian Bielski said.

The couple had been waiting for a child for about two years when in April 2010 they were told by their adoption agency that they were next in line for a referral from an orphanage in the Orenburg region in Russia. That same month, however, a woman from Tennessee caused an international uproar when she put a young boy she had adopted on a plane and sent him back to Russia — alone. The Russians reacted by putting a freeze on adoptions by Americans.

It was thanks to Gorbachev's intervention that in November 2010 the Orenburg region eased up restrictions, Bielski said. “Our agency told us that Mr. Gorbachev himself took part in the meeting to convince the regional authorities to open up adoptions again,” he said.

The Bielskis eventually traveled to Russia to meet Mason in March 2011, and the adoption was finalized a couple of months later. The boy — whose middle name is Eugene, a nod to his given Russian name, Evgeniy — has adapted incredibly well to life in Roselle, the couple said. “He's very much your typical 3-year-old. He runs around, he's very happy, very social. He's doing really well with the language, and he's very healthy,” Kelly Bielski said.

Judson made a special request to Gorbachev's team to see if the family could take a picture with him, and were told this will be possible, Dulabaum said.

“Mason is not going to understand everything now, but (the photo) will become a treasured object,” Kelly Bielski said.