MURRIETA —- Max Keene can imagine the life that was laid outfor him a world away from his adopted home in Southwest RiversideCounty. There simply aren’t a lot of happy endings to go around forthe thousands of teenagers who walk out of orphanage doors inRussia each year and onto the cold, unkind streets of animpoverished country.
“I would have been in the streets doing absolutely nothing withmy life,” Max said in the moments following a workout leading up tothis week’s Big Sky League track and field championships atWoodcrest Christian. … “I know my (birth) parents didn’t carewhat I was doing. I really appreciate (this opportunity).”
At 19 years old, Keene is weeks away from graduating fromCalvary Murrieta and enlisting in the Marines, the fruit of a lifelived in appreciation since his adoptive parents —- Brian andSheri Keene —- plucked him and his sister Zoya from an orphanagein an industrial region of a country that sees so many of childrenswallowed up by life on their own.
According to a CoMission for Children at Risk report earlierthis decade, of the 15,000 children, ages 16 to 18, exiting Russianorphanages each year, 6,000 become homeless, 5,000 can’t find jobs,3,000 turn to crime and 1,500 take their own lives.
At Calvary Murrieta, coach Timm MacDonell has seen Keene soakingup every moment of his second chance, whether on the soccer pitchin junior high, bursting through holes on the football field as arunning back and pushing himself to a league championship in the110-meter hurdles a year ago.
“Sports pushes you and reveals what you’re about,” MacDonellsaid of Keene, a 3.2 GPA student in the classroom. “He is really adriven kid. Once he gets something in his mind, he is a pit bull.He won’t let go.”
That determination, to a degree, helped Keene land in anorphanage about 10 years ago after he said issues with alcohol andpoverty tore his birth family apart at the seams. One of fivechildren, Keene was going door-to-door begging for food for himselfand his sister, Zoya, in the apartment projects he lived in whenhis family first landed on the government’s radar, adoptive fatherBrian Keene said.
One brother eventually ran away never to be heard from again,while the other four children —- Max, Zoya, another teenagebrother and an infant brother —- were taken away from theirparents to live in a shelter. The separation, though he never sawhis infant brother again, didn’t exactly dishearten Keene.
“I wanted to be in the shelter,” Max recalled. “I was sick andtired of my dad beating up my mom all the time and didn’t like it.I didn’t want to be there anymore.”
He didn’t want to stay in the shelter, either, after hearing thegateway to a better life —- in America —- laid through thegates of an orphanage.
Despite his birth parents’ warnings to stay away from aninstitution that might have their son whisked away to anotherfamily across the Pacific, Keene said he ran away three timesbetween the ages 7 of 9 before he finally got his wish.
“They had told me to stay away from the orphanages and told menot to get adopted,” Max said of his birth parents’ wishes. “Theydidn’t want me going to America … but when I was in the shelter,my friend told me America … was the best place to be. I gotexcited, but he told me he had to get into an orphanage to dothat.”
Orphanage life in the old, two-story building in Vladimir,Russia, wasn’t a stretch from the two years Keene spent in theshelter. The sleeping quarters hosted between five and 10 boys to aroom, and Keene attended the same school he did while in theshelter, waking up for homework between 8 a.m. and noon, attendingclasses between 1 and 5 p.m. and having the rest of the day forfree time. Though Keene recalls a pool table in the building, therewere no video games and certainly no sports to play, he said.
“Really, Russia sounds all powerful and mighty and it was asuperpower, but it’s really a third-world country now,” adoptivefather Brian Keene said of a region with more than 4 millionsorphans and homeless children . “The restrooms were disgusting, thekids lived in a little room with 8-10 little beds and everythingwas community —- toys and everything. … (When I met Max andZoya), they were two frail kids. They were malnourished, theirskin-tone was gray and there were a hundred-something kids livingat that orphanage with just a handful of adults.”
Brian Keene’s meeting was staged in Lake Elsinore when Max, then10, was part of International Christian Adoptions’ Welcome HomeProject. Already parents to two children, Brandon and Zachary (amuscle disorder relegates Zachary to both a wheelchair and afull-time ventilator), Brian and Sheri Keene were consideringhosting orphans’ trial visits to America when they learned Max andZoya’s first adoptive parents did not pass a background check,Brian Keene said.
Max’s other brother had refused to participate in the adoptionprogram, Max said.
A day at a Lake Elsinore pizza parlor with Max, Zoya and theRussian orphans sold Sheri and her son Brandon on the idea ofopening their home full-time to two children in need. A month ofpraying pushed Brian over the edge, too, despite his financialconcerns of putting four children through college.
Soon, the Keenes were on a flight to Moscow to move Max and Zoyaaway from their orphanage and on to an entirely new challenge:acclimating two children to a new home and culture away from theRussian translator that helped the new family break the ice duringtheir two-week stay in Russia
“When we flew back, that’s when the real fun started,” saidBrian Keene, a CHP officer. “My daughter was real clingy, but Maxwas like a 20-year-old in an 11-year-old’s body. He wasstreet-smart and used to calling the shots. He was more mature andwas trying to tell us how it is. …
“It was really surreal. It was like, ‘Wow, we’ve got two newchildren and so much to teach them.’ There was a lot of joy inthat, but it was a difficult time because of the languagebarrier.”
Added Max: “It was a long process learning English.”
Yet it was a fast process. Between morning videos, translationbooks and submersion at schools with English-as-a-second languagecourses, both Max and Zoya were on their way to fluency within fourmonths. Athletics helped in the transition, too, with Max becominga star soccer player in middle school before ditching the sport forfootball before starting high school at Calvary Murrieta.
During the last two seasons, Keene totaled 914 yards rushing andnine touchdowns while averaging 6.2 yards a carry in the Warriors’wing-T offense. On the track, he qualified for the postseason ayear ago with school-record times in the 110-meter hurdles, the 300hurdles and the 400. Along the way, he learned valuable lessons forlife on and off the field.
“We worked a lot on (Max’s) emotions his sophom*ore year, justfrom growing up an orphan,” said MacDonell, who’s both a track andfootball coach at the school. “He used to have a look on his facelike he was about to give into pain or a look on his face that hewas almost in attack mode. We’ve had to work on what’s the correctemotion to have. He had a hard time switching it off and on in thepast, and I think sports have helped him more than anything….
“He’s had to squeeze 10 years of learning into the last twoyears and sports have helped a lot with that.”
Football and track, his job at McDonald’s to pay for theinsurance on the truck he drives, the future he’s planning in theMarines —- it’s all part of a life Max couldn’t see while livingthe first 10 years of his life in Russia. Every passing year is areminder.
“When Max turned 16, that was a surreal time for us, too,” BrianKeene said. “Max knew that that was the age that he’d be out of theorphanage and it’s sink or swim. You can only imagine what a16-year-old kid is going to do on the streets.”
