Maybe some good news

It appears that Russia will likely outlaw independent adoption, so now we are looking for an agency to represent us in court. Commonwealth, the agency that did our homestudy refuses to help us. Today we got a a copy of an email to about another agency that is interested:

Dear Brenda,
I am very interested in speaking with you about Irkutsk. MAPS has long wished to be involved in this particular region, or I should more honestly say, I personally have wanted to be involved. I spent 2 weeks on Lake Baikal as a student in 1989, and loved it!

I am hesitant, however, to start up in this region where I have heard time between first and second trip can stretch up to a year or more??!! If indeed the difficult judge has retired, this may well be a new era for Irkutsk. If you have not yet found an accredited agency to work with, I am interested in hearing more from you.

Sincerely,

Mercy Reed Marchuk, Russia and Kazakhstan Program Director, MAPS International

Story from today's Washington Post

Today in the Washington Post was an article written by a woman who worked for the US Embassy in Moscow processing adoptions. It is very heartwarming and touching. I am posting the article below since the Washington Post archives can be difficult.
Parent-Child Bond Knows No Borders
By Donna Scaramastra Gorman.
I was three months pregnant when I was hired by the U.S. Embassy in Moscow to process visas for newly adopted babies. The job itself was fairly simple. I pulled a fat file off the top of the stack and looked through it to make sure everything was in order. I checked for birth certificates, medical records, legal papers -- everything to assure that the child was truly adoptable, that he'd either been legally abandoned or freely given up by his birth mother.
I looked over the original Russian documents, comparing them to the English translations, searching for anything out of the ordinary that I might need to point out to the adoptive parents. When I'd looked through the whole file, I called the parents to my window, had them sign the paperwork, stamped a few documents and said, "Congratulations, your baby's visa will be ready this afternoon."
There I was, belly expanding by the day, reading documents about people who couldn't get pregnant or chose not to. I was eagerly awaiting the birth of my first child, monitoring every bite I put in my mouth to ensure the baby would be healthy, wondering if it was a boy or a girl, imagining the moment when I'd finally hold that tiny squalling child in my arms.
But the files showed a darker side of pregnancy. Every baby came with either a note from the birth mother, giving up her rights to the child, or a note from the police officer who had found the abandoned baby. I found it hard to read these letters. Some of the birth mothers wrote about their reasons for giving up their children, while others simply scrawled "I do not want this baby" and signed their names.
I couldn't bear to read the official reports about babies left in outdoor marketplaces or on street corners in the dead of winter. Still, I plowed through each file, absorbing details about these children who hadn't been wanted until now. I wondered about their birth mothers and tried to imagine how they felt when those unwanted babies kicked inside their bellies.
After work each day, I'd head home and curl up on my couch to read my baby books. And I thought about all of those babies in my office, whose lives had started out so differently. The hastily scrawled notes in the files: "The girl was found in the vegetable market." "Shortly after giving birth, the mother left the hospital without giving her name." The mothers' notes haunted me as I raided the refrigerator at night. I wondered how those women felt as they wrote them.
I read articles in the pregnancy magazines about bonding with your baby. They all recommended holding the child right after it was born, before the umbilical cord was cut. It seemed to make sense. But what of these families that came to my window each day? If the books were right, how could you bond with a child who'd lived for months, or even years, without laying eyes on you? I watched these parents, looking for signs of doubt, of awkwardness. But every day children passed by my window as part of a new family, and those parents held those children with confidence and care. They may have met their children only days ago, but no matter. They'd bonded.
Babies slept, drooling down their mothers' backs. Toddlers nuzzled into their parents' necks while being held, the parents casually shifting them from one hip to the other as they signed the papers I passed under the window. Older children stood behind their new parents, peeking out shyly. Already they'd become a family, and I wondered -- when did it happen?
How did these people know that the child they'd received was the one destined for them? How did the children know they'd finally found home?
Many of the parents adopted older children. In most of these cases, the child spoke no English and the parents spoke no Russian. By the time they arrived at my window, they were already communicating in a mixture of sign language and simple words. These children clung to their new parents, fearful, perhaps, of losing them in the crowd, but also grateful for the safe haven, hungry for their first embraces. One man propped his new 6-year-old daughter on the counter as he signed the paperwork. Between papers, he looked at her and offered some explanation, in English, of what he'd just signed. She stared at him blankly.
"Congratulations," I said when we were through. "Do you have any questions?" He looked at her and back at me. "Yes," he replied. "How do you say 'You're my daughter' in Russian?" When I told him, he turned to her, repeating, "Ty moya dochka." She looked up at him and slowly, slowly her face lit up as a smile spread across her face. "Ty moya dochka," he said again, pointing at her earnestly. I sat on the other side of my window, invisible now, while father and daughter threw their arms around each other and my own baby kicked inside me.

PICTURES FROM BRATSK!

OH, HOW I LIVE FOR PICTURES OF MY BABIES

Here is Dimples in a funky hat!





And sweet Pixie, she looks like a boy.

Update about the Judge

E-mail from Brenda: I got an update from Alex just a few minutes ago.

Brenda,
Hi, the judge has not yet issued any court dates, I guess she is trying to understand the procedure herself first - plus as I told you she needs two sets of dossiers for the hearing - this is the most recent news I have.

This is a brand new requirement that this judge is asking for. Not sure what the reason behind it is.
I also will ask him if this means 2 of the Psych report also.
Otherwise we need two Originals of everything Notarized and appostilled.
It sounds like one has received any court dates yet until she familiarizes herself with the process.

WE HAVE A NEW JUDGE!!!

Today we got word that we have a new judge! Here is copy of e-mail from Brenda.
News from Irkutsk
Judge Kotkina has retired and a new judge, Mrs. Stepanova has been appointed. Our staff describes her as very professional and determined to be thorough and fair. Due to the recent tragic events with adopted children she will carefully review all paperwork both for the children and the adoptive families and meet with our staff prior to the court hearings. She is aware of the long waits for court dates and how difficult this is for the children and the families. She has promised to address this issue. We look forward to some positive changes in the adoption process in the Irkutsk region.

Happy Birthday Sweet Pixie!

Mama and Papa love you and miss you very much. I baked you a cake and took it to work and we all celebrated. Hopefully we will be celebrating you coming home very soon.

TRAVEL JINX or what can go wrong will go wrong

Never have we been on a trip with so many "challenges". Murphy's law was truly at work on this trip, almost anything that could go wrong, went wrong. The only days we, Thank the good Lord, that we did not have to face these challenges were the days we were with the girls in Bratsk. So here is a recap of traveling with the Travel Jinx-that would be me (Wanda) since it appears these things only happened when I was around.
1. Our trip to Irkutsk on July 16th-We get to the airport and have to pay $70 overage for the extra weight of our suitcases, but this was expected since we packed for a month and for the girls. We fly to Irkutsk on Aeroflot in a very old plane on absolutely the worst flight and most uncomfortable seat I have ever had on a flight with less leg room then our planes and the seat back had a odd angle to it...and yes (for those of you who have read the blogs from our trip in November) this plane was worse than the Siberian Urine smelling plane. The flight was full and Rich and I did not have seats together; Rich graciously gave me the ticket for the front of the plane where I had to sit in the middle seat next to some smelly guy who decide he couldn't sleep unless he used part of my seat. Thank goodness for a very good book (and thanks to Janice for lending it too me) since I did not get any sleep at all. We arrive at 5 am and no one is there to pick us up. but Serguey is with us and call Alex. Calling Alex becomes the running theme of all our problems, having a really good facilitator can really make a difference when traveling in Russia and Alex was always available for us.
2. Alex arrives to pick us up and we find out that our apartment is not available because the families that were supposed to leave are still there due to issues with the judge. So we go to the Hotel Ankursk. We get to hotel only to be told that it is sold out. Who would even imagine that this small corner of the world is a vacation destination. Serguey called other hotels and they were sold out. So Serguey called Alex who was able to finagle us a room 2 hour later at this hotel through his contacts. (But the front desk people were not very happy with this)
3. Monday morning on the way to breakfast, the hall monitor (the lady that checks your key to see if you really are staying on the floor) told us we had to check out at 9 am even though we had been told we had the room until noon. Now the problem with this is our appt. with the judge is at 2pm and we have no place to leave our luggage. Call Alex (are you beginning to see the theme here?) again, he was able to get our rooms until 3 pm for a fee of 300 rubles(about $9). The floor monitor did not look very happy with us either. We get back from breakfast and our card/key to our rooms did not work-go figure! We did not need Alex for this though, Rich just had to wait in line for 45 minutes in the lobby to get them re-activated.
4. We had written out what we wanted to say to the judge, when Rich went to the internet cafe he could not get the laptop to link with their printers or computers and had to rewrite the whole think in order to print it. Then we go to our meeting with the Judge which I wrote about in post dated July 18.
5. Can you believe when we got to Bratsk they didn't have any hotel rooms at the price we wanted - but this turned out OK, we got a lower costing room, which really did not look that much different than the other rooms. Maybe the cost difference was that these rooms were on the back of the hotel without a view-which was great since we know from experience that the rooms in the front of the hotel are subject to a lot of noise from all the people hanging out in the courtyard in front of the hotel till really late at night. So I guess this one does not really count. The next three days were great, only challenges we faced were language barriers since no one in this region speaks English.
6. We return to Irkutsk, Alex set us up in an apartment that he does not own in downtown Irkutsk, it is great and we are rooming with the Wells (another adopting family), but there is no hot water because the lines were cut during road construction. (All water and heat come from
central location) You don't know what cold water is until you have taken a shower in water from the deepest lake in the world. See Rich's pictures on the link to the left.
7. Since we are not going leaving early we have to change our airline tickets. We go to Aeroflot office to change our tickets to fly to Moscow and the electricity was off. They told Serguey they would change our tickets when computer came back up and to call them later.
8. Aeroflot told Serguey tickets were ready, so we back go to their office.
When we got there they told Serguey they only had one ticket and could not do the other one
as the computers were down. Serguey got into it with them because they refused to call Moscow office as they were getting off in 10 minutes and for us to come back the next day.
9. Saturday morning we go to get breakfast and they don't open till 10:00; last night I felt some small twinges in my stomach, on the way back to the apartment, I got very sick. I spent the rest of the day in bed, sick to my stomach and with chills. How I wish we had hot water for a nice warm shower. We were scheduled to go to Lake Baikal, a trip I have been looking
forward to. This is the largest fresh water lake in the world and is supposed to be beautiful. So Rich and the Wells decide to go to Lake Baikal with out me. The three of them waited downstairs for half an hour, so Rich decided to walk to Aeroflot office while the Wells wait on cab. When the cab drove up the guy only spoke Russian, but he mentioned Alex so the Wells go in the cab and directed him to Aeroflot so they could pick up Rich. Steve goes in and waits with
Rich, as the line is very long while Anissa waits in the cab. Meanwhile when Rich calls Alex for help with our tickets, Alex ask why they did not get on cab. Anissa was setting in
this cab for an hour and it was the wrong cab! They dismissed the cab and walked back to the apartment. Anissa decides not to go to on the trip and Steve and Rich go by themselves. The cab driver had been in the driveway wiping down his car the whole time. Now you might wonder how it is that I, the Travel Jinx, can lay claim to this. Turns out, the cab driver was waiting for 4 people. Steve and Rich had nice day at Lake Baikel without a single problem.
10. Anissa and Steve are on the same flight back to Moscow on Sunday. We have to go in separate cabs to the airport, so Rich and Steve go in the first one to check in our luggage. They took our passports so they could do. Anissa and I follow arrive about 20 minutes after them. When we get in line, we don't see them anywhere and since they were checking passports we got out of line. Anissa went to look for them, while I tried to hold a space near the front of the line and now I am anxious; while she is gone the lady at the desk comes out looking for us, the guys had left the passports with her. Anissa and I get through the passport line, are standing in line to put our carry ons through the Xray machine, I get up to the machine, and it breaks. They spend about 15 minutes trying to figure out what is wrong with it, I am about to panic since we only have about 20 minutesleft beforee our flight-heaven forbid theyshouldd just search the bags. Finally a tech type guy arrived and got the machine going again. So we made the flight. (Of course when Rich told me we were on Row 13, I (accidentally) yelled at Rich "ROW 13, NO WAY."
We did make it back to Moscow, prayerfully we will make it back to Jacksonville in one piece.
11. We get to the Rosayia Hotel and they say we can not check in because the hotel in Bratsk did not register our passports. By Russian law your passports have to be registered within 3 days in every region you travel in, and since we had no registration for 5 days we would have to pay a fine unless we could prove we were in the Bratsk Hotel.Alll or ourreceiptss were packed, but aI did not know where or if I could find them so we sat on the hotel lobby floor tearing open every thing in our suitcases until finally we found them - no fine, and they let us check in.
12. After we get to our room (and take a wonderfully hot shower) , we call Delta to change our tickets and they told us all flights are booked until August 12th, that we would have to call every day to see if there were any seats or pay the $50 cab fair to the airport and try to fly standby. (and then have to pay $50 back to town if we did not get on a flight) It was starting to look like we were stuck in Moscow for a while!!!!
Actually we are not stuck here. We went to Delta office on Monday and had to buy new tickets for the flight on Wednesday because there were no tickets left for the fare that we bought our original tickets for. We did have a bit of luck here though, she quoted us $2300 each for tickets, but Rich was able to get us a military rate at a $1000 savings each and we can use the ticket to return if we travel before the end of October.
13. We arrive at JFK at 3pm Wednesday. Our flight is supposed to be at 6pm. At 9pm we were told the flight was canceled, so we had to spend the night at a low (and I mean low) budget hotel. (It has mirrors on the ceiling, it's a little freaky to wake and see someone starring down at you)
14. Finally, we are back in Jacksonville, and of course it does not end. One of our suitcases does not make it back with us. They did find it Friday and delivered it.
One or two things going wrong is not unusual. But 14 - I don't think anyone out there can say I am not the TRAVEL JINX!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY

HAPPY 4TH BIRTHDAY DIMPLES

Maybe you will be home soon!
Love, Mama and Papa

RUSSIAN CHRISTMAS TRADITIONS

Because we are adopting from Russia, I want to learn all I can about the girl's country. And since we just traveled there at the beginning of the holiday season I decided to research how Christmas is celebrated there.
Thirteen days after Western Christmas, on January 7th, the Russian Orthodox Church celebrates its Christmas, in accordance with the old Julian calendar. It's a day of both solemn ritual and joyous celebration. After the 1917 Revolution, Christmas was banned throughout Russia,along with other religious celebrations. It wasn't until 75 years later, in 1992, that the holiday was openly observed. Today, it's once again celebrated in grand fashion, with the faithful participating in an all-night Mass in incense-filled Cathedrals amidst the company of the painted icons of Saints. Christmas is one of the most joyous traditions for the celebration of Eve comes from the Russian tradition. On the Eve of Christmas, it is traditional for all family members to gather to share a special meal. The various foods and customs surrounding this meal differed in Holy Russia from village to village and from family to family, but certain aspects remained the same. An old Russian tradition, whose roots are in the Orthodox faith, is the Christmas Eve fast and meal. The fast, typically, lasts until after the evening worship service or until the first star appears. The dinner that follows is very much a celebration, although, meat is not permitted. Kutya (kutia), a type of porridge, is the primary dish. It is very symbolic with its ingredients being various grains for hope and honey and poppy seed for happiness and peace.Once the first star has appeared in the sky, the festivities begin. Although all of the food served is strictly Lenten, it is served in an unusually festive and anticipatory manner and style. The Russiansc all this meal: "The Holy Supper." The family gathers around the table to honor the coming Christ Child. A white table-cloth, symbolic of Christ's swaddling clothes, covers the Table. Hay is brought forth as a reminder of the poverty of the Cave where Jesus was born. A tall white candle is placed in the center of the Table,symbolic of Christ "the Light of the World." A large round loaf ofLenten bread, "pagach," symbolic of Christ the Bread of Life, is placed next to the Candle.The meal begins with the Lord's Prayer, led by the father of the family. A prayer of thanksgiving for all the blessings of the past year is said and then prayers for the good things in the coming year are offered. The head of the family greets those present with the traditional Christmas greeting: "Christ is Born!" The family members respond: "Glorify Him!" The Mother of the family blesses each person present with honey in the form of a cross on each forehead,saying: "In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the HolySpirit, may you have sweetness and many good things in life and in the new year." Following this, everyone partakes of the bread, dipping it first in honey and then in chopped garlic. Honey is symbolic of the sweetness of life, and garlic of the bitterness. After dinner, no dishes are washed and the Christmas presents are opened. Then the family goes to Church, coming home between 2 and 3am. On the Feast of the Nativity, neighbors and family members visit each other, going from house to house, eating, drinking and singing Christmas Carols all day long.

The "Holy Supper"Christmas Eve dinner is meatless but festive. The most important ingredient is a special porridge called kutya. It is made of wheat or other grains which symbolize hope and immortality, and honey and poppy seeds which ensure happiness, success, and untroubled rest. A ceremony involving the blessing of the home is frequently observed.The kutya is eaten from a common dish to symbolize unity. Some families used to throw a spoonful of kutya up to the ceiling. According to tradition, if the kutya stuck, there would be aplentiful honey harvest. Traditionally, the "Holy Supper" consists of 12 different foods,symbolic of the 12 Apostles. Although there was also some variation in the foods from place to place and village to village, the following is a good summary of what was typically served. The twelve foods are:
1) Mushroom soup with zaprashka; this is often replaced with Sauerkraut soup
2) Lenten bread ("pagach")
3) Grated garlic
4) Bowl of honey
5) Baked cod
6) Fresh Apricots, Oranges, Figs and Dates
7) Nuts
8) Kidney beans (slow cooked all day) seasoned with shreddedpotatoes, lots of garlic, salt and pepper to taste
9) Peas
10) Parsley Potatoes (boiled new potatoes with chopped parsley andmargarine)
11) Bobal'ki (small biscuits combined with sauerkraut or poppyseedwith honey)
12) Red WineIt was once common practice, on Christmas Eve, for groups of people masquerading as manger animals to travel from house to house, having themselves a rousing good time, and singing songs known as kolyadki . Some kolyadki were pastoral carols to the baby Jesus,while others were homages to the ancient solar goddess Kolyada, who brings the lengthening days of sunlight through the winter. In return for their songs, the singers were offered food and coins,which they gladly accepted, moving on to the next home.Ded Moroz and yolka December 6th marks the Feast Day of St. Nicholas of Myra; a Turkish bishop who became the patron saint of Moscow and Santa to the world. Due to the suppression of religion during the Soviet regime, St.Nicholas was replaced by Ded Moroz or Grandfather Frost, the Russian Spirit of Winter who brought gifts on New Year's. He is accompaniedby Snyegurochka, the Snowmaiden, who helps distribute the gifts.The Christmas tree (Yolka) is yet another tradition banned during the Soviet era. To keep the custom alive, people decorated New Year's trees, instead. Since ornaments were either very costly orunavailable, family trees were trimmed with homemade decorations and fruit. Yolka comes from the word which refers to a fir tree. The custom of decorating Christmas trees was introduced to Russia by Peter the Great, after he visited Europe during the 1700's.

Why January 7? In ancient times, many, mostly unreliable methods had been used to calculate the dates according to either the lunar or solar cycles.By Roman times, the calendar had become three months out with the seasons, so in 46 BC, Julius Caesar commissioned the astronomer,Sosigenes to devise a more reliable method. This, we know as theJulian Calendar and was used widely for 1500 years. The month of his birth, Caesar had named Quintilis, but the Roman Senate later re-named it Julius (July) in his honour. In those days, February had 30 days every 4 years. However, this calendar was still 11 minutes and 14 seconds longer than the solar year, so that by the year 1580, the calendar had accumulated 10 days off again. In 1582, therefore, Pope Gregory XIII corrected the difference between the sun and calendar by ordering 10 days dropped from October, the month with the least Roman Catholic Feast days. His calendar, we know as the Gregorian Calendar, which is used in almost all of the world today. Pope Gregory made further changes to keep the calendar in line, which on average is only 26.3 seconds longer than the solar year. The Gregorian Calendar is so accurate that it will take until the year 4316 to gain a whole day on the sun.That year, 1582, October 5th became October 15th and was immediately adopted in most Roman Catholic nations of Europe. Various German states kept the Julian Calendar until 1700. Britain and the American Colonies didn't change until 1752, but Russia and Turkey did not adopt the Gregorian Calendar until the early 1900's. So, January 7th by the Georgian Calendar would have been December 25th by the old Julian Calendar and is therefore why it is still Christmas Day for the Russian Orthodox Church. Many Russians will have celebrated along with the rest of us and will then celebrate again on the Orthodox date.

New Year Eve instead of Christmas Few people in Russia remember, but when the communists took power in1917 they banned the open expression of religion. While it was easy to pray at home, the Russian people were concerned about giving up their traditional Christmas celebration. But where there is a will, there is a way! They re-invented the New Year's holiday tradition to include a decorated tree, and introduced a character called "GrandfatherFrost." Known as "Ded Moroz," Grandfather Frost looked very much like the western "Santa Claus" or "Pere Noel" (except he wore a bluesuit.) Actually, Ded Moroz was a character that existed in the pagan culture, centuries earlier. For a time, Christmas was all but forgotten. In fact, it was generally celebrated only in small villages, where the citizenry was far from the prying eyes of the Party.Today, Christmas is celebrated again, on January 7. But, to date ,New Year's remains the bigger event.

WE ARE HOME

Our flight from Bratsk to Moscow was an hour late in landing, even thought we took off on time. Then because of snow and bad traffic it took over 3 hours to get from Domodedovo Airport(one of 3 domestic airports in Moscow)to Sheremetyevo Airport-the international airport. We arrived at the airport at 1:10, the exact time our flight was to take off. Our driver who works for Peace Travel was wonderful. He went to the Delta counter with us to change our flight and then helped us book a room at the Sheremetyevo Hotel across from the airport. We are so tired and now I worry we did not give him a large enough tip.
We stayed in at the hotel, I pretty much slept most of the time. The hotel has a free shuttle and we headed back to the airport at 11:00 the next day. Thank goodness we were so early, it took 1 1/2 hours to get through security as they open every bag and search it thoroughly. On the way back I read in the USA Today newspaper an article about some women in the states that were very upset about security and body searches at Airports in the states. I find that absurd, it is ridiculous in this age of terrorism. I would much rather feel safe after everyone being searched (which is what they do in Russia) I feel much safer flying in Russia than in the States after experiencing their security procedures.

OK, off that bandwagon now. I got really upset in JFK when all of the families in front of us had their children that they had adopted. We had talked to several of the families on the flight, most had waited less than 5 months to complete their adoptions. By the time we got home I was very ill and a fever of 102. I slept for almost 20 hours

LAST DAY WITH OUR LITTLE ANGELS

Today was our last two visits this trip. Hopefully we will be back in February to bring them home. I think the girls knew this was our last visit. They both ignored us when they came in the room and just walked around and looked at the other families. We took out toys to play with, they came around to us, but were both moody and hyper. It was so very hard to say bye to them. The staff finally made them leave the room, but they kept trying to get away and looking back at us. This was much harder than our last visit, they have really started to bond with us, and I hate leaving them behind.

We met with Ludmilla (the Guardian lady) again today and received history of both girls. Pixie has a brother and sister in the older children’s orphanage. They are both visited by the mother and are not available for adoption. Sadly, her mother has never been to visit her. When Sergey and Ludmilla went to get a release from the Grandparents, they did not even know Pixie had been born. They signed away their rights as they are very poor and live a 2 room shack with Pixie's uncle, aunt and the aunt's 2 children. Sergey’s says that Pixie is the spitting image of her grandfather.(Must be the haircut)
Dimples also has 2 siblings, they both live with their mother and grandmother. Her mother is physically handicapped and unable to care for her. They also signed away their rights as they are too poor to care for her.

On a funnier note, two Russian gentlemen tried to pick me up today - of course Rich doesn't see it that way! We went to dinner with Sergey and the two other families at a nice seafood place. They had a dance floor and a gentleman tried to get me to get up and dance with him. When I told Rich, he said OK, and just turned back to the others and continued his conversation - everyone at the table got a big laugh from this. There was also a guy in the cab today on the way to the baby home who kept starring at me with a big toothless smile, and then he didn't want to let go of my hand when he shook it. Now if that wasn't an attempt at pickup, then I am really out of touch.

TODAY WAS THANKSGIVING?

I can't believe we forgot today was Thanksgiving.
We have so much to be thankful for:
Thanks for great friends and family who helped us make this trip.
Thanks to this beautiful country for allowing us the opportunity to adopt.
Thanks for the incredible people of Russia we have met on our journeys.
Thanks for two beautiful, fun loving little girls who will soon be our children.
Thanks to Brenda, Alex, and Sergey who have made this possible.
Thanks for the wonderful staff who work in this baby home and help Pixie and Dimples remember who we are.
Most of all thanks to God for all of our blessings and gifts we take for granted at home.

DAY THREE WITH OUR LITTLE ANGELS

Today was our third day with the girls. Since our first visit, they have both let out big screams and coming running to us when they see us. They both love the puzzle and coloring books. Both the girls have colds, so they won't let them go outside to play, which is fine with me, 3 feet of snow and zero degrees is a little much. But the orphanage staff do wrap up the other kids and take them out to play everyday. I honestly don't know how they can spend 2 hours hour there.

Sergey is at the baby home with another American family and a French family. It was so good to see him. The other families are with us in the play room, both of them are adopting babies. Their court dates are next week and they have been waiting for nine months. The American family is not really very talkative; we have really enjoyed the French family and are exchanging e-mail addresses with them.

We finally found out what happened to Pixie's hair, Sergey said she got bugs in the yard, I assume he means lice. Sergey told us that he does not know if judge is retiring and that she is getting more difficult in court. There is another couple in from France that has been stuck in Irkutsk for 2 weeks because judge will not sign for adoption visa and they can not get passport for their baby.

Sergey also told us that every time he sees Dimples she says "I am here, where is my Mama" which breaks my heart and surprises me because she has not called me Mama yet; she did call Rich 'papa' for first time today

FiINALLY HERE WITH OUR LITTLE ANGELS

I finally got enough energy to walk to Internet cafe. We arrived yesterday at 7:30 am, we didn't make it to the hotel until 9:00 because they lost a box of toys that Tracy gave us that we were donating to the orphange. It was difficult at first because no one spoken English at the airport. Finally a Russian gentleman on our flight who spoke English saw we were having problems, and he offered to help. He found out the airport manager spoke English, and he waited with us until she came to work. When she finally arrived she was very helpful and promised to look for our box. While we were checking in at hotel, she called, they found the box and promised to delivered it to the hotel.
We ate breakfast and then went to baby home. Pixie came straight to us, Dimples was a little afraid at first, but quickly warmed up to us. Pixie's head was shaved, but since we can't communicate with anyone, we have no idea why. We got to spend lunch with them, little Pixie is so cute, putting the whole tablespoon in her mouth with soup on it, then licking it clean before putting it back in the bowl. Dimples continues to constantly chatter, even when eating. We went back to hotel and took a nap, back at 4:00 to baby home. When I gave them the dolls we brought them, Dimples was thrilled and kept repeating "kookla" (Russian for doll) and she kept trying to run out of the room to show everyone the 'kookla' that we gave her. Exhausted, we returned to the hotel at 6:00 ate a light dinner and then slept 12 hours.
Next day back to the orphanage twice again. We haven't had any problems with transportation, since Alex was emailed us the addresses of the baby home and the hotel. We just go out to the street where the taxi's line up and show them the address, then Rich shows them a slip of paper with 60 rubles written on it(the price of cab ride our last trip)-they usually agree with this price. The box of toys was delivered and we gave them to Katya who was thrilled to have the new toys and took them straight to the dorm for them to play with. Dimples came out with the big truck on our second visit and played with it, running it up and down the room and laughing.

Moscow, Trip 2

Our flight to Moscow was uneventful, it was nice to have 3 hours in JFK this time instead of having to run to catch our flight. It was snowing in Moscow when we landed and continued to snow the until we left there Sunday. It was so beautiful, our hotel room looked out on Red Square and St. Basils Cathedral and snow was everywhere.

View from our hotel

Moscow was quite the adventure, Iwanted to go to the huge outdoor craft market on Saturday, so we got up early and rode the subway, this quite a chore since we can't read Russian and missed our stop. It is funny how when you ask for directions (by pointing to the Map) every one talks up a storm even though they know you don't understand, but pointing eventually got us in the right direction. We got to Izmailovsky Park and it was snowing very hard, needless to say no outdoor craft market that day, but we did find Western World. We had a cup of coffee, got lost on the subway again and made it to Arbat Street about an hour later, Arbet is a lot like the main tourist street in St. Augustine Florida, the road is open only to pedestrians and lots of shops and vendors set up in the middle of the street, even in the snow. Rich bought a souvenir shot glass at first store, the next store we went into had the same one for half the price, he was a little upset. After that he haggled with all the shop keepers; if you walk out their store they say "we give you big discount!"
We walked all the way back to Red Square and went to the Kremlin, which was only open for groups; so we went on tour with some Scottish people. It was very interesting, and seems incredible to stand in a building built in the 1400's and hear the stories of czars and czarinas. Perhaps I stood in the same spot that Ivan the Terrible or Catherine the Great once stood.
Before we knew it was time to repack. Andre' of Peace Travel called and said we needed to be ready two hours earlier because of the snow. Three hours in the car and we made it to Domodevo Airport, it was very crowded, security is very tight. We had to take off our shoes, belt and watch, and they even frisk you - a first for me. We flew Siberia Air to Bratsk. It was horrible. It was a very old plane and smelled like men's urinal. The only saving grace was that there were only about 25 people on the flight, so we could fold the seats in front of us completely forward and lay with our legs straight out to sleep. Now to see our girls!!!

On Arabat Street - Russians love dachsunds too.

E-mails from our friend in Russia

The following are e-mails from Russia about the girls that were translated from Russian.
11/02 e-mail: Vanda (that's me - there are no 'W's in Russian) and Richard, please do not worry about Pixie, she was not strongly sick, it only cold. But she has got in hospital because in her were still found out a rash. And consequently, for the insurance she was placed in hospital. But it seems to me, she has appeared the irritation. Now she again in the House of the child, in habitual conditions. Each week I made pictures for you on your camera. Dimples always with pleasure makes poses and always smiles. Pixie too. They are healthy and are very cheerful. They are always glad to see me and caregivers show them your photos. Say to me please more in detail about the plans of trip in Bratsk, that it was easier for us with Alex to organize it. I inform you the address of a house of the child and hotel in Bratsk.1
1/04 e-mail: Dear Vanda and Richard, Today I am staying In Bratsk with another family. Already I have took a picture of Dimples and Pixie. They were very glad to see me again and they could not stop smiling. You will see it in the pictures and when you come here. When you come here will you come to Irkutsk or go directly to Bratsk? Do you want to stay in the same hotel without me or with me ? I need to know so I can make arrangements before you come. Of course today I will tell the girls that Mama and Papa will come soon!!! I hope to see you soon .

Hope it isn't true

Today in FRUA internet group there is a discussion that Russia has halted adoptions temporarily as they reorganize MOE and they are not sending out database letters. According to the Russian Law, to become available for adoption by foreign citizens, the child must have been registered in the state database for children left without parental care for not less than six months. Normally I wouldn't write about rumors, but several agencies have posted notices about this one. Who knows what is going on or how long they will be closed or this even affects us.

Update: OK, so I recieved an email response from our contact about this situation. Have been told that since we signed papers for them in June we should be OK.

WE ARE GOING TO VISIT

Wonderful, wonderful friends and family have given us money to go and see the girls. Bought tickets today. We leave on November 18 and come back on November 26. Can't wait to get there.

Pictures

Received a picture of Dimples and Sergie. She looks so much smaller than I remember. Sergie said he could not take picture of Pixie because she had a cold and was in the hospital, of course this freaks me out and I call Brenda. Brenda said they separate children when they are sick so others don't catch it. Hope that's all it was.

Pixie' Birthday

HAPPY 4th BIRTHDAY PIXIE.

We wish you were here.
Love Mama and Papa

Package to Russia

Today I went to send a package to Sergey with a birthday present for Pixie and picture books for the girls with the pictures from our trip. I can't believe Fed Ex is $248 and they can't even guarantee it will get their by her birthday on August 31. UPS was $198. Post office was on $38, so I sent it through them, it probably won't even make it there.

COPIES OF E-MAILS SENT AND RECIEVED WHILE IN RUSSIA:

June 15, 2004 Greetings from Wanda and Rich in Siberia We just got to Bratsk 1 hour ago. Tomorrow we go to orphanage to meet 4 little girls. Please pass info along to Ellis Rd and to UN. Janice's husbands e-mail bounced back as not good, so tell her I can not e-mail her at all. Will write again when we have time. Wanda

Jun 16, Greetings from Wanda and rich in Siberia HI! Time difference is 14 hours ahead. Yesterday (Wed) we met Pixie -age 3 yrs 10 months, Galina-age 3 years 1 month, Dimples-age 3 yrs 5 months, and Anastasia- age 1 yr 6 months. We definitely attached to Pixie first, you should see Rich with her-he is head over heals. She is a very happy child, always smiling and very lovable. Anastasia was so terrified that I could not get within 2 feet of her. Galina and Dimples were afraid at first but calmed down, but neither would say a word. So we left having to decide between Galina and Dimples. Today we were on playground with all children. It is so heartbreaking to see so many "babies" (as our facilitator, Sergey says with most adorable Russian accent.) So many of them wanted our attention, and they are all beautiful and healthy children. Wish I could bring them all home. Today we decided on Dimples, social worker and Sergey said they had never seen Dimples attach to adults as she did us. She wanted to be held all the time. She finally started talking today. Galina was more detached at times. So to make a long story short, our daughters are Pixie and Dimples. Dimples has a lazy eye . Both girls are so tiny, but both appear very healthy. We will be spending 2 more days at orphanage, then back to Irkutsk to sign papers on Monday. Fly back on Tuesday - all day long. Now we find out that it will be 7-9 months before court, maybe we will be able to find money to come back and visit between as some other families do.
Love
Wanda and Rich

6/15 From Linda
Awwww, are you going to bring 4 girls back? Just kidding. Hope you are enjoying your trip.
Take care.
Linda

June 16 From Debbie
I am sitting here with tears in my eyes reading your note. It must be a struggle to see all of the "babies" and have to decide. It sounds like Pixie and Dimples are definitely a perfect fit for you two. I hope you were able to take lots of pictures. I will have to show you how to do Creative Memories photo albums. So you can go back and spend more time with them? I pray every day for you guys because I know that the two of you will be great parents! Hope to hear soon. Debbie

6/16 From the Smiths
So glad to hear from you two. Today is Wednesday, so perhaps you've already met your two girls. We're praying for you and wishing you the best. Cynthia and Rollin are here at the beach as is Kathryn Murphree, all three families have been deeply touched by some adopted kids!!! And yours will soon make huge impacts in the lives of others here in the U.S. Let us know how your meeting was!! !Love,Kathi and Taylor and babysitters to be, TM and V

6/17 From Linda
Oh my goodness. I am so excited about this. I didn't realize though the time span between knowing you had children and when you get to bring them home would be so long. I am so happy for the two of you!! Take care and come home safe!!
Linda

6/17 From the Murphrees
Just too exciting! We know that the girls will be perfect. Of course, they will have their hair dyed red, and be very pushy in lines...just kidding. Hope you guys are not getting too tired. Hang in there!Love,Duaine, Nanci and the gang

6/18 From Brenda
Hi guys! How's it going over there? Hope you are doing okay. Sure wish you could bring the girls home with you!! Does it really take a whole day to fly home? Are you taking the rest of the week off to recover, or do you have to go back to work on Wednesday? Very much looking forward to stories from your trip!! Brenda

6/18/2004 From Carol
I assuming you will get this email while still in Russia. I am soooooooo excited to hear the news, and so glad you are getting to know Pixie and Dimples. I can't believe the courts take so long, seems like they would want to get it all completed at once, so the bonding you are creating with each other now would continue. Seems like y'all will now have to be reunited again, when it's time to bring them home. Do they have ways for you to keep in touch with the girls in the interim, besides making another trip over there? What an overall experience you all are going through, can't wait to hear all about it. About what time will y'all get in on the23rd?

6/21 From the Smiths
Blessings to Pixie and Dimples from Aunt Kathi and Uncle Taylor.

6/21 From Melissa
Wow - I can't wait to hear all the details - 2 girls! I hope you have a lot of pictures. I know you will be exhausted, but call me as soon as you feel up to telling me everything.

6/22 From the Smiths
When do we get to go back and get the girls? Let me know. Dimples and Pixie have two cousins, Virginia and Taylor Mac who are excited to meet them!!!!! Blessings, Kathi (and naughty Virginia who is still up and reading over my shoulder)

The Wait Begins

Flight back to Jacksonville took forever-total 27 hours (this included waiting time at airports). I am so exhausted, and sick with bronchitis.
Hopefully we will bring the girls home before Christmas.

Our last day in Irkutsk

We met Sergie at a little restaurant in downtown Irkutsk that has a baby alligator in a fish tank. He took us to the Notaries office to sign our intent to adopt Pixie and Dimples. After the 2 hour wait and 5 minutes it took to complete paperwork, we went site seeing in Irkutsk with Sergie. It really is a pretty town. We visited a church that is being renovated. It is over 200 years old and was one of the few churches that was not destroyed by the soviet government. There are not any chairs in the church, so we asked Sergey about the services. The Russian people stand for the whole service which is usually 2-3 hours long –Ouch! We also found a great souvenir shop and bought some Christmas presents. Tomorrow we fly back to Jacksonville. We have been told we will probably have a court date this fall.

Saying goodbye

Yesterday was our last visit. A really sad day. It was raining. We meet with girls; both appear to be very tired. I wonder if they have been told this is our last visit. Dimples was very difficult and would stamp her feet and then fall and start rocking if redirected or told no. Rich tried to hold her and comfort her during one of these episodes, she would have nothing to do with this. Today is the first time we saw Pixie cry, Rich was playing with umbrella and hit automatic opener which frightened both girls, Pixie was very upset and refused to go near umbrella again. At 12:00 we said goodbye to girls, me in tears. As we drive away, one of the caretakers has them standing in the window waving goodbye to us, I think I will remember this image of them for the rest of my life.
It was 6 1/2 hour taxi ride back to Irkutsk, no planes fly on Saturday from Bratsk to Irkutsk. It was wild, they pass on hills and drive very fast. Cost was only $141.00. After we dropped off luggage, we went to Snowflake to eat again. They have a delicious homemade spiced wine and the bartender put some in a bottle for us to take home.
5 things I miss about home
My dog
Wendy's hamburgers and fries
Driving
My bed
Hearing English

3rd and 4th days at the Orphanage

On Thursday we get to baby home and the children are on playground again, it was very hard because G (one of the little girls we decided not to take) kept following me,I would love to take her home with us too but we can not afford 3 girls. Dimples has really warmed up to us; she is going to be the bossy one of the two and Pixie just laughs all the time; today she just stopped in playground and started laughing really hard. The little boys are sooooo cute, way to many boys available for adoption, only the 4 girls that we saw at this orphanage were available. Most of them are left without parental rights signed away, so they are not available for international.
After about ½ hour on the playground we take the girls up to the visiting room. Dimples doesn’t sit still and wants to hold all the toys, saying "die" (means give in Russian) if you are holding one of the toys. She continues to be a little chatter box. It is difficult for her to sit still in the small room, she does better on playground. When she gets mad, she throws temper tantrum, laying on floor kicking legs, then sits up and rocks back an forth. Pixie just smiles all the time and never gets upset, even when Dimples takes toys from her. She spends time examining everything (ie. the seams on the beach ball) like she is trying to figure out how they are made-maybe she will be a scientist. I have lots of pictures and video, can't wait for everyone to see them.
We met with a lady from the guardian committee; she is concerned that we are not prepared to raise Pixie as she thinks she is developmentally disabled. We have already discussed possibility and are prepared, but we really don’t think she is disabled, just delayed. Also turns out that S and guardian lady need to find Dimples's mother and make sure she is willing to give her up; the grandmother signed her over in the hospital. We leave disturbed and wonder if they will let us have Pixie.
I had e-mailed B earlier about the visit with guardian, she said not to worry-they had labeled her son as developmentally disabled, but he is just fine and has high IQ. Thank goodness for B, she is always there when we need her.
Friday, so sad to think we leave tomorrow, I really hate to leave them, I know I will cry. There are no flights on Saturday so we have to rent a taxi and take it back to Irkutsk. Today we spent 4 more hours with our girls. They are doing so well with us. Pixie spoke her first English words, mimicking me saying "Don't touch" when she tried to grab the video camera. Dimples shows great curiosity and tries to get into everything she shouldn't - our bags, S's briefcase. She has worn the same dress everyday but one, a cute little red plaid dress. Since Pixie has worn different cloths everyday, that makes me think that she just loves this dress.
Bratsk has been an interesting town. It appears to be very industrial and actually is one of the largest aluminum produces in the world. No one we have met speaks English, but we are always with Sergie, so it does not matter. No one here seems to care or are even interested in the fact that we are Americans. There are no fast food restaurants and all the food is great and all freshly made. I don't eat the salads since we are supposed to avoid the water and anything rinsed in water. because we could get parasites from it. Rich has eaten them and they are similar to our salads, just smaller and they don't use dressing, just a dollop of mayonnaise. On Thursday we were without Sergie during lunch, going down the sidewalk was an outdoor kiosk with a picture of a hamburger. We ordered two, but I am really not so sure what kind of meat it was, definitely did not taste like an American hamburger. I think if we lived here, I would probably lose a lot of weight.

2nd day at the Orphange

We go to 'baby home' (as Sergie calls it) at 10 amagain. When we get there, the girls are on the playground and we get to spend time on playground with children. They are all so adorable and all of them want our attention. One little boy kept running up to Rich and when he would get his attention he would laugh and run away. Rich took out the bubbles and all the children started running after them and bumping into each other. It sounds terrible, but was very funny like something you would see on America’s Funniest Videos. We play with the three girls again. At the end of this time I am holding Dimples when Sergie tells us that she has never let anyone hold her for as long as I have been holding her. So that helped make the decision between her and G. Well not just that, it feels like she needs us more than G. G is much more independent than Dimples. When we returned at 4:00 we had Pixie and Dimples together in a small room upstairs. Dimples is a totally different child when alone with us, chattering the whole time and very active. Both girls play well together and laugh a lot. Most memorable is the two of them sitting on the couch laughing and playing with Rich. Pixie is very affectionate and giggles a lot. Dimples is bossy and takes toys away from Pixie; Pixie gets a little upset, then moves on. Even though Dimples chatters constantly, we only heard Pixie talk when looking out window at kids on playground. They both yell down at the kids down there.

Today we met the girls

Today is the day. We leave hotel at 10:00 and go to orphanage. Before meeting the girls we meet with Victor, the director of the orphanage. Then we met Pixie. I don't even remember Sergie bringing her in the room; all of a sudden she was just there, sitting in my lap looking up at me like she was thinking "I know you." For me it was love at 1st site. She has the greatest smile, Sergie says she is always smiling. She does not talk to us. She likes the dog puppet and books, she appears very curious. She played well with Rich and ate goldfish crackers. Physically she is very small and has sketchy medical history, but she looks healthy. She was left at the hospital at birth and the only thing we know about the mother is that she has other children and lives with a man who is not Pixie’s father. She has all vaccinations, has had pneumonia, broke her leg 1 year ago because she had shingles, ear infection 1 year ago, chicken pox 1 month ago. We both fell in love with her and know that we want to adopt her. We spent about 45 minutes with her and then it was time for the kids to go to lunch.
We went back to orphanage at 4 PM. Next we met we meet our second referral, Sergie said she is very active child, but she is frightened at first. She is beautiful, black hair, dark eyes. She is heavier than Pixie, and seems to be all muscle. She sits quietly and just stares at us, does not smile at all. Just as she starts to adjust, she has to go for snack. They accidentally brought out the third and fourth referrals at the same time. Referral number 3 starts screaming and they take her back to her ward, which is OK, she was a little younger than we want.
Referral number 4 was terrified and kept trying to hide behind the social worker, she looked so tiny and lost with these big beautiful brown eyes (one of which is crossed), clutching stuffed clown. She was very afraid of Rich and Sergie. It took a while but I finally get her in my arms, she just sits quietly taking every thing in. Then we finally get her into Rich's lap. She did not want to leave at end of visit, I think we even saw a smile just before the caretakers came to take her back to the ward. In that brief smile we saw the most adorable dimples. Now we have to decide between referral number 2 and number 4, they are both really cute, number 4 seemed more comfortable with us. We leave at 6:00 and go to dinner with S, he is wonderful and his attempts to speak English makes conversing fun. We laugh a lot. For example, he said several times that he needs to meet with "garden committee", I assumed this had something to do with gardening, which I can't figure why he has to go to a gardening committee in Bratsk. This afternoon he said that tomorrow we have to meet with garden committee; turns out he was saying guardian committee, which are the social workers for the ophans. We all had a big laugh over that.
Back in our room we get ready for bed and talk about the girls, we are both torn between referral numbers 2 and 4. Since there is no air conditioning, we have to sleep with window open. Our window looks out over a large open square. A lot of people gather there and it is very noisy until after midnight since the sun doensn't go down until after midnight.

View at 11:15pm from our hotel.

It's a Small World

Today we flew to Bratsk, tomorrow we meet our future daughters. I still can not believe this is happening, I am finally going to be a Mom. This morning we met Sergie; he took us to to the MOE, Ministry of Education, to receive our referrals; to my surprise we were given 4 referrals. This is very different from what I have read on line of other prospective adoptive parents trips. Usually you are matched with a referral, go meet them and then decide if this is the child you want to adopt; if not you either go home or go back to MOE to receive another referral. I guess since Bratsk is so far away from Irkutsk this is the way they do things in this region. We do find out from Sergie that these are the only girls between 2 and 5 that are available in Bratsk for international adoption even though there are 97 children in the orphanage. Most children are in the orphanage because their families can not afford to take care of them. Some children are only available for Russian families to adopt because the child's family can not be found to sign away their rights to the children. The girls we are going to meet are available for international adoption because their parents either lost all rights or they have signed their rights away.

After we left MOE, we go straight to the airport. In the airport I went to the restroom, and there was another "porcelain hole in the floor" toilet-this hole in the floor was actually at the top of two steps and on each side of it was a place to put your feet to squat down; Russian women must have had very strong thighs before they got the sit on type of toilets.I know ti is weird to take a picture of a toilet, but I just could not resist.

Porcelain Hole in Floor

So, now to the reason for the title of this post "It's a small world." Flying to Bratsk was a new experience, the plane loaded from the back and we had to take our luggage up the back steps ourselves. Each row had 4 seats, two on each side with no assigned seating. Sergie sat in front of us next to an oriental man. Turns out he spoke English and was very excited to be able to find English speaking people on the flight. Now for the small world part-he works for a company that makes paper and was going to Bratsk to buy lumber. The company is Georgia Pacific and he visited Amelia Island a couple of months ago. What are the odds? First we find out our neighbor has friends who are missionaries here in Irkutsk, now we meet someone in Siberia from China, who was recently in Jacksonville. This is one of the things I love about traveling, those chance meetings with people who you have something in common with, someone who lives in another part of our world.
The flight was smooth, looking out the window, the land is beautiful forest, miles and miles of it against the backdrop of snowcapped mountains. I did not expect Siberia to be so lush and green.
We checked into our room at the Hotel Bratsk. The lobby and the ladies behind the desk look like something from the 1960's. The elevator is not big enough for the 3 of us and our luggage, actually it's barely big enough for 3 people without luggage. Our room is small with twin beds, the shower is a hand held and their are not shower curtains.
After getting settled, we meet Sergie for dinner. There are a lot of people out walking around, the area has a number of shops and we had a delicious meal at a small restaurant. It is certainly not what I expected. If you know me, you know that I am the pickiest eater, absolutely no green vegetables, or strange dishes will pass over my palate. And I am certainly not going to eat a soup made from beats. Turns out, it was not even on the menu. We had pork loin and rice- very good- with Siberian Crown beer.
All of the buildings appear to be apartment buildings 3-4 stories with shops and restaurants on the bottom floors. We walked down to the internet cafe which is only 4 blocks away. Thank goodness for Sergie, we would never have found it. So, here we are. Hopefully tomorrows update will be wonderful news.

A day in Irkutsk

We woke up early Monday; it’s a holiday so we can’t go to the adoption center. From our apartment we can see the trolley so we decided to be adventurous and do some site seeing. We took the trolley to downtown Irkutsk which cost 6 rubles each, we figured that is about 22 cents. Downtown we walked all over, it is a really pretty town with some beautiful old buildings. We found the internet cafe after finally finding someone at a college who spoke English. We did not see any large department stores, just individual stores and kiosk type buildings that sell mostly food and alcohol. It took awhile but we finally found a sports bar and ordered ‘spicy’ wings. This was nothing like wings in the sports bars serve at home, we got 3 wings each and they tasted like Kentucky Fried Chicken crispy chicken. And the sports bar—not so sure why it is called a sports bar, it was a little fancy and had one TV. After eating we rode the trolley across the river to the end of the line at a large university. Riding back, we got off at the Trans Siberian Railway station. In the bathroom, you pay 5 rubles to get in and for a small piece of toilet paper. Most surprising was that the toilet was a porcelain hole in the floor and it was self flushing. Then we headed back late and got lost; neither of us thought to look at our apartment building. We showed the trolley ticket taker the address and he told us to get off in the wrong place. We asked directions several time, but no one spoke English; finally one lady said "come" and walked us to the right street and pointed us in the right direction where we finally recognized the front of the building. We had been walking around in circles for an hour. It was after 11pm when we got back and just getting dark.

Moscow to Irkutsk

Still no luggage, we woke up late, the airport does not answer phone and we can not reach Michael. I need a toothbrush (next time I will pack toothbrushes and deodorant in carry on) and a cup of coffee.
While Rich waited for news of the luggage, I went to look for a store and breakfast. There was a large grocery store near Arabet street with a coffee shop and McDonalds near by. The store is just like an American store and has lots of goods made in America, but toothbrushes and deodorant were actually cheaper. Our luggage arrived at 2:00, 1 hour before we were to check out. While waiting for Armen to pick us up, we went back to Arabet street and walked around some more.
We flew out of Domodedovo airport to Irkutsk. Armen was very helpful getting us to the right gate. The flight to Irkutsk was 3 hours late and we met some people while waiting who were pouring drinks and toasting something, they kept giving some to Rich and I, we have no idea what they were saying and I am sure they did not understand us either. The flight was 6 hours and Irkutsk is 5 hours ahead, so we landed at 9 am Sun morning. Alex's mother Lilly, picked us up. We also met Dot's friends who were kind enough to hold up signs with our names on it, they were picking up a friend at the airport. They are missionaries from Jacksonville who live in Irkutsk and work in the outlying villages.
Lilly took us to the apartment, it is very nice inside-2 bedrooms, small kitchen and has TV and VCR. It looks like several families have left videos to watch. We slept until 7 pm when Alex came over. He told us the adoption center closed on Monday because of the holiday so we can not register until Tuesday. Alex took us to The Snezhinka Restaurant(Russian for Snowflake), helped us order and told us the staff would call a taxi for us when we were ready. He said Sergie, our translator and facilitator, would call us later with our arrangements. There was a grocery store just down from the restaurant and we bought eggs, bread, butter, ham, water, and 2 beers for about $3.00. Downtown Irkutsk appears to be a nice city. We will see more tomorrow since we have an unexpected free day.

On Our Way - Trip One

So this is it, WE ARE GOING TO MEET OUR GIRLS. Our flight from Jacksonville had to circle and we were an hour late landing at JFK; thinking we only had 8 minutes to get to our connection to Moscow we ran through the airport. Turns out they were late also, we had to wait an hour to board, then another hour on the runway. The flight was full, so our hope of changing seats to one next to window seat were dashed. Seats were not that uncomfortable and dinner was good. Rich and I were able to sleep most of the way to Moscow.
No problem with customs, they barely looked at our passports and not at all at our customs declaration form. Sheremetyevo airport is very busy and we had to wait a long time to report missing luggage. Armen, who works for Michael picked us up and took us to Belgrade Hotel. The room is ok, just not $115 ok. The bed is small, but pillows are great. There is no air conditioning and no screens on windows, but there doesn't seem to be any bugs either.

Since we got in early afternoon, we did the tourist thing, Belgrade is at the end of Arbet St., which is a closed pedestrian street with a lot of street vendors, stores and restaurants. There were a lot of people out and we walked all the way to Red Square, but it was closed because of Russian Independence Day.
Outside the Kremlin

St. Basils, next to Red Square is beautiful, I wish we could go inside, maybe next trip won’t be on one of their holidays. I bought a beautiful pen and ink drawing of it for the girls room from an artist on the street.

Saint Basils Cathedral, Moscow, Russia

Since our luggage was lost and weatherunderground.com was wrong about the temperature and we don't have clothing with us for temperatures in the 50s, needed to find something warm to wear. GUM mall is next to Red Square and we went there; it is very elegant and beautiful and we were able to find sweatshirts (a little expensive but warm). We decided to ride the Metro back to the beginning of Arbet St. This is very confusing because no one speaks English and all the signs are in Russian, but we eventually found a guy to help us. Later we had dinner at the Hard Rock Cafe, wait staff spoke English.

Here we go!

Here we go!
We have Travel Dates to meet our future daughters. I am so excited. We need to be there on June 13 to go to the adoption center to receive our referrals. We are traveling blind - meaning that we do not have information on the children. We will go to family reunion in Memphis, come home on Monday and then fly out Thursday. Finding tickets on Memorial day weekend on short notice was challenging, but we did get them thanks to Steve at lowtravel.com. On June 10 we will fly to JFk from Jacksonville followed by an 8 hour flight to fly to Moscow , spend 2 days there then go on to Irkutsk.
SIBERIA HERE WE COME!

The Beginning

After several years of discussing adoption, we finally decided to go for it on July 4, 2003. We don't have children. We have tried for years, 7 miscarriages, including 2 after invitro. I am done with the infertility nightmare, it is too painful and there are thousands of children who need a Mommy and Daddy.
So this will be the story of our journey to adopt two little girls. We have decided to adopt from another country because the adoption in this country is too unpredictable. After much research we decided on Russia because the time frame seemed reasonable. We contacted several agencies for information; the agency we decided to use, Tedi Bear Adoptions. But just before we were going to sign up with them, they were investigated for unethical practices in in Vietnam, and the state of Florida revoked their license.
The research continued. We were astonished at the cost for adoption. With an agency, the total cost for 2 children could run between $25,000 and $40,000. I requested each agency give me a breakdown of how the $6,000-$20,000 they were charging for their services was used. None of the agency would give out this info.
So we began considering independent adoption. With independent adoption, you set everything up yourself-find facilitators, translators, drivers, complete all paperwork and deliver it to Russia. But since we had never completed an adoption before how could we be sure that we were doing every thing right? So we kept looking.
In the meantime we completed application for INS approval and looked for social worker for homestudy. In Russian language class I met Stephanie who referred me to her social worker, Lori Phass of Adoption Support Services of Florida. (http://adoptionsupportservices.com/) In December of 2003 we completed our homestudy.
After continued research, I came across a web site for 'Tears of Joy'. (http://www.tearsofjoy.net/). Brenda Yonker and Cheri Battjie, both adoptive moms, offer another alternative to agencies, they assist with independent adoption by helping you with all contacts in Russia and advising you with your paperwork. Compared with agencies, the cost is much more reasonable. In Feb. 2004 we signed a contract with 'Tears of Joy'.