Russia Trip One

I have been meaning to write about our trip for quite awhile - it's better late than never, right? But we are back and we had a great trip! The little guy is great and I can't wait for you all to meet him. Thank you for all of your well wishes and prayers! Here are the details:

Day 1, Saturday Dec. 19th

Aaron and I started the morning with last minute packing. Aaron was disappointed because he had wanted to carry-on only, however, the agency asked us to bring along a suitcase of shoes that were donated to the orphanages. Since we had to check that bag I used a big suitcase also (It would have been a challenge to fit everything into 2 carry-ons anyway.) We left our house at noon and drove to Aaron's parent's house where we dropped off Floyd and our car for the week. Don and Cynthia drove us to the airport so we wouldn't have to pay parking fees. Our flight left at 3:25 and it took eight and a half hours to get to Amsterdam. We really wanted to sleep on the flight over but we didn't count on the guy sitting directly behind us laughing like a machine gun at his movie every 3 minutes. Really, no movie is that funny!

Leaving Minneapolis

Day 2, Sunday Dec. 20th


We arrived in Amsterdam on Sunday 7:00 am their time and found our gate, however, in Amsterdam they do a security check at the gate and don't let you into the seating area until this is done. Since they weren't doing the security check yet, we sat on the floor and looked longingly at the seats behind the glass wall. Once we were finally let in, we discovered this section wasn't heated (so the grass isn't always greener :) Anyway, we flew 3 hours from Amsterdam to Moscow and arrived around 4:00 pm local time. We met our interpreter on the other side of customs and went outside together and found our driver to drive to the Marriot where we were staying for the night. I would describe driving in Russia as barely controlled chaos. Our driver rolled down his window twice the have "words" with another driver. Aaron jokingly said "He was just saying "hi" right?" We all laughed. Russian drivers don't seem to use lanes like we do in the US. I was too tired to be frightened (this time.) Aaron had Marriot rewards points so we were able to use those for our stay in Moscow. We were a little disappointed when we got to our room and discovered that there was a loud early new year's dance party going on right below our room. We were so tired we just stuck the ear plugs in and went to sleep.

In Moscow - Aaron was just about to say "Where is that music coming from?"

Day 3, Monday Dec. 21st

We met our interpreter and driver early Monday morning to drive to a second airport to fly to our region. On our drive, our driver took us by Red Square and we saw the Kremlin and St Basil's cathedral. It was still dark and it was snowing out - it looked beautiful. The picture on the upper right side of the blog is St. Basil's. We also drove by the former headquarters of the KGB and the Bolshoi theater. There was no time to take pictures though, hopefully we can do some more sight seeing on our second trip. At the airport, our interpreter helped us check in since nobody spoke English but once we got to the check point, we were on our own. We hadn't converted our dollars to rubles yet, so we played charades until we found a cafe that would take our credit card for water (Russia is still very much a cash economy.) We took a bus out to the tarmac and boarded the plane from there. Our flight took two hours but they served us a meal! I was impressed. Our choices were fish or meat (the flight attendant spoke a little English.) We chose meat which ended up being meats and cheeses to put on bread. After our flight, we exited the plane on the tarmac and waited outside for our luggage. We also met our coordinator there and he drove us to our hotel. My first impressions of the city were not good. There were endless apartment buildings which looked very old and in disrepair. Our hotel room was OK though. After we checked in, our coordinator took us to buy some water (can't drink tap water in Russia) and exchange our money. Our coordinator told us that when out in public we should try not to talk since people in our region are not used to foreigners. After shopping, we headed back to the hotel and had a little nap until supper. Our coordinator and interpreter joined us for supper. We had supper in an extremely small cafe on the first floor of the hotel. Since the menu was in Russian, our interpreter tried to explain what the options were. After first asking us what we felt like (we had no idea what to even suggest) she said we could have "fish or meat" (sound familiar?) We asked what kind of meat it was and she said "pig or cow." Or we could choose the special which was cow tongue. So we chose "cow" and it ended up being a beef patty with cheese and onions on top and a side of mashed potatoes. Over the course of the next few days we had many of these beef patty meals with slight variations on the topping. The coordinator and translator prepped us for our Ministry of Education meeting that was scheduled for the next morning. We needed permission from the Minister of Education to visit the little guy in the orphanage. Apparently, the minister really grills some parents. We went to bed at 8:00 and both woke up at 2:00. Jet lag was an issue the entire week. It didn't seem to matter how tired we were - we always woke up in the middle of the night and couldn't get back to sleep. I eventually figured out it worked better to save my tylenol pm until I woke at 2:00.

Day 4, Tuesday Dec. 22nd

We met our coordinator on the main level of the hotel and had some orange juice and coffee in the little cafe. Then it was time to go to the Ministry of Education (MOE) for our meeting. The atmosphere was very official and a little intimidating. The interpreter, Aaron and I sat on one side of the table, another MOE employee was on the other side, and the Minister was at the head of the table. By this time my mouth was dry due to nerves. The Minister said to us "I hope you take adoption seriously." We said "We do" (doesn't flying halfway around the world to meet a child automatically prove that we are serious about this?) Then the Minister signed a document giving us permission to meet the little guy and left. Apparently he had another meeting to get to so our appointment was cut short. We got by easily :). Then we drove to another building and met the social worker and made an appointment to meet her at the orphanage later that afternoon. Since we had some time to kill, we took in some sights around the region. The city is on the continental border of Europe and Asia so we took some pictures at a monument they have at the location. Then we went to an old fort that was converted into a history museum. At the museum, there was a small replica of a Russian Orthodox Church that the communists destroyed. The church had been enormous and beautiful. After the museum, we did some souvenir shopping then went back to our hotel for a short nap. Our coordinator picked us up later that afternoon and we drove to the orphanage. Our translator was already there when we got there. The orphanage is a two story concrete building situated between apartment buildings with 60-70 babies between the ages of 0-3. The outside looked pretty run down, however, the inside seemed kept up and clean. We went to the orphanage directors office. The orphanage director, social worker, another lady, our coordinator, our translator, Aaron and I were all crowded into this room. They went through little guy's file. Aaron and I both took notes as quickly as we could. Then we were told we would have a chance to ask our own questions - we had prepared a list ahead of time. We didn't get any questions answered because just as we were getting started, a caregiver walked in with our little guy and placed him in my arms! My first thoughts were that he was so little (I had been preparing myself for him to look bigger than his referral pictures), he was completely adorable, he looked like the same little boy from the referral pictures, and he was dressed in pink. We didn't get any time alone with him. There were always people in the room with us which sometimes felt awkward. He had a great personality. He was very observant and very easy going. It was very easy to get him to giggle and laugh. At the end of the visit, he popped his thumb in his mouth and fell asleep in my arms. I could have held him all night but a caregiver came to get him. We left and had pizza (so much better than cow) then went to our coordinators apartment and sent some info to our international adoption doctor back in the states and a quick email to our parents. After talking for a while with our coordinator we walked across the street to the hotel and went to sleep.

The Ministry of Education Building

Asia is on the left, Europe on the right

A sneak peek :)

Day 5, Wed. Dec. 23rd

We started the day by walking back across the street to Alex's place to check our email. His mom fed us meat, cheese, and tea for breakfast. Alex asked us if we wanted to adopt little guy - we said yes :). Then he wanted to know what we would name little guy since he needed it for some paperwork we needed to sign later that day. This was not an easy question. We went to Russia with the name we thought we were going to give him, but suddenly Aaron was having second thoughts. So we asked to wait until after our morning visit with him. We drove back to the orphanage. Little guy was smiling when they brought him in. We played for a while then drove back to the hotel for lunch. Our interpreter and coordinator wanted to know what name we chose, however, we hadn't had a chance to discuss it. I was feeling very pressured so I finally asked if we could go to our room and discuss it by ourselves for 15 minutes. I had so much anxiety during those 15 minutes!!! It's a big decision! We finally decided on a name (with still a lot of anxiety on my part :) and went down to tell them. (Since I haven't talked to Aaron about announcing the name on the blog and he isn't here, I will wait to do that until another time. We are sharing with people in person though.) We took another nap then went to the notary to sign our official intent to adopt. Our coordinator had some business to attend to so we took a crazy taxi ride to the orphanage with our translator for another visit. We were getting used to the routine: get to the orphanage, hand over the diaper for little guy (they don't use them so if you don't want to get wet you bring a diaper), put on booties and masks, and wait in the music room for a caregiver to bring little guy. This time the caregiver said that he had just eaten so we shouldn't shake him or press on his stomach. Later, our translator's husband picked us up and drove us back to the hotel. The translator helped us order some supper ("french" meat which was a beef patty covered with cheese) and said good-bye since we wouldn't be seeing her again before we left. Then we went upstairs to sleep.

Day 6, Dec. 24th

We met our coordinator downstairs and took another taxi ride to the orphanage. Our coordinator left us by ourselves often which was great. It is more fun to interact when you don't feel watched. Little guy was tired at the end of our visit and fell asleep in my arms again after popping his thumb into his mouth. We drove to a Ukrainian restaurant and our coordinator ordered us a three course meal (we didn't know what he was ordering.) It was really delicious but one course would have been adequate! Later, we drove back to the orphanage for our last visit. On our drive to the orphanage, we were discussing the logistics of trip two. Prior to a month or two ago, the region we are in was always waiving the 10 day wait that is usually required after a Russian court proceeding. The ten days are used to give people the opportunity the appeal the ruling but doesn't make sense with adoption because nobody is going to appeal. However, there was a large conference for judges in Moscow a month or two ago and they were told the 10 days could no longer be waived for adoptions unless there is a health condition that needs immediate medical attention. So we might be one of the first families in the region to not have the 10 day wait waived. Anyway, we got to the orphanage and enjoyed our last visit with little guy. During all of our visits, little guy was curious and happy. He would really watch our faces when we talked to him and would tilt his head to the side when really concentrating. The music room was decorated for Christmas and he loved looking at the lights on the Christmas tree and the ornaments and tinsel on the wall. He also loved putting weight on his legs to practice jumping while we were holding him which is something we were told he normally doesn't get the chance to do since the caregivers have no time. He liked it when I raised his arms in the air and said "so big!" We left the monkey blanket, photo album and camera with the caregiver when she came to get him. As we were getting in the car to leave, she ran out and asked how many pictures were on the camera. That makes me hopeful that we will actually get some pictures back from between trips which would be really great. I had to try not to cry on the drive away from the orphanage (and many times since.) We wished we could take our little guy home right then. We requested McDonalds for supper since we didn't think we could handle another meat patty, went to our hotel and packed, and went to sleep.

In front of the hotel in our region

Here we are in front of the orphanage

Day 7, Friday Dec. 25th


We woke up at 4:50 to get to the airport for our 8:00 flight. Our coordinator helped us check-in and said good-bye. Our flight to Moscow was two hours but with the time change it was still 8:00. The Moscow interpreter was waiting for us as the airport and wished us a Merry Christmas (Russians celebrate Christmas in January.) Our flight out of Moscow wasn't until 8:50 at night so we had some time to waste. Because of Moscow traffic, that is not enough time to do site seeing so we had the option of staying at a hotel or spending time in a shopping mall. We chose the mall since it was the cheaper option. The mall had primarily clothing stores which didn't interest us much but we came across a movie theater and saw a sign for Avatar. We tried to communicate with the ticket seller to find out if the movie was in English with Russian subtitles but it wasn't working. We finally just decided to buy the tickets and hope it was in English. We sat down but soon a Russian couple came up to us saying something. We figured out that there was assigned seating and we were in their seats. We eventually found our seats and sat down to watch. Well, the movie was played with Russian voice over. At least we chose a movie that had good special effects :). Plus it was better than walking circles around the mall the whole time. We waited at the mall for a while then we were driven to the airport to wait some more. We finally got on to our flight to Amsterdam. It felt so good to get to Amsterdam where everybody spoke English and wished us a Merry Christmas. We got a hotel room for the night - it was wonderfully western.

Day 8, Saturday Dec. 26th


The next morning we had the news on while getting ready to leave for the airport. That is when we learned that there had been an attempted bombing on a Delta flight from Amsterdam the previous day. Since we were flying Delta out of Amsterdam we figured there was going to be heightened security. And there was. Our flight was delayed since they were very carefully going through everyone's carry-on's and frisking us down. We were not allowed to open carry-on's, get up, or have anything on our laps for the last hour of the flight. But we made it safely home and were welcomed to a very snowy Minnesota!