What We’ve Done So Far

All is well here on our first trip to Russia.  I really thought I would be blogging more, but no. From the time we got here until really about an hour ago we’ve been going non-stop!

Our trip here was insane.  After all the cancellations from the snowstorm on Friday, we finally left St. Louis on Saturday.  We had a layover in Detroit, which involved us running to our gate, and having the woman open the door to the jet way because it had closed.  It also involved sitting on the airplane for 40 minutes before we moved.

We landed at JFK at about 4:10 to get on a 4:35 flight to Moscow.  Unfortunately we did not get off the plane until 4:45, because the Jet way was actually stuck.  But we left, managed to get to our correct terminal (the driver actually drove past it, but fortunately there were someone on the bus who knew where we were supposed to go, so he backed up!) with just enough time to use the restroom and get on the plane.

We got to Moscow, and met Alexander, who helped us buy a camera.  After running to the gate, we left ours on the counter at the Detroit airport.  I so hope it gets returned.  I am so sad!  (We lost our camera and a borrowed camcorder!)  But we had to have a camera- we knew we needed it.  Alexander took us to a six hour hotel. Usually those are not nice places, but this one was great.  We showered, had a nap, and got back to the airport.

Once we got in on Monday, Irena and Lana met us and we picked up our luggage.  (After all of that, I was shocked to see it come down the chute!)  We checked into our hotel, the Vlad Motor Inn and got ready to go meet the first of the two boys. 

I am only going to refer to them as the first and the second boys,  because they are still in custody of the Russian government, and I don’t think I am permitted to give any details about them.  So even though that is the entire reason we are here, I’m not going to say much about them right now!

I will say our first meeting went really well.  He wasn’t feeling well, so our time was short.  We got back to the hotel and crashed.

Tuesday and Wednesday were exhausting, but well worth it.  We went to see the second of the two boys.  He lives in an orphanage about 3-4 hours (depending on weather & big trucks) away.  Our meeting with him was just excellent.  They gave us a room, and left us alone with him for a couple of hours each day.  The first thing he did when he saw me was run to me and ask for oatmeal!  He’s something!

Today we stayed here in Vladivostok to see the first of the two boys.  We got to see him for about an hour and a half.  He was feeling much better, and opened up to us more than the first day.  We will have some more time with him tomorrow.

Just a cool thing, we wanted our pediatrician to look at a video we had taken of him.  We called the office, but found out he was out of the country.  Yet we knew someone who was with him and we were able to contact him within about ten minutes.  We were able to send him the videos, and he gave us the information we needed. In Mexico.  From Russia.  The internet and cell phones.   Amazing.

I wish we could have more time with both of them now!  I don’t want to wait another 3 months to take them home!

Vlad Motor Inn

Vlad Motor Inn is a very nice place.  The rooms are nice, it’s very clean.  The food at the restaurant is just excellent.  And most of the staff speaks English, to varying degrees.  So really I am very comfortable here.  (Contrasted with the Hotel Planeta in Minsk where I had to use all of my cunning and physical dexterity to take a shower-it was more of a puzzle game).  The one thing that stands out is that the restaurant only plays Eric Clapton’s Greatest Hits.  Literally.

Driving in Vladivostok

Driving (we have drivers who do that for us) is beyond anything I’ve seen before.  I’ve seen some interesting things in Jamaica, but most other places are fairly well conformed to the rules of the road.  Lithuania, Mexico, and Belarus (all the countries I’ve been in before) all conform pretty well to rules of the road.  But here, I can’t really tell that there are any.  There are lines painted in many roads, but with the ice and snow and nobody paying attention to them, you can’t really see many of them.  It seems the rules are: your turn signal gives you right away; park wherever there is a space, even if someone else is parked there; at least 4 cars can always make a left hand turn at a time.  Oh yes, and nearly everyone drives a vehicle imported from Japan.  The problem is that the Japanese drive on the left, and the Russians drive on a right.  It makes it very interesting when passing a semi on a two lane road.  I’ve never seen a place with so many missing bumpers.

The road to Spassk

The road to Spassk is an interesting one.  There are many potholes, and many trucks.  There is construction, too.  For construction, they just put some gravel down to bypass the road.  It is pretty rough.  But the drive is beautiful.  There are mountains interspersed among the plains.  Everything was covered in snow.  It is just gorgeous.

Eastern Russia

Finally, just a bit about Eastern Russia.  Vladivostok is a very pretty city.  There is an incredibly eclectic collection of buildings.  There may be a house, or group of houses, interspersed among those ugly Soviet style block apartment buildings, among modern high-rise condominiums.  It all seems to gel together.  It is very much a modern city, and the roads in town are pretty good.  Many things are being remodeled, many roads are being improved, and many buildings are being built.  In many ways I feel very comfortable to what I would see in an American city.  Most things are progressing, yet in many ways, it is a different place.  It seems that often the people settle for what is already here, without realizing improvements can be made.

More to come later!

When I started this blog, I thought I would update it periodically.  Like weekly.  Or every couple of weeks, but no.  It’s been over a month?  And so much has been going on!  It’s been a little more than 8 months since we made our official decision to adopt, and we’ve come a long way since then.  We still have a long way to go, but we are realizing we are further along in the process than we really had thought.

Our home was finalized at the beginning of December, and from there we were able to submit our application to CIS (Citizenship and Immigration Services), and then sent our application to register with Russia at the end of December.

We registered in the Vladivostok region of Russia.  We had sort of envisioned something closer to Europe.  Vladivostok is on the Sea of Japan!

In mid January we got the email we were waiting for.  (Isn’t e-mail great?)  We received word that there were two boys who met our criteria.  We got to see names, pictures, and a basic medical report.  After much prayer, and discussion with our pediatrician, and more prayer, we chose to pursue those two boys.

We have made our reservations for Russia.  Our trip is less than three weeks away.  On one hand it is incredibly exciting.  It will be the first time since 2003 I will have traveled on a plane with my wife.  As much as I enjoyed my church trips to California, Europe, and Mexico… I would rather travel with her than anyone any day. (Sorry, Mr. Mike!)  I have been learning a little bit of Russian through Rosetta Stone, so if anyone asks me a multiple choice question about apples or “keys in a shoe”, I’m golden.  I’m hoping to get to phrases like, “Don’t touch that”, or “Stop doing that”, or “The street is a bad place to  hang out.”
But as for our trip, while on one hand it is exciting, on the other it is nerve-wracking.  So many questions that we can’t answer yet.  Traveling on an 8+ hour flight from Moscow to Vladivostok without knowing the language.  Waiting for Visa approval.  Paying a lot of money and finding out where it will come from.  Wondering what the boys will really be like.

Adoption is a very emotional process, but I tend to fight emotions, and usually do my bests not to show them.  (Much to the dismay of those giving me Christmas presents!)  I just don’t want to be emotionally attached to these two boys yet, because I can’t put aside the fact that there is a small possibility that we can’t adopt them.  What if there is a medical problem that means we can’t do it?  (I don’t know exactly what that would be, but we have two children already, so there are some things that wouldn’t be best for our family).  So many what ifs.  What if they really aren’t ours?  But I remember that God is good.  God is in control.  God has moved us to do this.  I know it will be okay, and everything will work according to His good purpose.  Even if one or both of these boys is destined for another family.  I know that.  But I still want to distance myself.  I don’t want to get excited yet, because I don’t want to get disappointed.  And I am doing my best.  We have names picked out.  I have shared the photos with my family.  I am really truly excited.

In the meantime, we are trying to prepare our family.  We have several people on the lookout for furniture (if you know anyone that as a toddler bed or a chest of drawers they want to get rid of, send me a message!)  We are considering how we should set up bedrooms.  A master bedroom plus three more bedrooms is easy when there’s four of you, but when there is six, then changes may need to happen.

Erin, our 8 year old was born with a perpetual fear of anything that is not Erin.  Getting her to do anything new is a feat, because her imagination just goes overtime.  She always sleeps with her lights on.  So convincing her that it would be best in our 4 bedroom house that it would be best for her to move to the downstairs bedroom.  Right now it’s the playroom, and painted green and purple with a dark blue ceiling (and glow in the dark starts to boot).  It would mean “being downstairs” when in reality that room is no further than where she is now.  But the realization that down there she would have her own bathroom has finally begun to sink in.  I think she may make the switch.

Sam, who turned 5 this week, has some different views.  He no longer wants to name one “Leo”, and now realizes that when the mailman brings a package, it does not contain the children.  Although last week he insisted that “the children are going to be made” and will “come in cubes.”   So there is some confusion, but he really likes the idea of being a big brother.  There is no confusion about that.