Day 7, Saturday, April 27, 2012

After saying goodbye to one of my children I was ready to get back to the others!  Willem was happy to chill in Moscow a little while longer but I could tell my kids were getting ready for their mom and dad to be home.  Willem spent most of his Friday afternoon and evening on the phone with United via Skype trying to find us a sooner flight home.  It took a lot of work because we flew over on points so we had to fly home on points.  Luckily Willem got er done and we ended up with a flight scheduled to leave Moscow around 4 pm with a layover for the night in Brussels, Belgium.
Our driver Eugene picked us up and took us to the airport.  I was sad to say goodbye to him but so excited to be on our way.  It wasn't until we were in the air and watching Moscow leave us in the distance that I got really choked up.  I was leaving Dima behind in the care of someone else... It broke my heart and we vowed to push as hard as we could to get the quickest return time possible so that we can get this over with.
The flight was 3 hours and we arrived in Belgium around 6 pm.  We had been fed on the plane so we checked into our airport hotel and asked the desk guy about what Belgium had to offer.  Guess people don't just happen in there randomly very often.  He grabbed a map and told us to hop on the airport train that led to downtown Brussels.  He said there is lots of stuff to see there. 

We had no idea!  Brussels is beautiful!!  Full of shops selling chocolate, belgian french fries, belgian waffles, artwork, souvenirs....  It was great to just stroll around.  We ate fries and waffles for dessert then headed back to the hotel for the night.  We slept like the dead till the morning and then departed for home.
We are now starting to gather more paperwork.  Updated medical reports, updated criminal reports.  Once this is all in, notarized, apostilled and translated and sitting in the Moscow Ministry of Education we will be assigned a court date.

Day 6 - Friday, April 27, 2012

Happy Birthday to Willem!  Willem turns the ripe old age of 37 on this day.  I had given him his birthday present before we left but to celebrate we got to go see Dima again!
When we got to the orphanage some of the kids were outside.  The caretakers would walk around the building with the kids occasionally stopping to let them play on the playground equipment.  It was kind of wet and cool out so they were bundled up in true Russian style.  Russians are crazy about staying warm.  Always dressed in layers and the kids always seem to have too much on often sweating underneath it all.
Dima had a coat and hat on.  He seemed comfortable enough but it seemed a little overkill.  He saw us and instantly  his face lit up like a Christmas tree!  We took him over to a playground away from his group.  I heard the kids all asking the caretaker questions and the word Dima kept coming up.  Our interpreter said the caretaker said that Dima was going to spend time with his new momma and poppa.
Dima instantly started asking for his "Machina" or car.  We had left it with the orphanage and were kicking ourselves for it.  Everything in the orphanage becomes public property.  He may likely never see it again.  I made a mental note to hit Target when we got home to get another one just like it for the next trip.  We took him over to the swings.  He seemed very distressed the whole time he was on it so I took him over to the merry go round.  He was much more comfortable here.  He spun around with us and laughed. 
Some men were doing some construction work at the apartment building next door.  They started up a chain saw and it got Dima's attention right away.  He stood up, started pointing and saying something in Russian toddlernese...  Willem was very excited, his boy loved power tools and the tractor that was tearing up the ground.  I got that smile from Willem that I've seen before when Derek does something Willem loves.  So proud.
We pulled out bubbles which fascinated him.  I wonder if he had ever seen them before.  He figured out how to do it on his own in a short time.  He laughed hysterically as he'd bat them away. 
We went for a walk around the building.  Willem would hop up on a step, Dima would hop up on a step, Willem would tap a manhole with his foot, Dima would tap a manhole with his foot.  It was adorable.  I can see who the favorite parent is going to be for Dima.  :)   Dima would make comments about the birds, the trees, everything excited him and he wanted us to see it all with him.
We were so much more relaxed with him that the time flew by.  When it was time to say goodbye i started to panic.  i realized he knew nothing about what was happening.  I wanted him to know who we are, what we wanted for him but there was no time to explain.  Let alone the fact that he wouldn't understand...
I pulled out a picture book of our family and gave it to him and a stuffed elephant.  We had to beg the social worker to let him have it.  Hopefully they will let him sleep with it and explain to him the picture book.  As the social worker led him back up the steps into the orphanage she stopped and told him to turn around and wave to his momma.  He did which broke my heart.  She looked down and him and said something and Dima responded.  Our interpreter told us she said "You're momma and poppa will be back soon to see you again"  he looked up at her and said "I know." 
Whether he knows or not doesn't matter, it made me feel good.  He is comfortable where he is.  Well fed, looked after.  It isn't optimum but it isn't awful.  He has no idea what will happen to him and how his life is going to change!  We can't wait to get back to him!

Thursday NIGHT - Parade!

This was just so surreal I couldn't not post about it.  Russia celebrates Victory Day on May 9 this year.  It is a celebration of the capitulation of Nazi Germany to the Soviet Union during World War II.  Our apartment was on the main street in Moscow.  It leads from the Kremlin north out of the city all the way to Tver.  Every year Russia has a big parade down Tvertskaya street.  On this night they decided to have "parade practice".  They shut down the street at 6 pm and by 7:30 or so the soldiers started appearing.  They lined up and down the street behind barricades.  The street sweepers came, back and fort up and down the street.  Then the Russian military hardware began to show up!  Tanks, Missile Launchers, Hum Vs, basically every piece of military machinery they had drove up and down the street!  It was crazy!  Being in Moscow for the first time as a foreigner can be intimidating let alone seeing massive tanks, and what looked like nuclear weapons parade up and down the street outside your window!  We had front row seats!  It was amazing and something we will never forget.  Check out the pics!

This went on for hours.  They would stop occasionally for reasons I don't know.  They were very loud too!  Tanks aren't meant to go down city streets!  In any event by 2 am they were still out there.  Lucky for us it had been an emotionally draining day.  We were able to sleep through the "war" going on outside.  :)

Day 5 - Thursday, April 26, 2012 DIMA DAY!!

My sleep was restless at best.  In reality I think I slept maybe 3 hours.  It was a rough night.  We had come so far and had been disappointed in the past with a referral.  We both were so scared to let our hearts be excited to meet this new guy.  In the time from our first referral to this one we had begun to lose hope that this would ever happen.  After reading many adoption forums we realized that healthy kids from Russia were not necessarily the norm anymore.  The thought of being presented a child that we maybe could not handle and have to turn down was too much to really think about.  It broke our heart the first time and we never met him...how could we do it if we're meeting him?!
We got out of bed and spent the morning praying and reading the Bible.  Hoping for a renewed sense of peace.  I could barely eat but I forced some breakfast down.   
We met our driver at noon.  We had to drive down to the MOE to be presented the paperwork on our referral.  With my stomach in knots the ladies at the MOE finally passed the paper over to our side of the table.  There he was.  The picture we had seen.  Then smiles...from the ladies.  They proceeded to tell us how lucky we were.  How healthy Dima is.  How this referral would normally be reserved for a Russian family.  Our confidence was building about Dima and now we were ready to meet him. 
It took us about an hour to get to his orphanage.  It  was on the outskirts of Moscow.  The area seemed very similar to an area Willem grew up in Toronto.  Tons of high rise apartment buildings, not fancy but not falling down either.  We turned down a little side street that was tucked in between several apartment buildings.  At the end of the street was a big iron gate and a guard house.  We stopped, our translator went to the guard and they let us in. 
The building was in good shape, playground equipment in the yard.  No kids in the windows, very quiet, we were told most of the kids were still napping.  Inside the building it was impeccably clean.  We were taken to the music room where the director's assistant told us about Dima.  The social worker came in next and went over his family history and why he was there.  The doctor that we hired met us at the orphanage.  She began to pour over his medical file which was inches thick. 
As the director wrapped up what she was saying i turned to the door.  There he was!  Just standing there.  He had a cookie in his hand and had a look of "why am I here?"  He wasn't scared just curious. 
Not wanting to overwhelm him we watched him for a few seconds then said in my best Russian.."Privyet Dimitry"  He looked at me but was more interested in his cookie.  It took a little car that made noises to get him over to me.  I will never forget the first time he smiled at me.  He looked me in the eyes and smiled then pointed to his car as if to say "look how neat!"
After that the Doctor had him do a number of tasks, like say what kind of stuffed animals there were, name body parts on a horse, kick a soccer ball, etc...  He sailed through them and we realized he had quite a vocabulary.  He would occasionally look at us and chuckle about his new car or the way he kicked the ball.  Willem pulled out a puzzle and he did it with ease.  We were more than impressed.  He was 2 1/2 and seemed to not be very far behind our 3 yr old. 
The Doctor asked him to get undressed and he did, immediately all by himself!  She did a physical examination of him then he dressed himself back up.  While going over her opinion of him with me, Willem and Dima played.
We were thrilled with the report the doctor was giving us.  She was totally blown away by his good health and his development.  We were allowed to play for about another 45 minutes or so.  He drew on paper with a pen I had lying around.  He sat in Willem's lap playing with his beard.  Willem would puff his cheeks out and Dima would push them causing Willem to make a Donald duck type sound with his mouth. Dima thought it was hysterical.  He kept repeating something and after about the fourth time the interpreter realized what that he was saying "one more time Uncle".  All orphanage kids call men "Uncle".  It was very sweet.

The time went by way too fast.  The director came in to take him away and was asking him if he wanted to go back to his group with her.  Dima looked up at her and motioned her away and said "Nyet!"  We got another 10 minutes or so with him for that.  :)
When they took him, they said we'd be back tomorrow.  He smiled and went on his way.  We sighed a huge sigh of relief.  He was healthy, happy, and super smart!
The ride back to orphanage was great.  We were so relieved.  I'm sure our driver appreciated the lightness in the air as well!  We were told we had to make it back to our apartment before 6pm because they were closing down Tvertskaya St. for the night.  We happily went back, cooked ourselves some dinner and called home to share the good news. 

Day 4, Wednesday April 25

I had pre arranged for us to have a tour of Moscow knowing we would most likely have nothing to do today.  Again lucky for us I arranged it in the afternoon allowing us to sleep in late.
Our guide's name was Masha.  He picked us up at the apartment and drove us around for 3 1/2 hours showing us all of Moscow including the stuff on the outskirts of town.  It was awesome!  We learned so much in such a short time.  He obviously liked photography too because he made sure every picture came out great.  Kind of dorky but we have a pic of willem and i in front of every major landmark in Moscow!

KGB office

St. Basil's Cathedral

in front of Lenin's tomb - our tour guide said we were Lenin Lovers :)

the Bolshoi Theater - home to the Bolshoi Ballet

Okay so here is one story we remembered.  This statue was supposed to be a gift to the United States as a celebration for the 500th anniversary of Columbus' discovery of America initiated by Gorbachev.  It was commissioned to be built and was completed and to be handed over in 1992.  However at that time the Soviet Union was collapsing.  The story goes Yeltsin approached George W. Bush and said we made this for you but can't afford to ship it to you.  George Bush supposedly said ..thanks but no thanks and Yeltsin was left with this big statue on his hands.  It later emerged in the location it is at now but if you look close at the neck you can see that Columbus' head was chopped off and a new head was bolted on and the statue now is to celebrate the 300 years of the Russian Navy started by Peter the Great.  It would have stood on another point on Manhattan island facing the Statue of Liberty.  Generally speaking people in Moscow hate this statue.  They think it is ugly, it's back is to the Kremlin (a big no no) and it's history causes lots of controversy.

To close the day we picked up some food at the grocery and cooked at home.  We got the phone call saying we were to meet our referral the next day at around 2 pm!

Day 3, Tuesday, April 24, 2012

This was the first day we had nothing to do.  At night we were staying up till 1 am as it was the best time to Skype the kids at home.  As a result we were sleeping in till 10 am or so everyday.  Luckily we never really had anything going on in the morning.
After milling around the apartment for a bit we ate some breakfast/lunch and headed out.  We wanted to find a place to buy some souvenirs.  We had heard about Old Arbat street as being a pedestrian street filled with souvenir vendors and restaurants.  Armed with a map we set out on foot.  Once out on the streets we realized the main problem with getting around in Moscow for Americans.  The signs are all in Cyrillic.  To make matters worse, the maps are often in phonetic Russian so that we can pronounce them but they are very rarely in Cyrillic too.  We relied on the my iphone and were so thankful that the GPS works despite the fact that we didn't have service.  We'd probably still be fumbling our way around the streets of Moscow...
It was about a 20 minute walk.  As promised we came to a street that was about a mile or so of shops and restaurants.  It was a pretty walk and they were prepared for Americans and spoke more English here.  We bought nesting dolls for the Savannah and Derek, a chess set commemorating either the space race or the cold war...(we aren't sure), a Russian Federation Team soccer jersey and team bag for Willem and some art for me.  We also ventured into a Starbucks to grab a coffee.

we liked the graffiti

old Arbat street

Drew Brees matroshkya doll

We headed home after all the shopping and stopped at a place called Pizza Express.  Again, english sign, english menu, no english speaking people in sight.  We pointed to a pepperoni pizza and ordered red wine.  It was good, just like home and not too expensive.  We walked the half block from there to our apartment and watched a movie we had downloaded and skyped the kids.  It was the first day where we felt like we kind of had a handle on the city.

It's so strange to be there.  Walking around not hearing anyone speaking English, knowing they know you are a foreigner as well.  This place was so foreign to us yet one day it will be so closely knitted to our family.  It made us want to know more about everything Russia!

Day 2 - Monday April 23, 2012

We slept.  It was so good to sleep!  We obviously needed it because we slept till noon!  Luckily we didn't have anything to do till 3:00 pm.  At that time we met our driver Eugene.  Eugene speaks enough english to hold a conversation with.  He's a funny guy.  Often makes jokes and likes to play the part of tour guide...telling us what everything is. 
Eugene drove us to a notary office where we met Irina our interpreter.  She will be with us for the rest of this trip and the next two.  She's very sweet and I think she's about my age. She seems like someone I would be friends with if I lived there.  At the notary office we had to sign some papers...still not sure what they were for but i think it meant we were officially registering our dossier in Moscow City.  From there we were off to this building...

Ministry of Education - Moscow City

Inside we met two ladies who explained to us that there were no healthy children in Russia for adoption and followed that by no caucasion children????  Our interpreter told us not to worry about all that and to trust her.  OKAY?!  Walking in blind faith is something we have gotten used to so we trusted...  We signed the appropriate papers, left our dossier there and left the office.  We were told we were to have our interpreter call the office on Wednesday to see if we have been matched with a child and if we can see that child.
Irina walked us back to our apartment as this building is just a few blocks away.   From there we decided to grab some dinner at the McDonalds down the road.  I was told that this McDonalds was the first one in Russia. When communism fell and it opened up there was a line down the street like no one had every seen.  It was a three hour wait to order at MCDONALDS!  The citizens were so excited they waited happily!
It's just like McD's at home except for one thing....i was really counting on being able to order by number.  I practiced my numbers before leaving and thought ordering at McDonalds would be a piece of cake!  They don't order by number... WAAAA!!!  We managed to tell them what we wanted...a couple of tellers had to get involved, piecing together their knowledge of the English language.

Moscow McDonalds

This particular spot is on Pushkin Square.  We are sitting at outside tables facing a park area right in the middle of the city.  Teenagers congregate here to play hacky sack or just hang out.  Children come with their parents to play.  It's full of well landscaped treed areas and flowers. It's really pretty.  I'm sure it'll be even greener the next time we come when spring has had a chance to set in more.

Day 1 - Sunday, April 22

We arrived in Moscow exhausted!  I can not sleep sitting up so I got zero sleep.  I think Willem got a few hours of sleep but he was pretty wiped too.  The flight was great though. Singapore Airlines is without a doubt the best airline I've ever flown.  They served us non stop and were always pleasant, smiling even down to the end.  Food was great, drinks were great, decent foot room...great airline!
Passport control and customs was simple and straightforward.  We got our baggage and passed through the glass doors to find a sea of people waiting for their loved ones.  We searched the sea of signs for our name and found our guy, Alex.  Alex quickly loaded us up into his car and we were off.  Great guy, speaks great English and very friendly.  He told us a little about Moscow and drove us right to our apartment.  He helped us bring our luggage up and gave us instructions for contacting him and for the next day.  We said our good byes and were on our own!
After freshning up we ventured out into the big world of Moscow.  We needed to eat and had spotted a TGI Fridays and headed there for dinner.  It was surreal.  Just like a Fridays at home...english signs and american memorabilia... That's where it ended though.   No one spoke english.  We ordered via pictures.  Food was just like a Fridays...burgers and pub fare.  Tasted good enough,  we payed and were off to the grocery store.

our bedroom

living room

Took us a while to find the grocery store...it wasn't where we were told it was or we missed it.  (We missed it....didn't recognize it)  Found one eventually, grabbed what looked familiar.  Eggs, cheese, ham, bottled water, yogurt...just enough for breakfast and a sandwich if necessary.  Back to the apartment and off to bed.

view from our living room window - Tverskaya St.