St. Petersburg is, hands down, the most beautiful city in Russia. The capital of tsarist Russia for more than 200 years, it has a trove of striking buildings and bridges set along the Neva River and its canals. Here are my five tips on what to do if your adoption journey takes you to the city.

1. The Hermitage: Centered on the former winter palace of the tsars, the Hermitage could be all of the most important things to see in "Petya" by itself. One of the largest... more

A few weeks ago, I wrote about five things you must see in Moscow when you pass through there on your adoption travels. But those five really are just the tip of the iceberg, and walking around in daylight can be a great way to shake off the jet lag. So here are five more things I would do. Please note that the Bolshoi Theater is not on this list because it is closed for renovations through 2008.

1. Gorky Park: When I first came... more

Your trips to Russia are going to be a whirlwind of sights and sounds, blurred by jet lag and anxiety. But chances are you'll have a few hours to do some sightseeing in Moscow. Jennefer posted a long list of her favorites at her blog "Three Sons And A Princess" last fall. But I'm going to narrow it to my five picks for the "must" sights to take in.

1. The Kremlin: The current... more

There's a long thread on the forums now about whether you should take other children in your family along with you when you go to Russia to adopt. I'm going to answer this one in two parts, the first on why I decided not to, and the second on what I did to make my decision work for everybody.

If you've been reading this blog for a while,... more

OK, now that I've told you why I decided to not take my older son along on either of my trips to Sakhalin, I'll get into what I did to reassure one child at home while reaching out to another one on the other side of the globe.

I decided my parents would look after my older son while I was away, but they would stay at my house, not theirs. Our goofy dog would stay at home, too, and not go to the kennel: If my son needed something to hug,... more

You are tired and disoriented. You have seen unbelievable riches in Moscow and unspeakable poverty in the hinterlands. You are about to see an orphanage, something that has absolutely nothing to do with the pastel fairylands of American baby magazines.

But most importantly, you are about to meet your child. I have been through this twice, and experience did little to soothe the anxiety I felt meeting my second son for the first time. With almost two years since that first trip, I have had time to sort out the most important things to know about that day.

1)... more

I have traveled to Russia three times for adoptions: A three-week trip in 1999, a one-week first trip in May 2005 and a 10-day second trip in September 2005. I can distill the essential elements of first visit travel into these five points:

1) Be ready to fly on short notice. You have been waiting, sometimes not so patiently, for weeks and months to travel. Your agency has told you, more than once, not yet. Then suddenly on a Friday afternoon you get the call--be on a plane next Thursday. You hand your boss your... more

The question of whether or not to bring a stroller when you travel to Russia to get your child seems to come up over and over on the Russian adoption listservs. It's not only whether or not to bring a stroller, but then what kind of stroller to bring? Should you get the kind with the snap-in carseat? Should you bring an umbrella stroller? Can you buy one there? Should you bring a Baby Bjorn type thing instead? How about a sling?

Oh, the mind boggles.

Part of me shakes my head fondly and thinks - worry about the details now, people, because soon... more

When we were in Russia adopting Little J we had the pleasure of being driven through Moscow, taking the subway to various destinations, being driven around Voronezh (a small city), and being driven in the country. We also took an overnight train to Voronezh. We did not have the pleasure of flying on Aeroflot or Siberian Airlines (bummer!) so I can't report on the pleasure of that experience, but there are stories all over the web about that.

As for driving around Russia: forget seatbelts, forget lines painted on the road, and if you are a pedestrian, WATCH OUT.

Road signs... more

Yo, ho, heave ho. Yo, ho, heave ho. Something something something something...

And that's all I remember of "The Song of the Volga Boatmen," practically the first song I learned on the piano when I started playing at age 6. I looked up the lyrics of the song to include in this blog, but I think I played a very Americanized version because the translated lyrics did not go along with my memories.

In any case, the Volga river runs right through the Russian oblast of Volgograd so perhaps the song of my childhood started there as well.... more