Travel

Clickety clack.  Clickety clack. That is the sound the train makes as we pull out of the Moscow train station.  Two hundred and eighty miles away from Kursk and my daughter, Elle. Clickety clack. My mother is traveling with me and we share a sleeper compartment, our translator tucked away next door.  As the train picks up speed and we watch the lights of Moscow fade in the night sky, there is a sense of surrealness.  After years of waiting, Tomorrow, I will see my daughter for the first time. Clickety clack. I don’t sleep much that night on the train.  There are too many emotions and thoughts swirling through my head.  Near dawn, I give up trying to sleep and sit silently with my mother as… [more]

Forgive me for my book report like post today.  I always hated writing book reports in school.  I never quite understood the need for them.  I read the book…it was good or bad…what else did they really need to know? Anyway, this book report is about a book I think all parents adopting from Russia should read.  The Boy from Baby House 10, by Alan Philps and John Lahutsky. The story is about Vanya, a young Russian boy, who by the grace of God and his own perseverance somehow managed to survive years living in a baby house, then a mental asylum, overcoming physical adversities, and then beating the Russian bureaucracy to find a home in the United States. This story was particularly poignant to… [more]

When I started my adoption journey, I always imagined traveling with my husband to bring our daughter home.  He would have been a pillar of strength as the miles flew by and a source of comfort in a foreign land.  But, when I adopted Elle from Russia, I didn’t have my husband because he died 10 months earlier in a plane crash. Six months after his death, I was ready to adopt my daughter, and with a green light from my adoption agency, I was ready to buy my tickets.  I seriously considered traveling to Russia by myself.  At first I thought of it as a symbolic decision, continuing my journey alone without my soul mate, but that seems a bit melodramatic.  The… [more]

When I adopted my daughter from Russia, two trips were required…six days each and one week apart.  While I was preparing for my first trip, I was a little stumped on how to pack.  My adoption agency provided me with the essentials I would need to take, like money, gifts, and supplies for the orphanage, but I still had to figure out how to pack most efficiently and with the least amount of luggage. It was summer time in Russia so the clothes I would need to pack would be significantly less than had it been winter.  My adoption agency did give me some guidelines on what to wear during my visit.  Besides packing minimally, they suggested wearing neutral and dark colors, because… [more]

I picked up an interesting piece on adoption today from Newslab, a Russian wire service that focuses on news in Sibera. The news it reported is both bad and good. The story says that 34 children were adopted by foreign citizens in the region of Krasnoyarsk for 2007, down from 180 for 2006 and 168 for 2005. That is, unfortunately pretty much in keeping with the larger nationwide slowdown in inter-country adoptions, which I wrote about back in December when I gave you the expected total for U.S. adoptions from Russia for 2007. The Newslab story says that Americans led the foreign adoption trend, welcoming 25 boys and girls. Six children were adopted by Spaniards, two by Israelis and one child by a French… [more]

If you've read this blog for a while, you know that I'm a big fan of adopting Russia's older children. But a new program in Novosibirsk is pushing older adoption to the limit. According to Russia Today, the Siberian city is testing out a plan to have local families adopt its senior citizens. Typically, the report says, Russia's elderly would live with their children and grandchildren. But apparently some either have no families to turn to, or their families are not able to care for them. And so the regional administration of Novosibirsk has sought out 137 local families to take senior citizens into their home. It doesn't seem to be an adoption in the sense that we have come to know it, and… [more]

If you live or work in New York City and you want to get involved in a new philanthropic effort for Russia's orphans, head to the Times Square area today or Saturday. St. Malachy's Church/Actors' Chapel Square is hosting a two-day exhibition and sale of art work created by orphans in Saratov. The church is located at 239 W. 49th, which is between Broadway and Eighth Avenue. The exhibit will be open from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Friday and from 10 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. on Saturday. There will be a piano concert from 2 to 3 p.m. on Saturday, with Russian musician Peter Finarovsky performing the music of Tchaikovsky and Rachmaninov. The art show and recital has been organized by a relatively new philanthropic… [more]

Where is it? Smolensk Oblast, or region, is located on the western-most edge of the European side of Russia. It is bordered by Belarus to the west and the oblasts of Pskov, Tver and Moscow to the north. Kaluga oblast is to the east and Bryansk oblast is on its southeastern border. Smolensk is in the Moscow time zone . What's the biggest city? Smolensk, which accounts for about 325,000 of the region's 1 million people, according to the 2002 census. Desnogorsk is the second-biggest urban area, but the region is mostly comprised of small, very old towns, such as Vyazma and Dorogobuzh. Smolensk is one of the oldest of all, probably dating to the late 800s. And it was in the capital… [more]

Where is it? Ryazan Oblast, or region, is located in the center of the European side of Russia, southeast of Moscow Oblast. It is also bordered by the oblasts of Vladimir, Nizhny Novgorod, Penza, Tambov, Lipetsk and Tula, and the Republics of Mordovia. Ryazan is in the Moscow time zone . What's the biggest city? Ryazan, which accounts for 535,000 of the region's 1.2 million people, according to the 2002 census. Kasimov, Sasovo, Skopin and Ryazhsk are its other large cities. The city of Ryazan is more than 900 years old, making it one of the oldest in Russia. The oldest extant parts of its kremlin, the citadel at the center of the city, date to the 15th century. Who lives here? Overwhelmingly, ethnic Russians. What do they do… [more]

When I first visited Russia more than 20 years ago, I don’t think I could have spent $1,000 there if I had stayed a month. Now, you can blow that in a day. Or maybe in an hour. Want proof? Check out the October issue of Departures magazine. It is devoted entirely to Russia. For $1,000 in the new Russia you could have lunch with six friends at the Central House of Writers (which was an orphanage early in the 20th century, according to Departures), or dine with six friends at Moscow's Café Pushkin (both are $160 a head). Or uninvite two guests and go to Anatoly Komm ($250 per person for dinner). You could book a room at the new Ritz-Carlton ($900 a night), and have… [more]