 |
|
 |
|
||||||||
|
The First Trip |
||||||||
|
|
||||||||
|
||||||||
|
So Jeff,
myself and Jeffrey, our 4 year old set off in the dead of winter on our journey. 24 mostly sleepless hours after we took
off from LA, we landed in St Petersburg and we 3 weary travelers headed off to collect our luggage and face the cold. My first up close and personal introduction to a Russian citizen was with
the lady in passport control. She glared at me the moment she took my passport and looked at it for a long time before she
looked back up at me scowling. "Eeez theez you?" She asked. I immediately felt guilty. Was that me? Who knows after 16 hours
on a plane. I just smiled and nodded far too much. She took Jeffy's passport and looked it over with a scowl. She held the
passport up to compare the picture to him. She shook her head, mumbled in Russian, stuffed the passports back through the
window and informed me that my child was not dressed warmly enough. At this point I wasn't certain if she was going to let
me into the country. I dug around in my bag and pulled out his sweatshirt, forced it over his head and assured her that his
winter parka was in the luggage. She glared at me, shook her head and motioned for me to continue on. I didn't even realize
she had stamped our passports. We somehow managed to bypass the incredibly long line of the "Nothing to declare,
green lane" by trying to go through the "Something to declare, red lane". We had a large amount of money to pay our adoption
facilitator and were told that we needed to declare it. When we went through the doors of the red lane (where there was no
line), a man approached us and asked if we had lost our luggage. I stared at the luggage we were dragging then shook my head.
He shrugged his shoulders and ushered us out past all the lanes and into the airport. Still not sure how that happened but
looking back on the 200 people still waiting in the green line, we took it as a gift and moved on. We missed Natalya, our translator as we came out the wrong door. We stood
waiting near the airport's entrance doors looking lost while she stood at the green lane door waiting for us to come out.
She finally caught sight of us, rushed over and presented me with flowers and hugs for everybody. The relief was overwhelming
because I had begun to think she just hadn't showed up! We stepped outside into a cold as we 3 Southern Californians had never felt
before. Jeffrey was crying by the time we got to the car and trying to hide his face under my shirt. Thanks for the air conditioning
kid! After quite a bit of juggling, we somehow got all of us and our luggage into
her little car and were off to our hotel. We arrived at our hotel 6 PM local time. That was 5 AM our time and I had
not slept more than 2 hours since we left LA over 24 hours before. I was dizzy with exhaustion. Jeff said we should stay up another few hours so we could get a regular nights
sleep. He said if we did that we would wake up in the morning and be on Russia time. It was a good idea he said. I'm sure
he said more but I had fallen asleep next to Jeffy and missed the rest. The problem with going to sleep at 5:30 AM (LA time) is that your body wakes
you up in the middle of the afternoon (LA time) and wonders why you are sleeping and why on earth it is pitch black outside.
2:30 AM Russia time and I'm sitting up in bed wide awake. It wasn't more than
10 minutes before everyone else was awake too. We turned on the lights and began our day. Which consisted of Jeff sitting
at our laptop, Jeffy watching DVDS on the portable player and me reading Harry Potter for the next 4 hours while we waited
for the breakfast buffet to open up. We were the first ones to arrive and we were starving. We hadn't eaten since
the last plane ride more than 12 hours before. Its not so bad when you're asleep and not eating, but when you have to sit
for 4 hours thinking about how hungry you, it gets overwhelming. (We weren't aware at this point that we there was a 24 hour
mini mart next door where could have picked up some snacks). The food at the buffet was excellent. It definitely had a European flare with
fish and Russian pastries, but they had stuff we were used to as well. Eggs, French toast, cereal and fruit. I accidentally
poured yogurt (might have been kefir) into a bowl thinking it was milk. (They had it in a pitcher). It took me a little bit
to figure out what it was because at first I thought the milk had gone bad. We went back to the room and still had 2 hours until our driver arrived to
pick us up. We used the time to unpack then headed downstairs where we found Cathy and her daughter waiting for us. It was great to meet her face to face for the first time. Together we headed
out into the cold and straight into the large van they had provided for us to travel back and forth to the orphanage.
Cathy was traveling with her husband and their 2 teenagers, Brin and Patrick. We all settled into the 14 passenger van and headed off into the city to the
MOE (Ministry of Education) where we would receive our official referrals and then off to meet our kids. The ride out to the orphanage was 2 hours and through beautiful snow covered
countryside. The van was comfortable and afforded lots of good viewing from the big windows. It was also good for
sleeping on the way home. |
||||||||
|
When we finally arrived at the orphanage they ushered all of into the tiny directors office. Only our translator
spoke English. They started with Cathy, telling her all about Viktor. Then they turned and began telling us about Katya.
Before they had said too much I could hear a commotion in the hallway and Cathy looked up and said "OH there they are...
Oh she is darling!" I couldn't see anything from my angle but I felt myself begin to cry. I had waited so long for this. Suddenly
they marched both kids into the room and there she was. My first thought was that she didn't look anything like the picture I had seen and she was so skinny. Sort
of like a stray puppy that hadn't eaten enough. She marched over to me and turned her back on me so I could pick her
up. I scooted her up on to my lap and I could feel every rib as I ran my hand up and down her side. Before I even had a chance to get a good look at her, they took her hand and led her out of the room. They began to apologize right away and said that there was something that had not been written in her files
and that we should know about it right away. They said she had been exposed to TB 2 years before and that they understood
that it was a serious matter and again were very sorry that we had come all this way without knowing that. They said it would
be possible for us to meet another child but they did not want us to see her again if we decided to do that because it would
be very hard for her. Well, at first I was surprised but having had read about it I knew it was a common occurrence with Eastern
European adopted kids and not as big a deal to us in the America as it was to those who lived there. We told them of course we still wanted to adopt her and they brought her back into the room where she marched
up to me and starting talking very earnestly to me and pointing at her hair. I looked to Natalya who laughed and said "she
is telling you she wants to grow long hair." Well OK, no problem, but only time and not being in the orphanage where they
chop off your hair once a month will do that. Her hair was already longer than most of the little girls there and I guessed
that was because they knew we were coming and wanted her to look a little less like a boy. After Natayla told her I said that Yes she could have long hair she spent the next hour and half smiling
and stringing beads, coloring and playing with some of the toys we brought for her. We left but promised to be back the next day. They gave us a sled for Jeffrey so he didn't have to walk in the snow and we set out to see some sites. |
||||||||
|
||||||||
|
||||||||
|
||||||||
|
|
