Good night from Moscow.

We are just settling in for our last night in the city. We will be traveling back home tomorrow but we have definitely left a piece of our hearts here in Russia. Below are a couple of images of Moscow at night. These are all views from within a short walking distance of our hotel.

See you soon.

Tourists in Siberia.

Today, the 16^th of December, we were to see our baby again for two visits. These would be the last time we would see her until we return to bring her home.

A view from outside our hotel.

This one’s for Poppy.

This type of kiosk can be found throughout the city. The shed has a small 1 square foot door that can be opened from the inside through which money and product can be passed. It is otherwise left closed to conserve heat. The drink “cooler” on the left is actually a heater!

One block from our hotel is a public park where a series of ice sculptures is being built in preparation for the upcoming holidays. Holly and I decided to use a little free time we had between today’s baby visits to go for a walk and see the park. There was a really happy and playful mood at this park. It was, I believe, partly a reflection of the park’s holiday theme, and partly due to our uplifted spirits. It’s a wonderful day.

Baby home #1

It is 9:51 local time in Novokuznetsk, Siberia and as I review the day’s events, it is difficult to know where to begin. We arrived here on a flight from Moscow that departed late in the previous night. Unfortunately, I have no pictures of the flight or of the early dawn travel, but hopefully my description will suffice for an imaginative reader.

We flew out of Moscow at 10:05 PM on Wednesday the 14th. We had the privilege of meeting two other couples who were adopting and were flying on the same flight as we were. This made for instant camaraderie amongst the only English speaking people on the plane.

Boarding the plane was in itself an adventure. Rather than the usual boarding ramp leading from the gate directly to the aircraft, we were loaded onto a bus resembling a subway car in its layout. We were driven into the cold night across a snow covered airfield, past rows of aircraft and baggage trains until we arrived at our plane. It was a large plane with three rows on each side of a center aisle. We walked through the hard-packed snow from the bus to the boarding stairs and were seated. The flight was four hours long and spanned four time zones in the easterly direction so our scheduled arrival in Novokuznetsk at 6:00 AM meant that another night’s sleep would be lost in travel. A very surprising thing occurred that thwarted even that meager amount of potential sleep. To our surprise, the Siberian Airways crew had a never ending supply of food and drink. I guess trading sleep for free calories seemed like a good idea at the time. The Russian speaking flight attendant that served up the main course made a heroic attempt to communicate to us the menu choices. They were, “fish”, “meat”, or “chicken”. Makes you wonder doesn’t it?

Upon landing in Novokuznetsk, we were faced with another trudge across the Siberian tundra, only this time it was in -30F temperatures in the pre-dawn darkness. This time, instead of a bus to take us to the terminal, we were greeted with a tractor drawn people trailer. I am certain that I have never felt more like livestock that at that moment. The terminal was a very humble structure but had generous amounts of the most valuable commodity in Siberia, heat. The baggage claim area was a different story altogether. The baggage was brought from the plane to an unheated building adjacent to the terminal. In order to claim one’s baggage, we needed to stand in line outside of this building and upon entering, find our luggage spread out on the floor of the building. An attendant at the door ensures that each bag taken out of the building is accompanied with a proper claim ticket.

After a short wait (our flight arrived early), the Gift of Life translator arrived with two vehicles for our trip to the Siberia Hotel. The drive to the hotel had a surreal feel that I will certainly not be able to adequately describe. It was not like anything I have ever experienced. The road to the hotel is a 20-30 KM stretch that could not have been more cold and barren feeling if it had been on the moon; yes barren, but not lonely. Our driver, in his haste to prove that he was a Russian (see yesterday’s post), passed all sorts of vehicles along the way, all billowing out huge clouds of exhaust steam into the artic air. Just when I thought there was nothing but ice and steam, out of the still dark night began to appear pedestrians; all heading in the same direction, walking on the edge of the road and each carrying a large handbag. Our driver told us that they were mine workers who work the many mines in the area. I promised myself that I would never complain about my commute again.

We arrived at the hotel, showered, and tried to rest for a short while before meeting for breakfast at 9:00. This picture was taken from our hotel room window just after dawn.

Breakfast was an unexpected treat in both its content and presentation. We met Olga, our translator and prepared to travel to Baby Home #1 after breakfast. Driving to the baby home, there was a sense of a certain inevitability that was drawing near. We were being driven, literally, to a point in time where our lives would be changed forever. It was planned that we would meet our little girl as soon as we arrived at the orphanage at 10:00 AM.

The baby home was very ordinary on the outside, but extraordinary in its very clean, well maintained and well decorated interior. Immediately upon entering, you are greeted with a small bench were you are to remove your shoes. I’m glad Holly packed slippers.

We then were taken to the director’s office where we were invited to leave our coats and bags in order to prepare for our first meeting with our baby girl. We were also asked to wash our hands.

Baby Home Art

And finally, after so many months, we saw her. She was carried in to us by one of the workers. We approached her cautiously in order not scare her, but it didn’t work. Her first reaction was to turn away and cry. Undoubtedly accustomed to this situation, the worker quickly placed her on the floor and began helping her play with some toys that had been prepared. The meeting room is a very nicely decorated but small room with many toys, pieces of children’s furniture, and even a couple of small birds in cages. It was a very comfortable and well equipped room well suited to its purpose. Once our baby was settled in with some toys, we began again to play with her slowly and cautiously so as to not frighten her. She very quickly became accepting of us as her playmates. The first real eye-to-eye connection that I personally made with her was through playing with a stacking tower toy. The pieces, each graduated in size and brightly colored, have a hole in the center for stacking on the tower. I took one of these pieces and brought it to my eye so as to playfully look at her through it’s center. Then I brought it from my eye to hers all the while keeping our eyes in line through the center of the piece. She really enjoyed this and we did it several times. It was great because I could tell that she was not so much looking at the toy piece but actually fixing her gaze on my eye as I was on hers. After some time of playing with the toys on the floor, we brought out a plastic wire-mesh ball to play with. I taught her that she could give it to me and that I would roll it back to her. She really enjoyed this and learned to throw it back to me. We played this game of catch for a little while. We carried her, she loves being rocked, she is very curious about everything in the room, she likes playing with daddy‘s beard, she likes blowing kisses to Meme, she is beautiful.

After this play time, we were told that we could meet with the orphanage doctor. She, through our translator, gave us a briefing on all the information they had on the baby’s history in terms various events in her life as well as her medicals. We were then allowed to ask any questions we had. Holly had prepared two pages of questions but had to ask very few of them because many had already been answered by the doctor’s briefing.

That was it, our first visit was over. We were to come back in the afternoon at 4:00 for another visit. At this point, we really felt as though all doubt and fear had been erased from our minds. That doubts we had were quite honestly due to a combination of our inexperience, our mistrust of the system, and the inherent uncertainty of such a process. The inexperience and uncertainty were real, but in our case, the mistrust was unwarranted. I believe that all the parties involved in this process from the orphanage to all the various agents of the adoption agency acted in good faith and were completely trustworthy. We are so happy with how things have turned out.

A day in Moscow…

Today, December 14, we took the grand tour of Moscow. Led by one of our wonderful Gift of Life translators, we drove, walked and rode the subway to various points of interest. Traveling with a local translator is such a great way to really understand what you are seeing. An example of this is the story I was told about the government building that I photographed in my last post and also below. As I mentioned before, the building below is the Russian equivalent of our capitol building. In 1993, an attempt was made to overthrow the government of then president Boris Yeltsin. Communist party leaders actually took over the building in a coop attempt. Since the majority of the local military was loyal to Yeltsin they responded by bringing tanks to the scene and firing on this building. I think that a stable government is something that we really take for granted here in the U.S.

This is another view of our hotel, the Hotel Ukrania. I just love this building. There are several such buildings in the city used for various purposes.


While taking pictures near the entrance of the hotel, I noticed that the security police were taking special interest in my activities. Notice this officer’s ability to survey his environment while remaining nearly completely invisible. It’s a good thing for Christmas trees.


Now a little challenge for those of you who appreciate that it’s worth having clean windows. The question: Which floor is this window washer hovering at? The closest guess will win a brand new bottle of Windex.



Can anyone guess what the name of this restaurant is? Here’s a hint. Of all the things that man has created, designed or invented only one has reliably shown that it can remain constant over time and space. That one thing is the Big Mac. Think about it, this sandwich looks, smells, and tastes exactly the same today in the city of Moscow as it did 25 years ago in my home town of Attleboro. Pretty amazing!



What would a day in Moscow be without some shopping? Here you see Holly diligently examining every trinket in this store to find the perfect gift for every person on her shopping list? Now don’t you wish you were on that list?



Of course, any tour of Moscow would be incomplete without a stroll through Red Square. Here are a couple of perspectives on St. Basil’s, one of the most iconic symbols of Russia. It really is an amazing sight. On its own, it would be worth all of the pictures that have ever been taken of it, but to see it in its environment, on one end of the wide open cobble stone expanse of Red Square, adds to it in a way that a picture cannot tell.




A really pretty sight just outside the Kremlin wall near the Russian version of the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.


I guess capitalism is in high gear here in the new Russia.


I would like to leave you with a few more thoughts on Russian life. First, I have another entrepreneurial tip. Russia definatly needs more lawyers. Why do you ask? Russian sidewalks are perpetually covered in ice, even in front of and on the steps of all manner of public buildings including stores, restaurants, hotels, and other such businesses. Add to that the fact that there are very few railings or suitable hand-holds to prevent slip-and-fall accidents, and you have a recipe for a very successful western style law practice.

Also, on a related matter, the topic of Russian driving is certainly worth a mention. I have learned much in this subject in the last few days. Here is a small list of observations.

1) Merging: Russian drivers have shown me time and again that two objects can in fact occupy the same space at the same time.
2) The Vehicular Theory of Relativity: The phrases “Right side of the road”, “Middle of the road”, and “Wrong side of the road” are all relative.
3) Pedestrian alert: Russian pedestrians, to their credit, have learned to associate the sound of an automobile horn with the concept of certain death. The typical American baggy-panted, cap-wearing, rebellious teen sauntering across the road would become extinct in short order in Russia.
4) Speed limits: Vehicle speeds in Russia are not limited by any law of the government but rather are only limited by the laws of physics.
5) Sidewalks: The term sidewalk in Russia is actually a misnomer. The terms sidedrive, sidepark, and siderunforyourlife could all be used interchangeably.

Our next post will be from Novokuznetsk after our first visit with Lilya. Its fun being a tourist, but we must remember what we are really here for.

God bless.

We're here!

Editor’s Preface: I am writing this in our room at the Hotel Ukraina in Moscow. The last ?? hours (question marks indicate that I’m not really sure how long it has been) have been very tiring. In spite of the airport layovers, long flights, massive time zone changes, stress of experiencing a different country/language/culture and lack of sleep, I am posting this update. I want to apologize in advance for spelling and grammatical errors as well as other signs of brain fog. <>===================================================

Ok, here we go. We decided to start our trip half way around the world by enjoying what will be our last good ol’ American fast food meal. From the Subway in Seekonk late Monday morning, we’re off to Logan Airport for the first leg of our trip.

While waiting at Logan Airport for our first flight, Brian is busy working on one of his software projects. The goal is to work as many hours as possible in order to efficiently use the large amounts of travel and down time we will have.

Here is a different angle on Brian’s work.

Holly is preparing to board the Delta flight to Moscow from JFK. The flight from Boston to NY was mercifully short, but the flight to Moscow will be of a different sort. While on the flight to Moscow, we met a lovely couple from California traveling to Kallingrad (spelling?) on their second adoption trip to pick up their daughter. It was a real blessing to be able to share stories with them on what would otherwise have been a torturous flight.

We arrived at the SVD airport in Moscow on Tuesday morning around 11:00 AM Moscow time. We sailed through immigration, baggage pickup, and customs. Although stern looks were standard operating procedure for the officials, there were no hassles of any kind. We quickly met our contact from Gift of Life and were on our way from SVD to Moscow. I want to thank her for helping me to finally be able to properly pronounce the name of the city we are traveling to. It is the city of Novokuznetsk and is pronounced as “novo-kooze-nyet-sk.”

I’ve heard that the driving experience in this part of the world can be unduly stressful, but it was “hats off” to our driver who calmly negotiated the continuously charging and lane-swerving Muscovite drivers to get us safely to our destination. As can be seen from the picture, the day was gray with intermittent rain and snow with temperatures hovering around the freezing mark. In my opinion, what this city needs is a few more car washes. Hey, there’s a business idea for all you internationally minded entrepreneurs.

On the way to Moscow, we drove past this stark reminder of what the Russian people have had to endure in their history. I was told by our driver that this monument marks a location where Russian forces took a stand against Hitler’s tanks during WWII.

After meeting with Vladimir, the Gift of Life facilitator, for a briefing on the who, what, why, where and when’s of our visit we proceeded to a currency exchange counter.

Now, how many roubles was that?

And what did Holly buy with her first rouble? Chocolate of course.

The hotel we are staying at is the Hotel Ukraina and is in the heart of Moscow, just blocks from Red Square and The Kremlin. It is a beautiful old hotel that while lacking some of the more modern amenities, has so much architectural beauty that one can overlook the lack of in-room broadband access.

Moscow seems to be in love with Christmas trees. I have never seen so many large and ornate trees in one place. My girls would really love seeing them because they are really so unusual in their striking appearance.

This last picture is of a Government building directly across from our hotel. Our driver indicated to us that this building is the Russian equivalent of our Capitol Building in DC. By the way, I want to thank Joe for the use of such an excellent camera!

Tomorrow we will be mostly tourists in Moscow. In the evening, we will travel to the airport to fly to Novokuznetsk. The next time that we will have an opportunity to post will be after we have arrived in Novokuznetsk and have had our first day of visiting the orphanage. Until then, God bless and thank you for your prayers.

Playing in the snow (with a purpose).

This first post, although rather mundane, is actually quite important. Along with showing the results of our latest winter storm, it is allowing us to test the equipment and processes which will be used on our first "real" posting. Next stop: The Kremlin!


Speaking of The Kremlin, below is a screen shot of the latest wunderground.com forecast for Novokuznetsk, Siberia - our destination. Don't feel to sorry for us, this forecast represents a heat wave for that area.