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mr-barley
Lounge Lizard
Joined: 04 Dec 2004
Posts: 159
Location: somewhere in minnesota
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 Posted: Sun Jan 16, 2005 5:05 pm Post subject: Our new Russian baby |
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My wife and I just returned from a 2 3/4 week trip too Russia with a bouncing baby boy! He is very small for his age (just over 12 months) but we're hoping with a lot of attention and proper nutrition we may have him caught up with other children his age by next year. He has spent all of his life in an orphanage and none of his birth family ever visited him so he's attention deprived. He took to us right away. Being the center of attention works wonders. We named him Alexander as it's a good Russian name as well as one that it's common here also. He's been with us for only 4 days, but I can't imagine being without him anymore. He is precious to us.
We had a great time in Moscow while we were there.Many memorable experiences.We were able to see most of the better sights in Moscow while we there. We have a friend from Voronhez (sp?) and some of his family came to Moscow to stay with friends while we were there.They took us all over to see monuments, musuems and art galeries. His aunt teaches english language and she was with for a few days so that helped out. After she left Moscow her sister (our friend Pter's mother) who speaks no english took us around for a few more days. We have a Russian translation book plus we know a little rudimentary Russian so we got along just fine. A lot of times we didn't understand each other, but that's okay. We had a lot of funny translation moments. She's alot like her son so we know how she "ticks".A sweetheart of a lady.
She stayed in Moscow with an old friend and we went over there for our dinners while Pter's family was in town. We got to eat what typical Russians eat for several days and I must say there wasn't anything I didn't care for.Also there were many vodka or cognac toasts whenever we ate with Russians.
On our second day in Moscow, we got abandoned at The Kremlin by our hotel shuttle service. We waited for an hour and it was getting dark so we decided to walk to our hotel. We had a Moscow map and know a very little Russian so we headed out to the hotel. I have a keen sense of direction and by looking at the map and asking one trustworthy looking couple we were able to make it back to the hotel safe and sound in about 45 minutes.After that I wasn't afraid of stretching my wings anymore.
The next day we decided to tackle the Metro system.We bought 2 tickets with 20 rides and watched what the locals do.At first we started going the wrong direction so we got off after 2 stops and backtracked the other way.Once you get in tune with your map and the signage you should have little difficulty. I sensed we were getting stared at a bit on the Metro, but I think some people were just wondering if we were Russians or what we were.We both wear glasses and few Russian do so that gives us a bit of a different look. We never wore blue jeans or tennis shoes in hopes of blending in a bit better, but still it seems like a few people were lokking at us. Maybe it was just my paronoia.We each ended up getting another 20 ride Metro tiket while wew were there as we spent alot of time cruising around on the Metro. It was fascinating! You can go just about anywhere in Moscow for 7 Rubles! That's about 25 cents in the US.
We were ther over the holidays so we got to experience Russian New Year and Christmas. New year's eve we had a large dinner at our hotel and went to our room and dozed off. At about midnight I woke up to the sound of fireworks! I woke my wife wife up and told her to dress quickly because we had to experience this. So by 12:15 AM we were out of the hotel and walking down Novy Arbot! We stopped at a few kiosks while we walked and bought beers and canned mixed drinks. When we got to where Novy Arat meets Stary Arbat we went down to Stary Arbat for a while. I didn't have a good vibe about that so we went back to Novy where it was better lit. I like to watch our backs don't you know. Our hotel bar was open until 8:30 AM that night so we ended up staying at the bar drinking champagne until 5:30 AM. We were in tough shape the next day, but hey it's our vacation.
All things considered I felt very safe walking around Moscow after dark. We had our little area that we learned well and like I said, I watched our backs. We live in a small town of 13,000 people and we went to a town of 13,000,000 people, so I don't think we did all that bad.
We are planning a return voyage when our son is older (11- 12 ) and can understand things the way they are and what he is seeing. The wait will be terrible because we loved Moscow so much. I know the weather was warm for this time of year, but we could not believe we would be in Moscow for 2 3/4 weeks in late December through mid January and be hot everywhere we went. When we arrived home, our high temperature for the day was -5 farenheit and the low for tomorrow morning is -20 farenheit. I don't know how that converts but I know it's much colder than Moscow is right now. |
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overseas_expat
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Joined: 11 Jan 2005
Posts: 741
Location: Moscow
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| Posted: Sun Jan 16, 2005 9:08 pm Post subject: |
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Delightful post.I can tell by your tone you're living one of those moments in life when everything seems to be going your way. I hope it lasts and lasts.
I'm sure you're enchanted with the new child. I wish you a lifetime of family happiness. Please do return, it's a huge and facinating country. Cheers to you all. |
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DennisF
Lounge Lizard
Joined: 05 Nov 2004
Posts: 97
Location: Texas
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| Posted: Mon Jan 17, 2005 4:47 am Post subject: Congatulations!!! |
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 I am so happy for you! We too are adopting a child (age 13) from Russia and it is so good to hear from someone who has had a successful and happy resolution of the process.
I look forward to seeing the sights in Russia and Moscow that you have described. We spoke with our "child" by telephone this morning and she is anxious as well to complete this process.
I wish you every happiness in your life with your new baby. Spakoynay Noche!
DennisF |
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Jutrzenkapolska
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Joined: 16 Sep 2004
Posts: 534
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| Posted: Mon Jan 17, 2005 9:48 am Post subject: |
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| Congradulations to the happy new parents!May Alexander bring you alot of peace and joy in the years to come! |
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cyndy22
Lounge Wizard
Joined: 15 Oct 2004
Posts: 1076
Location: massachusetts
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| Posted: Sat Jan 22, 2005 11:29 pm Post subject: |
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Mr. Barley and all,
Congratulations! We adopted our Alex from Russia and he is now 7. Time does fly. It is truly amazing how quickly these babioes bond to you. Our son also was attention deprived but it took hardly anytime at all for him to bond with us. The best time in my life was the first 2 years where I did not work but stayed homew to care for Alex. It is wonderful that you had such a wonderful experience in Russia and look forward to returning. We too thought that we would return when our son was 11 or 12. But we are going there in June. I feel it is important for him to have a connection with his country of origin and culture. And I happen to love it too. I am happy for you, your son and family.
We just returned from a vacation down to Key West Florida and we met a lovely young Russian Woman, Oksana who was a waitress. She has been in US for a year and a half but is returning in September. We talked with her and she was so happy that we adopted Alex. Not that we need anyone's approval but still it was nice to hear thgis from her. |
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JamesB
Frequent Guest
Joined: 25 Apr 2006
Posts: 20
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| Posted: Fri Apr 28, 2006 11:34 pm Post subject: Updates?? |
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mr. barley and DennisF,
Would you care to give us some updates? How are your kids doing? |
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DennisF
Lounge Lizard
Joined: 05 Nov 2004
Posts: 97
Location: Texas
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| Posted: Sat Apr 29, 2006 12:36 am Post subject: update as requested |
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 We are still waiting for a court date. We started this adoption process in Sept of 2004, traveled for trip 1 to meet our daughter in June of 2005, and are still waiting to travel for trip 2 and a court date. We now are being required to have physicals done in Russia even though we spent hundreds $ getting them done in the US. We still speak with our daughter every two weeks by phone but this whole process has been very discouraging. |
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Fire_Goddess
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| Posted: Sat Apr 29, 2006 12:42 am Post subject: Re: update as requested |
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| DennisF wrote: | | We are still waiting for a court date. We started this adoption process in Sept of 2004, traveled for trip 1 to meet our daughter in June of 2005, and are still waiting to travel for trip 2 and a court date. We now are being required to have physicals done in Russia even though we spent hundreds $ getting them done in the US. We still speak with our daughter every two weeks by phone but this whole process has been very discouraging. |
That is awful for them to be doing considering you are adopting an older child who knows she is being adopted and is getting her hopes up. I hope everything works out for you. |
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Xela
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Joined: 06 Jul 2005
Posts: 781
Location: Shanghai
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| Posted: Tue May 02, 2006 2:14 am Post subject: |
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| Quote: | mr. barley and DennisF,
Would you care to give us some updates? How are your kids doing? |
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We are still waiting for a court date. We started this adoption process in Sept of 2004, traveled for trip 1 to meet our daughter in June of 2005, and are still waiting to travel for trip 2 and a court date. We now are being required to have physicals done in Russia even though we spent hundreds $ getting them done in the US. We still speak with our daughter every two weeks by phone but this whole process has been very discouraging. |
I never knew mr Barley and DennisF were a couple.. |
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mr-barley
Lounge Lizard
Joined: 04 Dec 2004
Posts: 159
Location: somewhere in minnesota
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| Posted: Tue May 02, 2006 6:18 am Post subject: |
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| Our son, Alexander is doing just great. He is 2 years and 4 months old now. He is very curious and active so we have to watch him at all times. He's a very busy boy to be sure. He brought a case of scabies home with him and that took a few months to get rid off, but other than that I suspect our lives are very similar to those with biological children. |
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bryak
WayToRussified
Joined: 28 Oct 2005
Posts: 321
Location: Edmonton, Canada
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| Posted: Wed May 03, 2006 4:20 am Post subject: |
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Yikes, scabies! I know how difficult that can be to get rid of. 
Thank you to mr.barley, DennisF, and whoever pushed this old post up so that I could have a chance to read it, for the wonderful story. 
I think more people should post their personal experiences of travel or just everyday life in Russia -- what better "way to (learn about) Russia" is there? Plus I find it very interesting getting a glimpse into people's lives and experiences, even if they think them to be boring or mundane; everybody's got a story. |
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vitalsigns
Lounge Wizard
Joined: 25 Dec 2004
Posts: 2784
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| Posted: Mon May 15, 2006 3:10 pm Post subject: |
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| As I was reading this thread I remembered how on my last trip over to Russia I watched twice on the TV short anti-american adoption documentaries. I was saddened by that since I know how much better off those kids would have been had they been adopted by couples from other countries. DennisF yours seems to be one of those instances where everything is done to get you discouraged in the adoption process. |
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Fire_Goddess
Guest
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| Posted: Mon May 15, 2006 11:39 pm Post subject: |
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| Well there have been instances of people from the USA adopting children from places like russia and exploiting them sexually. Also I guess there was a situation or maybe a couple situations in which an adopted child was beaten to death. So it only takes a couple people to ruin it for everyone else by giving foriegn adoption a bad name. |
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