About eight years ago

It's hard to believe about eight years ago two Russian speaking little girls of nine and ten became ours. I was reading about it this morning and when I was at work Teri texted me and reminded me of it too.

Eight years has flown by in a heart beat. It seems like yesterday I was telling my boss at Marcus Dairies that my Wife and I were adopting two Russian girls and I would need a month off to go get them and on top of that I'd only get a day or two notice when I would need to leave. He said he understood and when I gave him a twenty-four hour notice we were leaving He got angry.
    We left at night from Kennedy Airport. Teri and I had dinner at the airport We took a car service from the house to the Airport. I remember listening to the Yankee game on the radio knowing this would be the last game I'd hear for a month. The Yankees cooperated and won the game. The Driver gave us bottles of water to drink on the way to the Airport. The Day was warm, not hot and I remember falling asleep listening to the game feeling content.
    At the Airport We got on the line for Aeroflot, the Russian Airliner. For years it was the airline that represented the old Soviet Union. It was weird getting on that old symbol of communist supremacy. The Plane was a little surprising, it wasn't an old Soviet made jet, but a recent modern western airplane. I don't remember if it was Boeing or Air Bus I remember the map on the TV showing our location, how we went from Kennedy, north up the coast, then out to sea toward England and Europe. We traveled toward the sun and we watched it rise at a fast pace somewhere over Europe. The biggest regret the whole trip was the huge clouds that covered the world from England until we reached Russia, then they came back and as we descended toward Moscow, out of a puffy white cloud bank came the city. It was scary and exciting and the reason for our trip became very real and the thought there was no turning back now never entered my conscious mind, but I think it was back there somewhere.
     We waited to get off the plane until last and as we slowly rounded a corner We were met by a long line for customs. It went quick and we found our driver who hustled us into his car. He had the radio on and it played a strange blend of English and Russian music. Every so often I could close my eyes and forget I was in Russia until the announcer came on and spoke in Russian. Our Driver drove us on a trip to an out of the way place, down some Russian country lane that I was sure was going to be the place we were robbed of the few thousand dollars in my money belt, but We were safely deposited at the doorstep of a nice and quiet chalet type hotel surrounded by small houses on all four sides.

Someone didn't call the zoning board when that went up.
     Inside We were on our own again. We managed to get to our room and I remember being tired, but not sleepy. We stayed in our room for a while, then when it seemed late enough for dinner, we went down to the dining room. We had a pork dish, as we were to have several times while we were in Russia. Pork seems to be more prevalent in Russia then beef.
     The next Day we are up early and our driver takes us to the airport early so We could feel comfortable about not missing our plane. The six hours we spend at the airport are relaxing and the only stressful thing is trying to find the gate we are supposed to use for our flight. The gate turns out to be beyond a security check point that I had thought was just a gate. I don't remember how we figured it out, just luck I guess. One of the funnier, to me things that went on that day was me trying to buy something to eat. I went through a shop and found some candy that I didn't have to speak to have someone hand me. I just put in on the counter and handed him some money. I later realized I'd paid a small fortune for the candy, but it was worth it then.
     It was dark when the plane took off from Moscow and again We are chasing the sun and again the land below us is cloud covered most of the way. When I can see it, it's vast and unremarkable. Like when We flew to Vegas and the land just went on forever, with the occasional break from a road. We land in Kharbosky,

Over eight years I've forgotten how to spell it. It was lightly raining and in a picture I have rain is dripping off the wing of the plane. We exit the Plane and the day has turned sunny and pleasant. We quickly find our driver and I think our guide/interrupter, we gather up our belongings and head to the car. The Airport is smaller and less hectic, it's like small town America, it's nice. We get in the car and the prospect of a three hour drive seems like such a small price to pay on such a nice day.





 The Trip doesn't begin to drag until we reach the railroad crossing outside of Birobidjon.

A Train has stopped and closed the tracks to cars. We are not close to the train, but we can see what is going on. We wait quietly with the windows open enjoying what we can of our first day in the far east of Russia. After a while a car gets out of line and goes back the way we came. No One moves to fill his spot. Our Driver passes several cars and fills the spot. I think that if this was America there would of been people stopping that from happening. After a few moments we realize why no one moved, as we start swatting flies. Where We were originally we were out of range of the flies for some reason. The People who left couldn't stand the flies any longer I guess and left. So now We wait swatting hungry flies. How long We wait I don't remember, but after a while the train moves and we are able to finish out trip.

Somewhere before I think We pass the obelisk that proclaimed the area the Jewish Autonomous Region.
     We enter the Town, again it could be a town out of upstate New York. It is colorful and exciting. Because of the celebration of the 75th anniversary of the founding of Birobidjon, the
hotel is full so we were taken to an apartment, I think is owned by Nadejda , our fixer in town.  She is a large women, pleasant and business like. She tells our translator, also supplied by her how much money is needed and I excuse myself and go into the other room to remove several thousand dollars from the money belt everyone in the Apartment knows I am wearing. No One ever said how much she kept and how much she spread around to local officials, but when We needed something to move the adoption along We went first before the locals. Official papers were needed one day,We enter a crowded office, the first ones to be seen were us.
 

The Apartment I called in my blog back then, the projects. It was a third floor walk up with dark stairs that smelled of cat pee. Groups of cats hung out all around outside and there were several that Teri wanted to take home. There was this one old cat that reminded me of the old cat in the play 'Cats'. The Apartment had a small kitchen with a table where I enjoyed writing most mornings or on some very early mornings. One morning, I think we tried to make cheese omelets and we were moderately successful. That was after our trip to a local grocery store about the size of a large Deli back home. At the Grocery, We bought Cherry Juice and some Russian Vodka. Neither made it home with us.


     After our meeting We were brought to a place to eat.  I don't remember the name of the place, but it was close to the apartment. We were early and the restaurant was empty. Shot glasses on the table was our final culture shock of the day. At Home alcohol is so demonized, shot glasses on the table would never go or would never be used.  Our Guide, a young girl helped us order our food, she left, it was served a little while later. I had pork something or other. Teri had something different. and we enjoyed it.
     Our long day ended with a ride back to our new apartment. It was early evening in Birobidzhan, eight hours later in Moscow and fifteen hours later in New York or was it earlier? I still haven't figured it out. Wait it would be fifteen hours later in Birobidzhan. I was in the future when I was there.
     The next morning I awoke real early because my body had no idea what time it was. Two days ago it would have been evening, the day before. While in Moscow it would be late the previous night, while I was awake at 3 am or so in Birobidzhan.

     It was also the first time We would see the girls in over a year. It had been a long year. Teri's mom had died and Teri continued toward her goal of bringing the girls to America, I helped. I admit and have for several years, as far back as the trip, I followed and Teri lead. I did what she wanted when she wanted, but I'd been on board with the adoption since the phone call that summer afternoon in Stony Point, in that bad cell area when our social worker could not get hold of Teri and had to call me. I blogged about it, go look it up.
    I don't remember when our ride came or at what time, but I remember driving through the town getting on the road toward the orphanage and seeing the grain silos for the first time and telling myself I had to get a picture of them.Now for some reason I wish I'd had the chance to go explore them for a few minutes.

     We arrived in front of the orphanage and our hearts broke. The place just looked so cold and how could we have left the girls there for another year
   I walked inside slowly and a little scared. It'd been a year and I wasn't sure how the girls would react to our arrival. We went to the office and the girls were called down. When they entered the office, I wasn't sure they were our girls for a moment. They had changed,grown up some. They both had long hair.While in America they had talked about wanting long hair and Teri had told them to pull it back and no one would notice their hair was long. The number one memory of that day were the big white bows in their hair. Someone had tied to both of their heads. These little 45 lb girls had these big white bow stuck to their heads and the bows seemed bigger then their heads. Neither girl had glasses on and neither had warn them while in America. One day several days later Nastia would show up with these big clunky glasses on,same with Elena. Nastia had a cast on her arm having broken it a few weeks earlier. We took them out and I think our guide told us a good place to take them was a place called 'The Pit Stop' little did we know that we would spend the majority of our time in Birobidzhan there.
     I could go on and on and tell stories that I might of not written about or ones that I thought I didn't write about. Like the time We were driving to our Apartment or Hotel room and there were cows in the road and the Russian Army comes rambling down the road and had to wait for the cows to get out of the street before they could continue on. Or the time We met some Russian women outside the restaurant California and CJ held a conversation with them. During all our time there the people were always the friendliest. Never once did someone tell us to go home or give us attitude when We couldn't speak the language or did dumb things. The only time We had any problem was when one of our translators didn't like the fact that we wandered around while she was on duty. I was fifty-one at the time and she was maybe twenty. She may have been right that it was not safe for us to wander around, but We were restless and wanted to explore the town. The only other incident was when we learned the translator and the driver only worked until 6pm. We could not understand why We couldn't get rides from the restaurants to our Apartment or Hotel after dinner until someone explained it to us. We, I wasn't happy about it, but We managed I think and We didn't ask the driver to work to often after 6pm. In the end our first translator was quietly changed. I forget their names. The first one was a blond and the second one was a brunette. As I said I could go on and on and maybe I will some day.