Our Russian Adventure part 7 - FOOD

Food was one of the things I was most concerned about prior to our trip. I try not to be, but frankly I'm kind of a picky eater. I had done some research about traditional Russian foods in advance and frankly it all looked rather questionable. That coupled with the warnings our friends had given us in advance about what to eat and what to avoid, I was pretty much prepared to survive off of granola bars and dried fruit.
The funny part of showing up with really low expectations is that there's plenty of room to be pleasantly surprised. The hotels we stayed at both had breakfast buffets, which was nice because we got to sample stuff before we committed to it. We managed to try a wide range of stuff from lunch meat (labeled "crispy bacon") to rice, cheese, fish, and eggs. Both places we stayed had traditional Russian pancakes called blini. I'd read about them in advance and was happy to try.
Our other meals on the other hand were a different story. Our leariness of strange foods coupled with the fact that we couldn't read signs/menus meant that we ended up eating trail mix for dinner more than once. There are times that we were pleasantly surprised though, our tour guide in St. Petersburg introduced us to Swiss-Russian salmon pies that were delightful, we would have gone back for more if we could have figured out how to get there. In Arkhangelsk we enjoyed an American style pizza at a local Italian restaurant. We also managed to find a Pizza Hut and McDonalds in St. Petersburg that were delightfully familiar, even if we did have to order by pointing to a specially made picture menu that was just for dumb Americans.

The salmon pies we ate in St. Petersburg were almost too pretty to eat.

Our Russian Adventure part 6 - Literacy

Or perhaps the lack of.
Russia uses the Cyrillic alphabet, so not only could we not speak to anyone, we couldn't read any of the signs either. That doesn't mean we didn't try. A plus P (which really says R) plus crazy symbol we don't have in the U.S... We tried to sound out some of the words with a copy of the alphabet we had with us, but since we didn't know what the word meant in the end, it was kind of a pointless endeavor.

This was my first experience as an adult with illiteracy. Searching for meaning in those crazy symbols and finding none. The teacher in me hated it. Hated knowing that it was a very real problem for millions of people across the globe. Wanting to go on a global crusade against it, but knowing that's not really a realistic goal for my life. But I promise to do my part if you promise to do yours. I would love if someone could translate this plaque for me... I think it gives some historical information about a little statue I saw it Arkhangelsk...

Our Russian Adventure part 5 - Language barrier

The last few days I've played the role of tour guide, introducing you to all the places we visited. But our trip to Russia was much more than a waltz past countless beautiful buildings. It was total immersion into a completely different culture. One with a language that doesn't resemble English in any way shape or form. It wasn't like going to Canada or Mexico where the language base is similar enough that we get the jist of what is happening around us, nothing about the Russian language is similar to our language.

When we started this process with Max, they told us not to bother learning any Russian. It's a hard language to learn, and it's much easier for his little spongy kid brain to learn English than it is for our crusty adult brains to learn Russian. So we learned enough phrases to get by... please, thank you and STOP IT! That's about all you really need when dealing with a child, not so much when addressing the airline stewardess who doesn't speak any English. The phrase "nyet pa Russky" came in rather handy during our stay.

If I had one thing to take away from my experiences in a culture where little to no English is spoken it's this. There is a lot to be said for nonverbal communication. We held our own with a few well placed points and gestures. But boy were we ever glad to be back on our home turf. I don't think I've ever been so thrilled to ask a stranger a question without having to plan in advance about how to get my point across.

Our Russian Adventure Part 4 - Arkhangelsk

Oh sweet little Arkhangelsk. Despite being the biggest "city" in it's region it remind me of any small blue collar town in America. Except that no one spoke English, and we couldn't read any of the signs. It has a history that goes back to the vikings, and is one of the northernmost cities in Russia.

Being about 100 miles south of the Arctic Circle, it's certainly the farthest north we've ever been. While our translator explained that there had been ice on the river a few weeks ago, our weather was 50 degrees and sunshine. Lots and lots of sunshine. In fact it wasn't totally dark at 2:00 am on the day that I was awake for the day around 1:30. The sun was up enough to be shining in our hotel room window around 4.

(Sunset on the Dvina river. This photo was taken sometime after 9:30 on the evening we arrived)

While Max currently lives in Severodvinsk (the next town over), both of his parents were from Arkhangelsk, so it's a pretty good bet that he's spent quite a bit of time here before entering the orphanage. Which is fine with us, because there were some pretty little buildings and monuments near our hotel that we were able to get out and see. No one offered to take us on a tour and we weren't brave enough to go very far from our hotel, but right outside where we were staying was a nice little river walk that we went up and down a few times.

(church off the riverwalk near where we ate dinner one night)

We enjoyed our little walks along the river. You could tell that the city was glad to be free from the oppressive winter, because everyone was out soaking up the sunshine. Men were out fishing in the river, middle aged women did yoga on the pier, young moms chased their toddlers, and kids zoomed back and forth on their bikes. Like I said, not that different than your typical American town. Except it was all in Russian. And the sun was still up at 10pm.

Our Russian Adventure part 3 - The Winter Palace

Yesterday I talked about our tour of St. Petersburg. While we were on that tour we did stop to see the outside of the winter palace. We were properly impressed, but I don't think we were adequately prepared for what we would see on the interior when we toured it a few days later.
This palace was home to the royal family for approximately 200 years before the beginning of the Russian Revolution. So being a palace, it was opulent and extravagant in a way that only a royal palace can be. Added to that, is the Hermitage, which is where they kept their royal art collection. So basically it's an enormous decadent palace with a huge art museum full of world treasures attached.
Jory and I were a little shell shocked when we walked into the first few rooms full of beautifully decorated walls, inlaid floors, and painted ceilings. It was hard to notice the treasures our tourguide was pointing out because we were so enamored with how each room was dressed.
Then he took us through part of the Hermitage. We toured room after room of famous art works. Michelangelo, Picasso, Rembrandt, you name it, they had it. All the great ones I studied in my Art History class in college were there.

A couple of super fancy ceilings...

Total sensory overload.
It would take an entire month to properly unpack all the treasures this museum had. There were entire collections that we missed. We would have loved to see the arsenal, the prehistoric art, the ancient coin collections. Oy. I don't think we saw anything on the ground level.
So anyway, if your ever in St. Petersburg, plan on spending more than one day at the Winter Palace

(nothing says showing off like an entire room decorated in gold)

Our Russian Adventure part 2 - St Petersburg

Our first stop on our Russian adventure was St. Petersburg. We were pleasantly surprised with 60 degree temps and tons of sunshine. We ended up spending 2 days here one before we went to see Max and one after. On our first day we took a driving tour. We hired a tour guide through the travel agency connected to our adoption agency. Our guide, Alex, drove us all over town and explained a lot of the local history. She even took us to lunch at this sweet little Russian - Swiss cafe, and acted as our translater the entire time. Hiring a private tour guide isn't something we would normally do, but it wasn't that expensive, and she totally earned every cent we paid her.

(random hard to identify cathedrals)

She took us to countless cathedrals (all of which were stunning), a handful of historically important buildings (all of which I promptly forgot why they were so important. Thank you google for straitening it all out), and pointed out a handful of statues. Those Russians, they love a good statue, they were everywhere we went.

(Statue in front of St. Isaac's cathedral)

Our Russian Adventure Part 1 - Max

While we were in Russia we had 2 short 2 hour visits with Max. It was so good to see our little dude again. He was just like we remembered, minus a few teeth. He was quick to share, as curious as ever, and full of hugs. During our visits with him I was struck by just how much he reminded me of my own children. In addition to gravitating towards the toys and games my kids like he also made a sculpture out of an empty water jug (which my kids do regularly) and made a mudpie out of sticks/leaves/feathers, which is another thing my kids are notorious for. If there was any question before we left that this boy was our son, there wasn't when we left.

Our 2 little playdates consisted of Jory playing with Max and Elissa talking to the translator and the ladies who came from the orphanage. They filled me in on his medical history (which looks good!) and his social history, which is a sad story filled with people who loved him and tried really hard but just didn't have the resources to take care of him.

Our little visits were just what we needed to strengthen our resolve, to finish the good fight, and come out on the other side victorious. There's still much to be done in this adoption process, but we are confident that we can finish with our heads held high and bring this little boy home where he can start his emotional healing process and become the man of God he was created to be.

Home

We are so greatful to be on American soil again. As sweet as our little trip has been it's good to be home where I can communicate with the people around me, read street signs, and drink tap water.

But anyway, I'm sure that you all are excited to hear about our adventure, and we are excited to share with you. Instead of doing one massive brain dump Jory and I have sort of pooled our thoughts into a series of blog posts. So every day next week we'll take an aspect of the trip and scrutinize it, shake it around, turn it upside down and pour it out for you to read. In a way these trips will serve as Max's birth story, so we are trying to be very careful about recording and preserving as much of it as we can, and we figured since we are being so proactive in our records that we might as well share them with you.

The posts won't necessarily be a chronological moment by moment approach, but rather a topic by topic approach, with our thoughts on Russian culture, architecture and best of all, our sweet little boy.

Updates

Hello again from Arkhangelsk! Things over here are still going according to plan. We had our first visit with max yesterday and are planning to have another play date with him today after breakfast.
As far as trips go, this one has been rather enjoyable. Photos have been taken, memories have been made. When I return home I'll be able to go more into depth about all that we've seen and done, but for now I have a couple of one liners that stood as Facebook status updates that pretty much sum up life as it currently stands. Since I know not all of you get those updates (hi Dad!) I thought I should share them here as well... These aren't exactly in chronological order so bear with me...

The Amsterdam airport is cool. It makes my creative brain happy (but we won't talk about the fact that I'd been awake for a full 24 hours when I posted that)
Even at 2 AM it isn't totally dark in Arkhangelsk
(don't ask why I'm on Facebook at 2 AM)
St. Petersburg is a beautiful city, especially when it's 60 degrees and sunny. And you have an awesome tour guide.
Needs to tape a sign to my shirt that says "nyet pa Russky" but thanks for asking.
As nice as this little town is, I don't want to leave my baby here.
A little jealous that Jory got more hugs than I did. But that's ok, because I got photos of most of them.
Max asked to take home our empty water jug. He's definitely a Peterson.

Sent from my iPod

Hello from russia!!

We made it to Russia safe and sound!! Everything is going according to the plan except for my sudden friendship with insomnia (she says at 3 am local time)...
There is so much to share with you but the teeny devise that I'm typing on isnt really made for chattiness... Just know that our hearts are very full of joy and wonder at this thing called Russian culture and we haven't even made contact with our precious max yet... We will do our best to keep you posted as our story unfolds, and will share all our "good" stories when we are home.
God bless!!

Sent from my iPod

We're outta here!

We’re off on a great adventure! Jory and I are on our way to visit our little Max in Russia! We will not actually be going to his orphanage (for political reasons), but he will be brought to us in the town we are staying in.

Please pray for:
our safety in traveling,
the sanity of my parents who are going to wrangle the children while we are gone,
and our hearts as it will surely be very difficult to come home without our son.
The security of our house, which was recently broken into (although there’s not much left of any value…)

first things first

In just over 24 hours I will be getting on a plane to head to Russia to visit our little Max. You would think with a major trip like that on my plate I'd be running around with the prep work, but no. As usual, my yard is beckoning, and having a decent camera within reach for the first time in weeks isn't helping.
My parents loaned me their camera so that we could get some decent shots of Max's homeland, and well I had to try it out to get all the kinks worked out.

yep, I think I got it all figured out.......

Hey Dad - don't be surprised if your camera gets "lost" on it's way back from Russia.....

(nearly) Wordless Wednesday

Make a wish!

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the state of the gardens - may

We've had a healthy dose of sunshine this week, and our garden is responding nicely. Everywhere I look I have new growth and sweet surprises. The apple trees are blooming, and so is my wild geranium. The irises are starting to reveal their buds, and the dill volunteers from last years garden are plentiful.

We are working on getting the seeds into the ground. The cosmos, zinnias, oregano, and chives are all in. Hopefully I'll get to the tomatoes, onions, and delphinium in before too much longer. The pumpkins can wait until all those are in. Last week I managed to plant 20 trees, most of them were lilacs, but it seems like there was something else mixed in with them... (hopefully my mom will chime in to tell us all what they were, since she's the one who gave them to me...) I planted them all on the "wild" side of my yard where things grow slightly unruly and I'm ok with that. I'm hoping they'll all grow together and make an awesome hedge.

The top 50

Hey! I bet you didn't know that our blog was in the top 50 in the Top Mommy Blog ranking system. Your votes keep us there! God is doing amazing things in the Peterson household and we want everyone to hear the fabulous story that God is telling with our lives.
Would you please please please go vote for us again, and remember to vote each time you stop by to catch up on what crazy twist God has just thrown down in our path?
(All you have to do is click on the link in our sidebar. You don't have to register or give them your contact info or anything)



We want to sing until the whole world hears, won't you sing with us?

seeking joy...

Our family took quite the pounding last week, and by Friday we were all a little ragged around the edges. My goal for the weekend was to find joy. Lots and lots of joy and happiness. The crazy magical kind of joy that fills your heart to overflowing, then comes dripping out of your pores. The kind of joy that will stick with you when life gets hard again.
That's what I wanted for Mother's Day.
So on Saturday morning we polled the kids to figure out what would be the most fun way to spend our day. We came up with a free form plan that included our bikes, the park, a yummy dinner, movies from the library, and a tasty treat for desert.
Now we were talking. I saw my first glimpse of that crazy magical joy chasing my daughters down the bike trails at full speed, and another glimpse while throwing the ball around with Alex. Before Saturday was over my joy tank was mostly full, but my quest wasn't quite complete.
I am convinced that friends are one of God's biggest blessings in this life. And a good joy seeking weekend isn't complete without lunch with your dearest friends. We have a family from church who regularly invites us over for Sunday lunch, which usually turns into a game of backyard baseball, cokes on the porch, marshmallows around the fire pit, and the Petersons straggling home at bedtime.
Sunday evening found me snuggled up in bed with a good book, a piece of pie, and a smile on my face. The kind of smile that doesn't wash off easily. My quest was complete. I had found my joy.

back to the craftiness

It's been an interesting week around here. Thanks for sticking with me as we took the time to see God's glory in the situation. But frankly enough is enough, it's time to stop crying over material possessions. It's time to get back to the crafts.
With that said, I made a project last week that turned out so cute I wanted to share it. I swiped my mother's cricut and her give a hoot cartridge and cut out these little cuties to hang in a collection of frames in my bedroom.

(disregard the less than stellar photo, I have a good reason...)

I love the look of quirky, custom made art, but frankly I can't afford it. Also, I get tired of looking at the same things on my walls day after day so it's fun to make something quick and easy (not to mention cheap!) that I can swap out in a few weeks when it's time for something new.

Victory is mine...

I've been thinking a lot about victory this week. Seeking it, searching for it, looking for the teeny little hidden ones that I can string together to make into a beautiful necklace that only I can see. Would you like to see some of the tiny victories that I choose to adorn myself with?

* making healthier eating choices in the morning (fruit for my morning snack instead of cookies). Even skinny girls make bad choices about their foods.
* not giving in to that stupid video game that taunts me all day long, or that email account that doesn't really need to be checked again
* not yelling at my kid that did that horrible thing
* choosing peace instead of pain
* choosing Joy over crankiness
* getting a handful of halfway decent shots with my ancient kodak easy share camera that isn't as horrible as I think it is

What victories are you adorning yourself with today? Leave a comment so we can all rejoice in your victory with you.

But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ 1 Cor. 15:57

(nearly) wordless wednesday

This photo is a little bitter sweet for me as it was one of the last ones I took before my camera was stolen. I look at it as a reminder that God is ready to do something new in our lives and we don't need our old "stuff" anymore.



For I am about to do something new. See, I have already begun! Do you not see it? I will make a pathway through the wilderness. I will create rivers in the dry wasteland.

Isaiah 43:19

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from possessions to promises

Most of the stuff that was taken came out of our master bedroom. I was so sick of walking around in there looking at all the empty spots that remain, which made me feel rather defeated and unloved. So I decided to let God do what he does best. Take something icky and turn it into something awesome.
I scrounged around and came up with some empty frames to fill with some verses that have been speaking to me right now. I've got a couple to share:

Romans 8:37 - In all these things we are MORE THAN CONQUERORS through Him who loved us

James 1:2-4 - Consider it PURE JOY, my brothers, when you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything

Deuteronomy 2:3 - you have circled this mountain long enough. Now turn north.
(That one is a little random, but frankly I'm sick of circling my mountain of defeat, and am ready to head north towards joy)

Revelation 3:8 - See I have placed before you an open door that no one can shut

and perhaps my favorite, the promise that I've been clinging to since last October:
Joshua 1:9 - Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid. Do not be discouraged. For God is with you wherever you go.

Take that stupid thief. You can steal my stuff, but you can't steal my joy. It's mine and you can't have it.

Annoyed and disappointed. But not angry.

If you haven't already heard, the Peterson clan has been robbed. We were at a friends house when a couple of punk kids carried away with a few big ticket items, (our last working tv, Ipod and docking station, and my camera). It wasn't a total clean out, they considered my laptop but left it behind (even though it was easily worth more than what they did take). They played with Jory's fancy motorcycle jack in the garage, but ignored the Harley and my dad's BMW. There were several big ticket items that were out in the open that they walked right past. We have to chuckle about how they took the time to search for things in certain rooms, but ignored obvious things in other rooms.
In light of our current financial difficulties, and the already mounting stress due to our adoption issues, what can I say in a moment like this? How do you tell your kids their piggy banks were stolen? With grace and dignity. We do not define ourselves by our posessions. The Peterson family defines themselves by their obedience to God. We've said it before, we'll say it again. We are not victims, we are fighters. And it's going to take more than this to knock us down.
But I hope those kids liked their 7:00 wake up call to K-LOVE when the alarm clock on my Ipod went off this morning (which it does whether it has power or not) and watch out for that camera, it was on it's last leg 10,000 pictures ago. Oh, and don't get me started on that tv. To say it's a lemon is an understatement.