A day to mourn

If you've spent any time online lately I'm sure you've heard about Putin's final act, signing a bill that effectively sealed the fates of hundreds of thousands of Russian orphans. Children we have personally met, held, and prayed over.

What do you say in a moment like this, when there are no words to be found.   When you hug your Russian born child all day long, as your mourn for his best friends who no longer stand a chance of finding a home in our country?

We do the only thing we can do, pray.

We pray for all the lives affected by such a serious decision. Surely there are millions of souls who mourn with us today - both American, and Russian.

We pray for a spark, a shift in attitude, a subtle change that will reopen hearts that have been slammed closed. We ask for ears that will hear the pleas of the needy and reconsider. We ask that they will think about the big picture of the decision and not see the problem through their own eyes.

We ask that God would draw near to the millions that are also mourning, that He would take this time to pull those in need close to his side. That He would reveal Himself to the lowly, the way He revealed Himself to our son.

And mostly we need to remember that it really isn't our job as Americans to fix Russia's problems. It's not our job to rescue, save, or restore. Those things can only come from the healing that Christ brings. We need to remember to take our loss to the cross and leave it there.

One of my favorite mantras from our adoption process is: God has a perfect plan, and this is a part of it. We don't have to like it, but we do have to accept it. With those words in mind as I spend my day in mourning, holding my son for as long as he can stand me, I'll choose to be thankful. Thankful that my heart was stirred in time to do something about his needs. Thankful that God chose to bring hope to this one. And thankful that God has a perfect plan for the others.

Will you join me?

(nearly) wordless wednesday

State Historical Museum, Red Square

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A taste of home...

One of my favorite thing about our time in Russia is eating pelmeni, a simple dish, easy to cook and loved by children. We like to think of it as the social equivalent as Kraft mac 'n' cheese. Our friends in St. Petersburg introduced us to it, and ever since then we've been dreaming about it. But alas, the super easy to fix premade kind is not really available here in the states. Of course.
For Christmas I received a pelmeni maker, but hadn't gotten around to using it until recently. I"m not much of a cook, and making meat filled dumplings from scratch just sounded way labor intensive. But I ended up with a free Saturday I decided to give it a chance. I'm not going to lie. It was labor intensive. It's the sort of thing you take an entire day to make several batches and freeze them for another day.
But we found this video which shows how to make it using the traditional method, in addition to using the same type of maker I have

You can find the recipe here.

I can't say the other children were terribly impressed, but Max and I both gobbled it up. The recipe was spot on, they tasted just like the ones I had in Russia.
The Pelmeni maker was easy to use, and rather fun to play with once we got the hang of the dough thickness.
So yes, having something that Max recognized for lunch was a joy, as was sharing one of his favorite meals with the rest of my family. Even if they weren't all that impressed.

Jory and I are already thinking of ways to make our own versions with cheese and perhaps some tex-mex flavored meat.

(nearly) wordless wednesday

One of several Russian Castles, Moscow

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On becoming an American.

So our little Max is losing his Russian, and we're having mixed emotions about it. On one hand we love his Russian. Jory loves being called "Papa" and doesn't particularly want to transition to having all 4 kids call him "daddy". There are a handful of Russian terms that we all use that we are  hoping to continue using as a part of our Russian/American heritage - gouchet for eating, plavitz-ing for swimming etc.
On the other hand its a relief to think that I won't always have to introduce him as "my son who doesn't speak English". While it is a fun an interesting conversation piece, it sort of casts a faint shadow over our relationship. Instead of just being one of us, he's the outsider. One of these things is not like the others. And that's not ok. We look forward to a day when the casual observer will see a unified family of six instead of 5 Americans and a Russian.
So as we move forward with our "Russian-American" heritage we strive for a balance between letting Max let go of his heritage and making a bigger deal of it than he wants us to make.

(nearly) Wordless Wednesday

Kazan Cathedral, Red Square

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(nearly) wordless wednesday

Gum Department Store, Red Square

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(nearly) Wordless Wednesday

So very Russian... 

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(nearly) Wordless Wednesday

The backside of the Kremlin, Moscow

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(nearly) wordless wednesday

St. Basil's Cathedral, Moscow

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(Nearly) Wordless Wednesday

Peter and Paul Fortress, St. Petersburg Russia

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Wordless Wednesday

On any given corner in Russia... 
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(nearly) Wordless Wednesday

Red Square isn't red...

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Current articles

I have some articles that I've written for an online news source that I haven't shared with you. Here are links to some of the recent ones I've written:


Celebrating Chinese culture in your adopted child - there are lots of cultural events going on in and around Ohio in 2012 you should check out

Celebrating your adopted child's African American heritage - keep your child's heritage alive with these  local cultural events

Local schools celebrate red ribbon week. - how do local schools celebrate such a noteworthy week?

Celebrating your adopted child's Russian heritage through local cultural events - we'll be at a few of these events... will you?

Adoption blogger spotlight - who are the best of the best adoption bloggers?

Happy reading!

(Nearly) Wordless Wednesday

adventures in Moscow...

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Tales from our travels

If you've been following this blog for a while, you know that I have a tendency to recycle status updates from facebook to help recap moments from our various adventures. Since this was a rather long trip, I thought I'd share a days worth of posts regarding our adventures in traveling today, and share some others about Max tomorrow.


We spent most of our trip in Arkhangelsk - a smaller town not far from the Arctic circle, and a few days in Moscow. We were in the country for 10 days total.

Some day I'm going to miss these quirky Russian sitcoms that almost make sense

Pulled a Stacey Rees today by wiping out in the snow in my sturdy "Americanka" boots while the Russian ladies walk around the same icy sidewalks in stilettos. Go figure. I think those spiked heals are part ice pick. But you didn't hear it from me.

Here I am 100 miles from the arctic circle in the middle of an arctic storm wearing a tank top and bare feet. Why? Because we had to close the window to keep max from throwing stuff out of it.






Only in northern Russia do you find people wearing snow pants in an airport when it's 35 degrees and barely 1/4 inch of snow on the ground.

As much as I've grown to love little Arkhangelsk I'm psyched to head out to Moscow in the morning!



It's a beautiful morning here in Moscow! Excited to get out and see what's going on! 

Walked all the way down the tourists walk to Red Square and St. Basil's. Aside from a little wind, it was a fantastic morning. Wore max out enough that he's actually sitting down to watch tv. Tomorrow we try out the subway. Just for kicks.

Just so you know Red Square is neither red nor square in shape. Go figure



Found the 7 story shopping mall around the corner from our apartment here in Moscow, rode up and down every single escalator we could find.


Today's adventures in Moscow include finding the Harley Davidson store, where t-shirts are a measly $100 a piece, making friends on a neighborhood playground, and finding the other 2 castles that are within walking distance of our apartment.


So we met this grandpa while we were waiting to get on the plane, and he took a real liking to Max, cause he's just cute like that, and this fellow came back to check in on max 2x during our 8 hour flight from Amsterdam to Detroit. The second time he came with m & m's. Now he was on the other end of the plane, so he had no idea that max was not coping so well with the stress of sitting still that long, nor did he realize that moments before he showed up with the candy I was this close to locking max in the bathroom or something equally horrible. I think someone was praying for us.


All I can say is that we made it home without causing an "international incident." There were moments on the trip I was sure we this close to being the next news headline (like the time Max nearly kicked out the window on our 7th floor apt, and I was so frustrated that I didn't really care!) but we made it! and we're home!!

(nearly) Wordless Wednesday - Russian edition

When in Russia...

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(nearly) Wordless Wednesday

 

 Live from the Motherland...

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Updates from our travels in Russia

We made it home safely from our trip to Russia! Perhaps the best way to summarize our trip is to go back through our facebook posts and share some key ones, here are a few that are in mostly chronological order: 

Grown men should not wear sweatpants in public. Not even if they are European. Or at an airport. Yuck dude. 

Why do the Russians like such tiny cups what I wouldn't do for a big gulp right about now.

Treated to a day out on the town in St. Petersburg local style thanks to our friends the Siegels, we took both the subway and the trolley and had some awesome cheese pie before they helped us find the Harley Store.

My son was put in a new orphanage last month. Not allowed to see this one either.They moved him because of school related issues. My baby is finally in the big kid school and not nursery school.

We had a nice two hour visit with Max, but when it was time to go I don't like giving my son back to the orphanage staff. I'd much rather bring him home where he belongs. 

So my last meal as a mother of 3 consisted of cat food, yodeling pirates, angry birds and a rock star. It was quite the meal.

When preparing for our court hearing we refused to let anxiety get a toe hold. No sweaty palms here. We decided to just wing it in court. Worked pretty well until we forgot our closing argument. Oops.  

Before time began I was given a 4th child named Maxim Joryevich. Born from another and written in our hearts. Today that 4th child legally joined our family. THE JUDGE SAID YES!!

My som comes with his own apartment. No joke, he inherited it from someone. Sadly we can't go to it (because it's in a restricted city) and the adoption agency has no idea what we should do with it. We tried to pass it off to his father but the judge wouldn't let us. Hopefully we can sell it and put the $ aside somehow.

After our court hearing in Arkhangelsk we spent some more time hanging around St. Petersburg. We  met up with our friends again, who took us to the mini city, the fortress of Peter and Paul, and cooked us a traditional Russian meal of Pelmeni, tomatoes, cheese and bread. Yum.


On our way back to the states, our driver dropped us off at the wrong airport. Fortunately some nice lady from the airport took pity on us dumb foreigners and helped us figure out where we needed to be and how to get there. 


On the way home, our hotel from St P'burg packed us a delightful sack lunch. Sadly I forgot to eat my orange and it was confiscated by border security in Detroit. Bummer. It looked really yummy. 

HOME! Ice cold coke has never tasted so good.

Get out of Dodge

Today's the big day!
We're headed out to St. Petersburg Russia, for a brief pitstop before we head on to Arkhangelsk. The current plan is to have some time with Max while we prepare for court on Monday, and have our court hearing on Tuesday. If you're awake in the middle of the night around 2 am (which will be around 10 am in Russia, and we'll be waiting to see the judge) and wanna pray for us that'd be great! Otherwise just pray before you go to bed :)
We'll be back in the states on Thurs while we wait to take custody. So check back Friday for some kind of update. We'll probably wait until the whole thing is said and done to do a complete recap, but who knows. We're sort of just winging it at this point.
With that, we're off!