New Beginnings

This is the first post to my blog about my journey to meet my children in Birobidzhan, Russia. I can't believe this is finally happening, it seems surreal. After almost two years of waiting, applications, paperwork, waiting, fingerprints, arguments with the first agency, lawyer's, threatened lawsuits, notaries, apostilles, more waiting, more fingerprints, signing with a new agency, did I say more waiting?, I am finally on my way to Russia! I got "the" call on Friday, November 3rd, 2006 that I have been invited by the Ministry of Education in the Jewish Autonomous Region of Russia to come and meet my two, beautiful, soon to be children ! We will be traveling to Moscow, Russia on November 18th, 2006 and then on to Birobidzhan on November 22nd and will meet my children on Thanksgiving day, I could not ask for a more perfect day to meet them. My sister Gail has agreed to travel with me, we are both excited, apprehensive and scared, all at the same time.

The children that I hope to call my own are in an orphanage in Birobidzhan, Russia. The little boy just turned 3 years old on October 12, and the little girl is about 4 1/2 years old, she will be five on March 3rd (two days before my birthday). Russia does not make this an easy process, they require that you first come and meet your children and then decide if these really are the children you want for your "forever family"; they then bring you back a second time to stand before a judge and formally adopt these kids; the judge will hopefully rule in your favor after asking A LOT of questions, but he/she can also say no, I can't even imagine how devastating that would be. I would like to think if you made it so far as to go to court, that it would be pretty much a done deal.

After almost two years of waiting, you would think I would be totally prepared for this trip, wrong!! I am a shopping maniac this weekend, so much to buy, not exactly sure what to get. I have to bring "try on" outfits for the kids, just to see what size they are, I will donate those to the orphanage when we leave, toys for the children in the orphanage; I am thinking no battery operated toys as those might be hard to keep up with. I am also told no plush toys as they are germ magnets. This should be so simple, but it really isn't. I need to bring 10 gifts with me for all the people who are helping with this adoption on the Russia side, the agency says not to give anything too elaborate, but what to get for people who are so instrumental in creating a family for you? A scarf or gloves just does not seem adequate. I also need to get a video camera, looking for one that is easy to operate for someone who is technically challenged. The last thing I need is to take all these once in a lifetime videos, only to find I didn't take the lens cap off or something stupid like that.

I will try and find some links to the history of the region, kind of interesting and also a map. Birobidzhan is in the far eastern portion of Russia, about a nine hour flight from Moscow, it is 16 hours ahead of us here in the central time zone, it is also about 25 miles from the China border. Not an easy trip to get to, but oh so worth it.



Okay, well off to more shopping!

Jane