CHILDREN OF THE HEART

I found the love of my life 4 days before my 40th birthday. We celebrated my birthday together at a beautiful Georgian Restaurant overlooking the Moscow River while a strolling violinist regailed us with beautiful Russian chamber music. Yes, my husband was there as well, and No, he wasn't jealous; he was also in love. We had just found the child of our hearts. My daughter was born in a town 2 &1/2 hours (by plane) outside of Moscow called Saratov. We spent 3 days visiting her in the hospital orphanage where we traveled 3 hours one way by taxi from our hotel, which sat along side the scenic Volga River. We dined on caviar and sturgeon every evening (it is incredibly cheap there) and drank the most fabulous vodka( I needed the 12 step program upon our return!)and learned to toast like native Russians. We sapped up the culture and memorialized as much as we could in pictures and videos and kept pinching each other to make sure that this was all real. We visited beautiful churchs and learned Russian history but only my husband was able to "master" the language. I smiled sweetly, nodded a lot and attempted "please" and "thank you" when necessary. Mind you, I was the one prior to our trip,listening to the tapes and videos paying a fortune for the Rosetta Stone series, but my romance language trained brain and heritage kept trying to make non phonetic words come out phonetically. My husband grabbed a travel dictionary and he was off and running, locating important spots such as bathrooms,restaurants and museums,impressing the Russians with his efforts. The Russian people are warm and personalble and truly love Americans. They appreciate our styles and admire our culture. In order to finalize the adoption we had to appear in a Russian courtroom and address the judge. I was terrified until our translator advised me that a NY lawyer was much more intimidating to a Russian judge and that I should just relax. Female attorneys were there to plead our case to the judge telling him in Russian why we needed to get back to the States as soon as possible in order to facilitate the healthcare needs of the child. At the time we were unaware, but my daughter was suffering from a double ear infection and a parasite known as Giardia had made its way into her intestines and was wreaking its havoc throughout her bowls. The judge asked us to make a personal statement and after I spoke, he was amused that in each case that morning, it had been the wife who had spoken on behalf of each couple while the husbands stood there in silent support. The judge waived the two week wait period and allowed all of the couples that morning to return to the States with their children as soon as the visas were obtained. The ensuing days involved a lot of rushing around to get passport pictures and a passport for my daughter as well as obtaining the all important visas back to the United States. The adoption agency passes you brown envelop with express orders not to let anyone open it until you arrive in the States. Not knowing the contents but assuming it is immigration paperwork and not understanding the consequences of any prior opening(and at that point not really caring to find out) turns this already tension filled return trip into a movie thriller. None of the Russian immigration agents was interested in the envelop and apparently they were well aware of its importance in the United States, so we passed through the always frightening international immigration process unscathed. There is a direct flight from Moscow to JFK, NY, known as the hell flight. It is regularly used by adoptive parents returning home with their children. More often than not the children are cranky,and or ill which involves 12 hours of screaming, crying and aisle walking in an attempt to sooth these youngsters so overwhelmed and frightened by all this travel and other ailments. We had been advised that upon landing at JFK our children would be American citizens. There was not a dry eye on that plane as each parent kissed their child as we disembarked from the plane onto American soil. The wonderful immigration employees greeted each family and child with a Welcome Home smile and greeting, causing us all to once again remember why we are so proud to call ourselves Americans. We re-adopted my daughter a few months later in our local family court more out of convenience than necessity. Now we can easily obtain any birth records from Albany as opposed to writing to Saratov Russia. We have saved all our documents and pictures and my daughter is well aware that she was born in Russia and that she was waiting there for us. At six years old however, the concept of Russia is a little complex for her. Just when I think she understands where it is ( yes we have showed her a map and a globe) she will point to the towers at the university of Stony Brook and ask if that is Russia! The road which led us to our daughter and the concept of adoption was difficult, but now I understand that it was all meant to be. My husband still shakes his head when he looks into her eyes, and sees my eye color and her hair which is the exact shade as mine. More importantly, he shakes his head harder as she claps her hands to get his attention demanding his actions immediately.......yes, he says just like her mother.
Today is my daughter's sixth birthday.....Happy Birthday Baby...