Annie
Monday was extremely eventful! We found Julianna and met with her. She is very cute. We promise to write more in detail in a future blog. We are exhausted! Tuesday we spend time with her again. Also, you can see pictures with her on our site. Until later...
Annie
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Today is truly a day of rest. We did walk on the back street a little bit…thought we saw a music store, only to learn that is was like a café with musical instruments in the window.
It is amazing how many old buildings there are here. Some of the buildings have been refurbished. Some look like they should be condemned. It doesn’t appear that there are venture capitalist hanging around to just dump money into this city. Again, our view is from Pogarsky Street and the surrounding streets. We are meeting up with Bill and Crystal, our new friends from Texas. While we wait, Kenny is pretending to read a Russian magazine. His humor has really been a plus on this venture to find Julianna. Tomorrow is the day…appointment at 9:00am. We will know something, and God willing, we will have visited an orphanage…I hope Julianna’s. More news as we have it… Annie Customs are interesting here. Since Kenny and I have limited experience with traveling outside the 50 states, we have found it very interesting how we receive our “change” when we pay for anything at a store. Once we hand the cashier the amount requested, any change and the receipt is placed on a sort of plate that is in front of us. The cashier does not hand us the money directly. We thought that this was only at Subway. The grocery store does the same, as well as the toy store where we bought Julianna’s toys. The only exception that we have found to this custom is the street vendors. They take your rubels and exchange directly back to your hand.
Other customs that are noteworthy include: We have also noticed that females of all ages have no issue walking holding hands or locking arms. We have seen no signs of men walking with their jeans hanging to their knees. On this particular street, after 7:00pm or so, amateur musicians “set up shop.” Young people play guitars, violins, even bongo drums we have heard. Most of these people put out a hat or box and people make donations. Some just play to play. Clothes dryers seem to be a rare commodity. Pressing clothing is often required because after clothes are washed, they are hung to dry. For anyone traveling to this region, the next comment is worth committing to memory. One item that we will remember to bring next time is toilet tissue. They do have it, but the yellow pages from the phone book are softer. Consequently, we bought some softer stuff at the local grocery store. Next time, “Charmin” will be in our bag! We are committed to writing in this blog each day. Today is Saturday. We have no news about our adoption. We both slept extra today, not needing to worry about getting up to talk with Sveta or go to the MOE.
We’ve noticed that Saturdays are a slower day here where we are in Nizhniy Novgorod. Of course, we are not sure what it is like in the mall, which is in the lower end of the city across the bridge. We visited the mall yesterday in anticipation of our trip to see Julianna. The toy store was interesting…yes, we did find a toy store. It had some popular toys, but was not nearly as large as a ToyRUs Store. We bought some interesting toys to take with us to engage Julianna in play…like a brightly colored shape sorter, a picture book of Winnie the Pooh in Russian that plays popular children’s tunes, a mama bear with her cub, a small ball, crayons and color book, bubbles, and a finger puppet of a lion attached to a book. I think this will be interactive and enough for us to engage her and learn a little about her, too. Today, we rest a bit….unless God has other plans! Since the inception of our adoption journey, I have received signs, or so I thought, from God, that we were on the path that He wanted us to take. A few days ago, after a long day, Kenny felt that he had not received a “sign” from God like I had. What he and I didn’t know is that his sign would come on Friday afternoon in the most unsuspecting way.
Before jaunting to the “great steps” we stopped outside of the internet café so that I could use the skype account, checking internet accessibility. It was not in service. We opted to walk to the steps and then try the internet later in the day. When we arrived back at the internet, we met our favorite waitress, Victoria. She brought our green mint tea, and we began to skype. After about 30 minutes, a married couple approached us and introduced themselves to us as Americans from the great state of Texas. They told us their names (Crystal and Bill), where they were from, and that they were here, too, for the purpose of adoption. The next words out of Crystal’s mouth were, “We’re Catholic and we’re headed to church, would you like to come?” Kenny practically bounded out of the chair with a “yes,” as we had been asking Sveta earlier that day to help us find the Catholic Church. Packing up our electronics, we eagerly followed Bill and Crystal to the Catholic Church in Nizhniy Novgorod. Conversations in English with someone who was having a similar experience and were American was a blessing…and they were Catholics that wanted to go to daily Mass. The church was on a back street off our typical path. Yet, we had passed it many times on our way to Subway. When we entered the inside, a young woman was leading the rosary. There was an older Russian woman, two sisters, and a deacon reciting the rosary with this young woman. Then, they prayed the Divine Mercy novena. Father Mario, the pastor, was in the back corner in an open confessional. Interestingly, he had asked permission from his bishop to come to Russia in 1996 for only one year. He has been here ever since. He is well known in the area of Russia. Before Mass, Father spoke to Bill and Crystal and they introduced us to Father Mario. He thanked us for coming to Russia to adopt a child. As Mass began, a blind man who was definitely a Russian Orthodox, came into the church. I think we were in his seat, so Bill helped him to the other side near the old Russian woman. Father Mario celebrated the Mass in Russian. Many parts of the Mass were sung. He did read the gospel in English, as well as Russian. Father also gave his homily in both languages. One of the sisters played the organ and the other sister sang. Communion was in both forms - body and precious blood. Before the final blessing, Father Mario called Kenny and me and our new friends to the front of the alter. Prior to Mass, one of the Sisters had brought out a small silver bucket of holy water and two of something. We learned very quickly it was for us. Father prayed over us for the adoptions, he blessed us with Holy Water, and presented us with beautiful pictures of the Risen Christ. We were given small candles and asked to light them (of course, I extinguished the main source and it had to be relit…a little levity to the tears that were welling up). We placed our candles and returned to our seats for the final blessing. I remember looking at Kenny and saying, “I think this is your sign.” After Mass, Father Mario gave us a gift of incense for our home parish and invited us and the other couple to have tea with him at the rectory, which was above the church. We spent about 90 minutes sharing our stories and learning about the church history and Father Mario. The remainder of the evening we spent with Bill and Crystal sharing our stories and experiences and introducing them to some Russian food, since they had only eaten McDonalds. When we toasted at our meal, Crystal said “God is good.” Of course, you know I responded, “All the time.” And then we continued with “All the time,” and “God is good.” (Hmmm, for those of you that know me in my role as principal, you’re probably thinking,… another sign…?) Sometimes God’s signs are subtle, and sometimes,…. He hits you over the head with the sign. For Kenny and I, there was no mistaking that this entire event was a sign of affirmation for the decision that we have made. After learning the news on Friday that the MOE would not permit us to look at referrals, Kenny was determined to go “see” something in this city of 1.5 million people. Using a map we had purchased the evening before at the bookstore, Kenny navigated us toward the riverbank side of the city near the Kremlin. As we approached the great steps (I’m sure there’s another name for them), we saw a bride and groom walking toward us. We noticed on the street that there were several cars decorated ornately with white netting filled with fresh flowers in a V shape on the hood of the cars. One of the cars had what appeared to be large double wedding rings intertwined standing on end with lots of fresh flowers on the top of the car. The bride and groom had only about eight people with them who were not dressed in matching gowns and tuxes like a wedding in the US. We think they may just have been friends or relatives. The girls had simple dresses and the men had suits of different kinds. There were not an equal number of men and women. So…we thought to ourselves, “Oh, isn’t Friday afternoon a great time of day to get married.”
What we didn’t realize is that at least fifteen other couples had the same idea. There TGIF was GMOF (Get Married On Friday). The brides wore beautiful gowns with no trains. Most of the women had short white jackets that they wore over top of their gowns. The grooms’ attires were suits of varying shades. All the brides carried simple nosegays of flowers. No one else carried flowers. No boutonnières for the grooms. The maid of honor and best man wore red sashes signifying their roles in the ceremony. We didn’t see any actual ceremonies occur. We think it was “after the wedding” photos, as most couples had private photographers taking pictures of them on the great stairs, using the river and countryside as a background. If you look at our pictures, you can see why. I asked Kenny to take pictures of these young couples as we encountered them. They were beautiful, refreshing, and in love. We have come to the conclusion that this experience is all an exercise in trust.
Trusting God, trusting others, trusting ourselves,…trust! Sveta spent time with us today and has assured us that we are registered with the MOE and will definitely be allowed to look at referrals (aka JULIANNA) on Monday @ 9:00am. She said that the registration part is the hardest and if you recall, only Mondays and Wednesdays are visitation days at MOE. Today was not a “real” visitation day, they were making an exception for us. In light of the situation that occurred with the adopted Russian boy being sent back to Russia on a plane, the MOE was not in a position to make an exception for ANY Americans. So- We were candid with Sveta and told her that we only had so many days left to meet Julianna and that our time was running short. We indicated that if we hadn’t met her by Friday, that we would be leaving. Sveta said that she would not encourage us to stay if this was not going to happen (sorry, Sr. Rita…I know there’s a double negative in that sentence). We must trust Sveta who has been great to us and helpful. We must trust that this is God’s plan for us. We simply must trust. If anyone ever doubted that his/her actions didn’t affect others, than this blog’s for you!!!
Sveta called us at 9:30am this morning to say that we are not able to see the referrals at 10:00am as planned. Why? A “stupid American” adopted a child from Russia and didn’t want the child anymore. So what did the “stupid American” do, put the child on a plane and sent the child back to Russia with a note that said, “I made a mistake.” Needless to say, the actions of this individual are reverberating across Russia today, therefore it’s not an opportune time to walk into the MOE asking to see referrals. ( We have been told that the MOE has now changed the process of adoption, ever so slightly. Prior to yesterday’s “stupid American” incident, Tatiana could have signed the referral for us to go to the orphanage to see Julianna. NOW, Tatiana no longer has that authority. Only the Deputy Minister can do this. What does mean for the Licatas? We have an appointment at 9:00am on Monday morning, April 12, to see the referrals and Julianna will be one of them. We will be able to go to the orphanage that very day (or so we’ve been told). We will be able to complete this process by Friday, April 16, Kenny’s birthday. We thank all of you for your prayers and support during this process thus far. We ask that you continue to send them our way, but in a special way pray for the “stupid American” that sent this poor child back to Russia. And please pray for the child. What a tragedy for those directly involved, but more so for the many American families that are in the midst of a Russian adoption. If you’re bored, check our site over the weekend. We’ll be making lots of updates with plenty of time on our hands. http://www.newkerala.com/news/fullnews-86092.html Svetalana connected with us at 5:30pm and has told us that the MOE is having us come tomorrow at 10:00am. Svetlana is to call us first at 9:30. We are to look at referrals when we arrive. We are gathering our strength for this process, as we know that no matter how hard we try, we will probably not be prepared emotionally for the next step of the journey. With over 6600 older orphans alone in this region of Russia, only one little child, whom we hope will be Julianna, will be able to come home with us on our return visit. Stay tune for more to come tomorrow…it’s only a day away!
The form of currency here in Russia is the “rubel”. The exchange rate is approximately 29 rubels to 1 USD. Each morning, we have exchanged a $100 bill -no wrinkles or tears - at Citibank, where we receive somewhere around 2900 or so rubels. The paper denominations come in 1,000, 500, 100, 50, and 10. Th e coins are 5 and 1. There are coins smaller than rubels called kopeek. They come in .5 of a rubel, .10, and .01. The 1 kopeek is very rare.
Annie finds money on the street everyday - no fail! One day, she found 3 coins. The largest coin that she has found is 1 rubel. The smaller kopeeks are everywhere. When we shop or buy a meal, we do a quick conversion in our head. We typically say that 30 rubels = $1. Therefore, something that costs 100 rubels is a little bit more than $3 of our American money. (See, your math estimation skills are important!) For example, each morning, our breakfast at the restaurant is 130 rubels for each of us, or 260 total. When you do the math, it comes out to a little more than $4/person or about $11 total with a tip of 15%. We priced some items in the downtown shopping district. I think the prices are comparable in some of the cities in the US. Certainly the prices of the same items in Central Pennsylvania are well below what the prices are here. A pair of sneakers in the Reebok store that I looked at cost close to $200. I think in the US, they would probably be close to $100. Our Lipton tea at Subway is 50 rubels, or about $1.75. I tthink that would be comparable in a fast food restaurant. Tonight we went to a bookstore and bought a wooden lacing puzzle for Angelo (don’t tell him, kids!). It cost 180 rubels or about $6. If I could find that puzzle at home, I might get it for $5 or maybe even more. I thought the price was very reasonable. There’s a store here that we call the Russian equivalent to Claires. There were no novelty items; however, there were many pairs of cheaper stilettos and high heeled boots. We noticed they sold cute little jewelry bags like the ones Miss Mahoney buys in bulk from e-bay. I thought the cost was reasonable. Maybe they got them from China. We are planning to bring some Russian rubels and kopeeks back to our children. |