Archive for the ‘On the road’ Category
These past few days have been days of discovery for us. I’ll not spend a lot of time on things, but it’s been eye-opening.
- We’ve met a Spanish couple and a single French woman who are adopting from this same orphanage. The Spanish couple met their son for the first time in 2007. We met our son in April. The whole process for us has been long, but these folks have really had a hard time of it. The woman from France is lovely and is adopting a beautiful little girl, but she’s having a hard time connecting with the girl. Roman was uneasy with us at first, but now we’re a “normal” part of his life.
- One of his caregivers, Svieta, truly cares for Roman. For his birthday this year she gave him a little golden cross. Today she earnestly asked if we would mind taking the cross with Roman so he would have a memory of her. Of course we said yes. We also got her mailing address so we can send pictures so she can continue to share in his life.
- Today the photo album we made when we were here in April reappeared. It’s obvious that they have been showing it to him. He was so excited and flipped through the pages, naming mama & papa, mama & roman, papa & roman, pointing to our house and saying “dom!” (house), pointing to our parents and naming them baba and dyeda (babushka, grandmother, and dyedushka, grandfather). He wouldn’t let go of the album for the better part of an hour. Whenever we moved from one part fo the room to the next, he was clutching the picture book and he really objected when he thought someone was trying to take it from him.
- He’s quite comfortable riding in a stroller and he even got concerned when I began to push the stroller before his seatbelt was fastened. This bodes well for the airport.
Tomorrow’s a busy day trying to get paperwork done as fast as we can.
Like father, like son…
Now that court is done in Russia, we’ve escaped to Istanbul for a few days. There’s little for us to do in Russia until the Judge’s ruling becomes effective. We can’t get our child yet (because the Judge’s ruling hasn’t taken effect). Besides, the highs have been in the low double digits in Ekat this past week and we desperately need to thaw out.
Here are a few pictures of Topkapi Palace from earlier today:
Caligraphy at the gates of the inner palace
Views of the outside of the Throne Room pavilion
Inside the Throne Room pavilion
Inside the innermost court of the palace where only the Sultan could go
A beautiful fountain in the innermost court
Some of the most impressive sights were forbidden to photograph. There are several rooms with holy relics such as swords of the Caliphs, golden rainspouts from the Kabbah in Mecca, the Mantel of the Prophet Mohammed, jewelry that makes your eyes pop and so on. May of the items from Mecca were brought to Istanbul when they “wore out” and were replaced; such holy things were not discarded, rather they were placed into storage and are now on display some 400 to 1300 years later.
Someone asked me to give a little more information on our court experience and on what happens now. It’s a good suggestion, and if I don’t write it down chances are that I will forget.
The court hearing was held in a very modern building in a spartan, but comfortable room. There were 8 people in the room:
- My wife and me
- An interpreter
- The head doctor of the orphanage
- A social worker reporting on our interaction with the child and delivering a recommendation if the adoption was in the best interest of the child
- The Judge
- A Prosecutor, whose role is to listen to the proceeding and see that the law is followed
- A court recorder
All, except the recorder could speak, though the interpreter didn’t deliver testimony. All had the right to ask for questions to be repeated, and to ask questions of other participants.
Orphans in Russia have the right to be adopted, so the hearing was to determine if our petition for adoption was in the best interest of the child.
The hearing began with introduction of all participants, an introduction of the purpose, some other administrativa. We then spoke, first me and then Rachel. Our “speech” gave our motivation to adopt, the timeline of our adoption activities in Russia, a description of our trips and meeting with the child, our parental philosophy, preparation to parent, our understanding of the medical condition of the child, our understanding of the legal consequences of the adoption and our legal responsibilities, a description of our home, etc. It was prepared from a list of questions and issues provided by our agency.
My part lasted approximately 20 minutes (40 with translation), and then Rachel spoke for approximately 10 minutes. Throughout, the Judge would interject with questions as she saw fit. After Rachel was done speaking, the Prosecutor opted to question her further for a total of about 20 minutes (with translation).
After we spoke, first the Social Worker, then the Head Doctor spoke. We learned some additional history of our boy through their testimony.
By 11:00 (the hearing started at approximately 9:20), all but the judge exited the room while the Judge quickly deliberated her ruling. At 11:10 we were called back in and she delivered her ruling. It was all quite businesslike and, in some places, I rather got the impression that participants were going through the motions of a ceremony that had been repeated so many times.
We understand that the Judge could be quite harsh with her questioning. Her questions for us were quite reasonable and few, and focused mostly on confirming we understood our obligations, had been given medical information, and understood what care for our child was required, given the medical information.
The preparation for this even was quite stressful. It was the focus of our lives for 8 months. Now that it is over, we need to re-focus on doing what is needed to become a family.
On our trip out here, we had a long layover in Frankfurt. It seems every flight east that doesn’t go through London goes through Frankfurt. It’s a big airport, but gets a lot of volume, so it is almost always busy and crowded.
This time, we decided to take advantage of our layover and sightsee a little. Once we landed, we checked in to ensure that our connecting flight was still on schedule, rearranged our carryon so we could check most of it in the left-luggage stand at the airport, and then jumped on a train that went up the Rhein to Mainz.
Mainz is a long-established city (thousands of years old) and the part we saw is a charming collection of platz’ surrounded by pretty buildings, connected by small streets. The city is most noted for is honored son, Gutenberg, of printing press fame. One of the churches in the city has a set of stained-glass windows designed by Marc Chagalle; they were the last windows he did before he died, and they honestly look like watercolor paintings captured in glass. The subtle variations and softness in the colors is amazing!
In the main platz near the cathedral the Christmas market (Fasnachtmarkt (I think!)) was set up and full of people out socializing. The booths selling Gleuwien and roast chestnuts were the most popular, however you could find every kind of food, sweet, or craft you wanted if you just looked enough. There were lots of tourists, yes, but there were a lot of Meentzers too.
After walking around for a couple hours, it felt good to sit and enjoyed a cup of Gleuwien, before winding our way back to the train station to catch our flight out to Ekaterinburg.
Made it this morning and had a couple good hours at the orphanage today. We’re exhausted, but off to a good start. Much playing was done by all.
Off we go. The adventure of a lifetime begins.
Some pictures from Ha Long Bay, in the north of Vietnam. This place isn’t far from Hai Phong, and is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It’s absolutely stunning and these pictures don’t do it justice at all.
There are caves on some of the islands, and we got into one. The shapes of the stalagmites were so organic it was eerie!
I’ve been up early most mornings and have gone for a walk around the lake (Hoan Kiem) that is near my hotel. Every morning the path that goes around the lake is full of people walking, streaching, doing Tai Chi, lifting weights and being social. Most of the sidewalks around the neighborhood are marked off in badmitten courts and at 6:00am most are set up and full of foursomes playing.