1st trip recap

We are home again in Kansas.  Our boys are still with family in NE celebrating Thanksgiving so we will get some catch up sleep in before they get back.  We had a wonderful first part of our journey.  We will be anxiously waiting and missing our little girl until we get the call to come back for court.  After court, we will come back to the US for about 2 weeks then return to bring her home for good.  We are estimating court will be late January as all governmental agencies shut down for 2 weeks for their big holiday time the first of January.  There is a tiny chance it could come sooner but only time will tell.  She is a wonder, perfect, little princess and will be missing her very much.  We were very pleasantly surprised with her orphanage.  It was remarkably clean and the director and nannies were very caring. The nannies even wear slippers inside and change into shoes to go outside.  Our little girl didn't have a scratch or bruise on her anywhere.  They obviously take good care of the children.  She seemed happy and well loved.  As much as we wanted to pack her in our backpack and take her right home, it definitely makes it easier to leave her until next time.  She is a very tiny little munchkin and it was hard for the Mama's instinct not to kick in when they told me they are taking her off the bottle.  I really wanted them to leave her on it as her whole diet will change soon and she obvioually need the nutrition.  We just couldn't do anything to question their ways and authority. It was a weird position to be in to be able to legally sign her name but yet have to go to the governmental agency to get permission to even visit the orphanage.  Then we had to wait in a room until they were ready to bring her to us for a visit.  Then when the time is up they sweep her away.  We were not allowed to see anywhere in the orphanage that had other children. 

We are so fortunate to have good family and friends that watched our boys and took over the office for us to make this trip.  Thank you is not enough for all the kinds things you all have done for us to be able to go meet our little girl.  Thank you so much. 

The people of Russia were so polite and hard working.  It is very obvious that they feel very fortunate to have a job.  Everywhere we went there was someone that could communicate with us in English.  The architecture there is amazing.  It is obvious that a lot of their government money goes to buildings and history. 

In some ways Russia is much like the US.  It is quite modern and we saw people walking around with I-phones and notebook computers, but yet when we asked our translator what clinic she uses for a doctor she said she just doesn't go.  She said it just take too much time and is too hard. We went with our little girl to a medical facility to get her 1st medical clearance for adoption.  This is a hospital that is considered good in their standards, and in the US it would have been shut down as a Vet clinic.  It was not fit for anyone to be treated in.  It was very hard to be there with our sweet girl.  There were ambulances getting stuck bringing patients to be treated because it was located on a gravel road and the snow was too deep.  When one ambulance got stuck the next 2 just waited until the first on spun out enough to get out. The lack of heath care funding was definitely the most culture shock for us.  I wanted to bring my video camera out but knew what it would be bad if we offended them as they have to testify for us in court.  It was so crazy to see everywhere we looked there were modern cars, automobile manufacturing, Levi and cell phone stores but the health care was so under financed so there were just no advances.  We talked to a neurologist that had a practice in the US for may years before returning to Russia and he was appalled that we were getting our EKG's done in a facility that used clamps on our wrists and ankles and suction cups on our skin instead of going to the American hospital. Obviously this is a requirement.  We would of never had chosen to go to health care there.  I am now glad that we did as it opened our eyes a lot.  This was the most elite hospital in the whole area of 5 million people.  This doctor obviously knew what was available but said there is just no funding to move forward.  As a doctor, he had waited 4 hours to get a ticket to have the chance to be seen that day by a heart doctor.  Many of the doctors that we saw looked to be in their 80's.  We asked our Russian coordinator and translator if the medical field was good paying and they both said the pay was terrible.  In my book, less pay would equal less qualified people and less technical advances which would equal lesser quality health care.  It's no wonder their own president came to America for heart surgery.