My Russian Princess

 I went to Moscow twice last year for the adoption of my young daughter. We adopted RP on what is called a blind adoption. We basically said that we would adopt a female child who 12-24 months old and had no permanent medical damage. They then call you up and tell you that you have three weeks to get to Moscow to meet the child! That is all the information you get until you get there.

 I started the process with over a million frequent flier miles and half a million hotel points (I was a consulant for 15 years so I banked a lot of points). I ended it with zero, nilch, nada! However, I do have a beautiful daughter so it was a good trade. We stayed in American hotels and flew business class. I was laughing that my daughter is going to have high expectations one day since her first flight ever was in business class!

 The first time we went we stayed at a Renaissance over by the old Olympic village.It was a nice hotel but sort of far from everything. We did not really have a lot of time to do stuff though except at night. We did master the Metro so the Wife and I were able to catch the subway into Moscow to meet some friends of ours who live there. It was about a 30 minute train ride to the nearest Starbucks so that was a bit tough on me!

 On our first visit we went to the Ministry of Education (who controls the orphans) and were given our packet on RP. We then went out to the orphanage to meet her. What followed was a sort of crazy 5 day rush to decide if we were going to accept the referral. I seriously think it was one of the hardest things I have ever had to do. Each day we would get up in the morning and be driven to the orphanage about 30 km outside of Moscow.  We had doctors in the US and Moscow looking at her for days! On the third day she looked right at me and said "Papa!", then she kissed me on the nose. I was sort of lost after that. No way was I going to turn down my child. As soon as she went from being "the child" to "my child" I was lost. She has pretty much had me wrapped around her little finger ever since!  

 As a funny aside, our driver and our translator were convinced that we would only eat American food. So they kept taking us to McDonalds until my wife and I finally rebelled and made them let us eat at somewhere else! I liked the food there but I have a British stomach. I always tell people that the British conquered half the world just to find a decent place to eat!

 Visit two was much more calm. We went to Moscow for a week and really we only had to go to court for one day of it. We stayed at the Hyatt which was right off Red Square and we could walk in the Kremlin gardens each morning. I ended up finding a little French restaurant that served breakfast so each morning I would wake up before the Wife and go have coffee and pastries.

 Court was a very formal affair with a lawyer and a judge. Social services came in a presented that we were good parents and that we would take care of little RP. We had to show them pictures of our family and our house and swear up and down that we would be good to our daughter. The Russian government now has a thorough understanding of my finances also.  

Finally the judge left to deliberate and when she came back we got custody! I was sort of nervous. At the time the whole Georgia thing was going on and I was worried that she would rule against us for being American. There have also been cases where Americans have not respected the Russian judicial system and managed to get their case denied. So we were on our best behavior. 

 We spent some of visit two seeing RP in her orphanage each day and the rest touring the city. Very modernized now. All the big American and European chains are there and stores are everywhere. I fell in love with the Metro and ended up riding it just for fun a lot! I have pictures of me wandering all over the city. It was spring though so Moscow was at it finest. I have heard stories about being there in Winter and I think I will pass. 

  I actually went home at the end of the week and the Wife stayed in Moscow for the next 3 weeks with her mother. In Russia now every court adoption has a two week waiting period where a Russian citizen can protest the adoption. In the past it has actually happened that a relative of the child pops up and contests. After the two weeks the Wife had to go through a bunch of paperwork with RP to get her Russian passport and her American Visa. Then they got on a plane and RP became a US citizen once she landed in Chicago. 

  I am planning on taking RP back when she is a teenager and old enough to appreciate it. I want to see St. Petersburg then too since I have heard it is beautiful.

 That is sort of a Reader's Digest condensed version of a huge event in my life. I wanted to get it out there though.