Day 1 - The Flight to Moscow

After the adoption ban 

I wasn't sure if I would ever return to Russia. 

There really would be no reason to go back 

if I would never be allowed to see Natasha again. 

But during the year long ban 

I begin to meet many Russian friends. 

People who really cared about the orphans in their country. 

I would talk to them about what was going on 

and what we could do to help. 

I met several journalist online and 

would follow their stories. 

I even had a few interview me. 

It soon became clear that the everyday Russia Citizen 

had lost interest in the adoption ban story 

 along with the Russian orphan. 

My journalist friends joked with me about coming to Moscow. 

Or at least I thought they were joking. 

Then we started to seriously discuss it. 

They needed a new spin on the story. 

Something different to report so newspapers would be willing to publish it. 

Again it was brought up that I should seriously think of going to Russia. 

Considering how much I hate to fly and travel 

this was not something I thought about lightly. 

But if my getting my fat butt on a plane was news worry and could 

help even one child find a Russian family 

I decided it was worth the cost. 

I spoke with a few other moms who were stuck in the ban 

and invited them along. 

One was crazy enough to decide to go with me. 

That was Renee. 

She had been trying to adopt the biological sibling of the little boy she had adopted

6 years ago. 

They had been in the process of trying to adopt him for almost 5 years but 

because of some corruption in the region he was in they 

had been postponed 9 times. 

So we decided to go together to see what we could accomplish. 

My husband was kind enough to take the day off and drive me to LAX on January 22nd. 

I made sure to arrive in plenty of time as LAX is not known for getting you 

through security very fast. 

So I had time to eat lunch while I waited to board my plane. 

I also had time to exchange some money for Rubles.
Or as I refer to it "funny money"
It really does look like play money.

It is a little scary to do this as you hope you are getting the right amount of  money.

I really would not have known if they ripped me off. 

When the plane arrived it was at the same gate as when Steve

 and I flew to St. Petersburg. 

It was going to be almost exactly the same flight except

I would be flying from Amsterdam to Moscow instead of St. Pete. 

It was a weird feeling to know I would be stuck next to a complete

stranger for the next 11 hours. 

Fortunately I sat next to a woman and her daughter that were traveling home 

to Holland after vacationing for a month in the states. 

They were very friendly and curious as to why I would be flying to Russia

in the dead of winter. 

It's not exactly high tourist season in Moscow right now

and strange for a California girl to be leaving 75 degree weather to 

go freeze in -2 degree weather. 

I also made a new Russian friend while standing in line to board the plane. 

She had been visiting her boyfriend and was very sad that he did not 

propose while she was in America. 

She was in tears while we were waiting to board and worried she would 

not be able to find the gate in Holland to get back to Russia. 

I told her she could wait for me when she got off the plane and I would 

help her find our gate. 

She was very thankful and proceeded to ask me all sorts of 

questions about how to get a job in America. 

I learned some interested facts during this trip. 

Well, not exactly sure they are facts but they were information 

according to my new found Holland friends. 

Apparently, people from Holland do not adopt from Russia 

and according to this particular woman they all adopt from China 

because Chinese orphanages are the worst ones out there. 

There was no way of convincing here that Russia has some horrible orphanages too. 

I landed in Holland and had about 2 hours before my next flight. 

Renee and I had arranged to fly together from Holland to Moscow so my 

new Russian friend and I headed off to find our gate and Renee. 

There is one thing I do not like about Amsterdam Airport

and that is each gate has it's own security and seating area. 

You may not sit down in the area until about 1 1/2 hours before the plane leaves

and there is no where else to sit while you wait unless you go get something to eat.

After we found our gate I decided I needed to go purchase some water. 

Another issue I have with flying is you can't bring your own water and they charge you 

a fortune to purchase it in the airport. 

Plus, in Amsterdam you are not allowed to open the water

and take it out of the sealed bag showing your flight number until 

after you board the plane. 

After purchasing my water I decided to find a place to check my email. 

In this airport you have to pay 3 Euros to get 15 minutes of internet connection. 

I wanted to check in with my family and let them know I arrived. 

I was having all sorts of issues with the very slow running internet

and my security and passwords on things like my email 

and Facebook were not working well. 

They wanted to text me a code and I could not receive text in a foreign country. 

Then FB would allow me on if I could identify 5 FB friends pictures. 

The problem was that the pictures were of random things like dogs, cats, children

and so on and so on and even if they would have been of my friends

I don't know half of what they look like. 

Anyway, I ended up finally guessing correctly and got to be 

on FB just long enough to post I had landed in Amsterdam. 

Renee also happened to walk by and notice me so we finally met each other in real life. 

Renee told me she got a coffee at Starbucks and 30 minutes of 

wifi for the cost of her coffee. 

I decided that on the way home that was the better way to go. 

Next we would make a quick stop to the potty before getting on the plane. 

While I was washing my hands a woman came up to me and starting speaking to me

in Russian. I shrugged my shoulders and said "English" 

To which she replied "Oh, English only" and shook her head. 

Little did  I know she would provide some great drama before boarding our flight. 

Next we went to our gate and through security together and checked in. 

Soon after came the bathroom lady. She was yelling and screaming at 

the TSA employees. 

Her companion finally got her settled down and placed in a quiet corner

and we figured that was the last of the drama. 

But we were wrong. 

As they started boarding our flight we could hear someone 

kicking and screaming in Russian. 

I think we were the only two people who did not speak Russian 

so we have no idea what she was saying. 

All we knew was we were really hoping she was not allowed on the flight. 

Fortunately for all involved we did not hear from her again. 

Our flight to Moscow was uneventful and we were truly 

impressed with the newly remodeled Sheremetyevo International Airport. 

It was huge, clean and super efficient. 

LAX could take some serious lessons from the SVO airport.  

Going through customs took no time at all and our luggage 

came off the same time we did. 

We grabbed our stuff and a free cart to haul all of it and were off to find out driver. 

I had brought a 3rd suitcase with me to put orphanage donations in

so it was a little harder for me to manage everything. 

Our driver was waiting for us when we stepped out of baggage claim. 

He went to get the car while we suited up for the frigid cold air outside. 

Our driver was not sure which Marriot we were staying at. 

All I could tell him was that is was the courtyard Marriot City Center

and was located at 7 V something street. 

I didn't think to bring the address because I figured there would just 

be one of them. 

Apparently I was wrong but the 7 V something street did help us get to the right place. 

If there wasn't that sign at the end of the building I would have had no idea

there was even a hotel here. 

The plan was to stay with Maria, one of the journalist. 

This was supposed to help us cut down on cost. 

But Maria was 9 months pregnant and due to have a C-section 

the day before we were schedule to leave.

We decided it would be better to get a hotel room instead of imposing
ourselves on some poor pregnant woman. 

We were fortunate to have a few Marriott rewards points

to help absorb some of the insane cost of this place. 

By the end of our trip we were very grateful for the location 

so it made it worth the cost. 

We were able to meet with Julia and Maria 

and to have dinner the first night together. 

After seeing the cost of the in hotel restaurant I decided 

my bringing Cup of Noodle soup had been a very good idea. 

Julia and Maria talked to us about what we wanted our stories to be about. 

They pretty much told us that the chances of Russia ever letting the children 

be adopted by Americans was slime to none until Putin or Obama 

were out of office. 

We had already knew that when we decided to come but we also 

knew that there was not much interest in the orphan crisis by 

Russian citizens. 

They talked to me about trying to find a Russian family for Natasha. 

I told them I thought that was a wonderful idea but was worried if the 

family would have the resources to help her out or would 

end up returning her to an orphanage. 

Contrary to popular belief that happens much more frequently 

in Russian than it even does in America. 

Right now Natasha is in the best orphanage in Russia. 

I wanted to make sure I would end up making things better for her 

and not worse. 

Of course I believe every child deserves a family

but wanted to make sure the family would have someway to take care of her 

when she turned 18. 

That she would still be allowed to attend her school and 

get the physical therapy she was getting now. 

It was hard to think about how she could have had all these at home

with me but that the only way she might receive it in Russia 

is if she stayed where she was at. 

At first everyone thought I was crazy to think an orphanage might be 

better than an ill prepared Russian family. 

Then I showed them this video and they understood that I was 

not joking when I said it had a computer lab and Olympic size swimming pool. 

That is was where they trained their special needs Olympians. 

Now I would like to preface this before you watch the video.

1. This is the only orphanage of it's kind in Russia or anywhere that I know of.
2. This is not at all typical of a Russian orphanage and there are some very bad ones out there.
3. Even though Natasha is in a very nice place her director has written a letter to the
European Human Courts for us letting them know he thinks she would be better off with our family.
4. Natasha still has institutionalized behaviors where she rocks and does not cry when hurt badly.
5. She desperately looks as though she needs glasses and I am not sure why they have not worked on that.
Maybe she just won't keep them on and it is too hard to make 20 children do what they need to.
6. There is no guarantee that she will get to stay there after she turns 18. She could be transferred
to a horrible mental institution instead.

So after my journalist friends watched this they understood why I was a little 

reluctant to find Natasha just any Russian family. 

I am by no means suggesting we are better than a Russian family. 

We would just have more resources available to us

and we had a plan for what to do when Natasha became an adult. 

So it was suggested to me that Downside Up be used as sort of a consultant 

to help families determine if they could properly care for Natasha.

Downside Up is a wonderful organization that is providing service
to families so they can keep their children instead of feeling
hopeless like they have to abandon them to orphanages.

One of the best ways to help children with DS in Russia right now is to support
this organization. You can do so by liking their FB page
and making a small donation if possible.

I am convinced the best way to stop the orphan crisis is to find a way
to help families that want to stay together do so.

That is exactly the goal of Downside Up.
To provide services and support for the families who keep their
children with DS and to encourage others to do the same.

I even suggested that maybe a family could use the orphanage as a boarding 

school since many families did that already. Not all the children who live 

there are orphans. 

I have no idea if this will work or not but it still saddens me that this bright little 

girl will never know the love of a family. 

She will spend the rest of her life growing up in a room with a row of beds

where no one comes when you cry out at night and the night people who care

for you are different than the day people. 

But the choice was made to give it a try. 

To go on Russian TV and beg someone to find value and to see 

the potential in this little girl's life.

To explain that she would be difficult to take care of
but that she had so much to offer in return.  

I went to bed by taking two Tylenol PM's at 1:00 a.m. and slept until 

10:00 a.m. the next morning. Praying I have made the right decision.