Arrival In Siberia

12/18/2007 Kemerovo: We arrived at our destination city at half past 7 this morning – exactly 12 time zones from all of you who are reading this. As we landed, some of the Russian passengers applauded. To us it was a perfectly normal flight. Aside from our bleary eyes it boggles our minds that we are so far from home. Yet, many things seem the same. Ads still contain English both in the airport and on the route to our hotel but as we have gotten around today it is clear we are farther from the mainstream. More people look at us as strangers and very few have a working knowledge of English – though perhaps still better than my ten-word Russian vocabulary. Nancy continues to grow hers and it serves us pretty well.
Our flight from Moscow had two other families’ adopting from this region. They are both here for their second trip and were picking up their kids today for court tomorrow. One of the families had their luggage lost in route to Moscow and is in their third day of the same clothes…
Even though we arrived so early we were told that we would not leave for the orphanage until 2-3 this afternoon. As we checked into our hotel room the thought of Siberia was changed to the thought of the Sahara as our room – and for that matter every room we’ve been to here in Kemerovo - has been blisteringly hot; at least 80 degrees and probably higher. So, we are sitting and waiting for the call. The window is cranked open a hair and the refreshingly frigid Siberian air is pouring in.
One funny thing did happen yesterday as we checked into our flight from Moscow. The agent asked me if I had any lice – or so I thought. I really couldn’t tell what he said. We had been so preoccupied with the issue of the weight of our bags that I turned to Nancy in a panic and said “What did he say?” She also heard lice and the guy asked if we spoke English. We said yes and he said something about lice again. It was on his third or fourth try that we figured out he was asking if we had any luggage to check. His colleague started to laugh at him when we said we spoke English but still couldn’t understand him. Fortunately, he didn’t hold us up, lose our luggage or give us lice.
So, that is our day so far. It is now a little after 4 PM and we are still waiting. More when it happens!
It just happened with a knock on the door. We just received some major change in plans or at least in our perception of what to expect. There has been an issue with the birth mother of the 3 children we thought we were coming to meet and we have received a referral for a different sibling group of 3 – the girl being the oldest again. We believe things happen for a reason and we are being provided the right forever family for us. Now, you know what we know.
Oh, and another funny story… The woman who has been our interpreter here in Kemerovo is also the translator of our documents. So, when she was done giving us the news above she said “How are those alpacas?” And “who is taking care of them while you are here?” So, even here in Siberia we are known as alpaca breeders!
One of the key words in the information the adoption agency gave us was “flexibility.” Little did we know how far that would extend. So, we are off to take a walk in the cold air as the cloudy sky grows dark. We’ve been told of a few restaurants that have English menus – or we go to a point and eat place like we did for lunch. Either way we are cooling our heels (literally)here in Kemerovo and marveling at the way in which God works.

Love to you all, Kevin & Nancy