The Russians are coming! The Russians are coming!

Another note on one of the Tomsk baby homes: The room we saw with infants was nice. It had glass dividers between each crib to keep the noise down. It was a little cramped, but all in all, was not a lot different in most day cares we have seen in the states.


posted by AnnMarie at 6:25 AM |

From Mark M. another member of the Yahoo! Tomsk group, a description of being with their son, Ryan, in the baby home on Karl Marx St. not far from the center of town. This was last May. (He kindly gave permission for me to post this here.)

"We first met him at 18 months in a big day room at the orphanage. We would visit once in the morning about 10 am and would spend 1 - 1 1/2 hours. They would take him straight to lunch, then onto an afternoon nap. We would return around 2:30 PM or so for a couple hours.

You mentioned music, and there was a piano right outside the day room where we had our daily visits. Another couple had seen it played for the kids. In fact, when we got home, we found that Ryan would twist his wrists anytime music was played. So, they must have had some regular exposure to music and were teaching some movement. Other than that, we didn't see any drawings or art projects. I would guess there wasn't money for such a "luxury."

His class had about 12 kids. The classroom had some toys with the normal rocking horses, etc. Meals were eaten in the same room. They slept in a separate room with a crib for each child. A small room with sink, etc. was also adjoining. On our 2nd trip we were able to spend time with him while he ate lunch which was the big meal of the day. The first course was a big shallow bowl of soup. It was amazing to watch these little hands with an adult soup spoon doing a great job. Just when I thought they were finished, they would serve was a noodle/pasta with meat. A small cup of tea followed. No sippy cups here, just the real thing! The food looked pretty tasty and the fresh baked bread in the afternoons smelled great.  2-3 caregivers were around helping when needed. This was the routine each of the 6 days we were in Tomsk.

The orphanage was much closer to western standards that we imagined. Don't get me wrong, it wasn't freshly painted every year, but you could tell the physical building, interior and exterior were well cared for. The interior had cartoon characters on the wall, a little hand rail at kids height, tumbling mats, etc. Once you got past it being a bit drab, it was pretty much like most of the daycare facilities we have seen back home (with the obvious exceptions).

The caretakers appeared to be attentive to the kids. We never saw anything but kindness and caring. No doubt they had a big job keeping those kids all in clean clothes. They kept to a pretty strict routine in order to make sure everyone was cared for.

While nothing is as good as a loving home, it made us feel good to learn he had been in good environment among people who cared for him."


posted by AnnMarie at 6:58 AM |

TIP: bring my own washcloth. They don't provide them in hotels, at least not in Tomsk.

posted by AnnMarie at 5:09 AM |

Last night, I had a dream that we received a referral, but it was for two girls (which, in the dream, was not surprising). We were reading a white piece of paper, with the info printed on it, which is also strange. Usually, you get a phone call. All I remember is that one girl was named Elzabeta M. (not sure of that spelling, it's the Russian form of Elizabeth) and the second was Svetlana J. I recall there was a bit more on the page about each child, but I don't remember any details. Eric was excited about the J. middle/last name of the second child, but I pointed out that it was highly unlikely to be anything close to the name we've tentatively chosen.

This is the first adoption-related dream I've had!

posted by AnnMarie at 3:42 AM |

Recommendation from CHI list for the Strolex Sit & Stroll combined car seat and stroller. It costs nearly $200, including a few accessories such as a travel cover that we would likely use (since the seat wouldn't be used until the return trip). I'm quite impressed with this product and have seen other recommendations as well.

The Sit & Stroll is an FAA aproved car seat that has pop down wheels and converts into a stroller. We borrowed ours but I would happily have bought one (and they run about 200 bucks) because it paid for itself in just one trip by saving us a lot of aggravation.

-we used it as a seat in the hotel room, our daughter sat in it to color, play & watch tv & eat so she was used to it by the time we got on the plane.
-we used it as a stroller when we were walking around Moscow.
-we used it as a car seat on the way to the airport, converted it to a stroller to get to the plane and rolled right up the aisle to our seats where we popped the wheels back up. It was a snug fit in the economy seat but it worked fine...the steward brought an extender
belt to strap it in.
-we didn't even have to take our daughter out of the thing when we switched planes in Germany, we just popped down the wheels and rolled over to the next departure gate...she slept through the entire transfer.
-we used it as a car seat when we got home.

posted by AnnMarie at 7:14 AM |

TIP: FAA guidelines for flying with a baby/a car seat

posted by AnnMarie at 6:58 AM |

Note on the Hotel Katerina (Moscow): "The Hotel Katerina in Moscow is very nice, their resturant's food is very good as well. They do have a computer in the lobby that provides guests access to the Internet for 5-10 minutes."

posted by AnnMarie at 12:50 PM |

Quotes/info about the Tomsk orphanages
Regional Baby home

• "We were very pleased with the level of care the kids were getting. This home appeared to be very well run, clean and the care givers seemed to be very attentive."
• Has a Snow White mural (one way to distinguish it from the city baby home)

Unidentified orphanage

• "The orphanage was in good shape and all of the children were well taken care of. The caretakers were attentive and by all appearances everything seemed to be in order."

posted by AnnMarie at 12:48 PM |

From someone on my Tomsk list who recently traveled:

*If you are tall I recommend you fly business class on the flight to Tomsk on Siberian Airlines.
* The Hotel Siber in Tomsk is clean and the staff does not speak English but we got by with sign language and found everyone to be helpful and friendly. [Note from AnnMarie: if we are in this hotel, I will be very thankful for the Russian I am learning!]
* Just outside the hotel you will find kiosks that you can purchase drinks, snack food and film.
* The hotel is centrally located and you can walk to 2 pharamcies, grocery store, Food Master (resturant), English Pub and Internet Cafe. The Internet Cafe is about 1 mile up the road on the right about 2 buildings after you have walked past the white gated University. For 23 rubles you can use the Internet for 30 minutes. To send pictures they must be on CD or diskette. [AARGH: we don't have a disk in our digital camera.] [Hmmm...might not be within walking distance if we are there in, say, January.]
* There is one film store in town (have to go by car)that can download your digital pictures onto a CD.
* There is a very nice, new baby store in town called Baby Boom; you must go by car, clothes selection is limited, but they had a little bit of everything, strollers, toys, diapers, etc...
* The grocery store that is walking distance had great selection of formula and baby food.

posted by AnnMarie at 12:46 PM |

Eric and I often wonder "What's our daughter doing right now?" Unfortunately, I have a tendancy to think about this during the daylight hours, which means I'm mostly imagining her sleeping! (Tomsk is 12 hours ahead of us.) I think about her playing--wondering if they get to play after dinner or not. I try to imagine meal times--which are vastly different depending on whether I imagine her as a toddler (eating at a table) or a baby (drinking from a bottle). What does she look like? I haven't been imaging anything in particular. She could have blonde hair or be a brunette, or a red-head. She could have blue-grey eyes or brown, maybe green. I'm not thinking of someone who looks a particular way. Just thinking about our little girl, half a world away. All of us awaiting the day we get to meet!

posted by AnnMarie at 5:48 AM |

Debbie Jennings shared the following comments on the smaller of the 2 baby homes in Tomsk on the Tomsk Yahoo! group. She has graciously allowed me to post them here. She and her husband adopted a little boy in June 2002.

Our experience with the orphanage was a very postive one. Yes, the orphanage looked very old but it was very clean. The children were all clean and appeared to be well cared for.

Since Sam was still an infant, the caregivers would bring him to us when we visited. We were able to play and visit with him for an hour and a half in the mornings and usually a couple of hours in the afternoon. The kids are on such a scheduled routine. He would actually fall asleep before the caregivers would come to take him for his nap. We saw toddlers sitting on pottys all in a row--they are just conditioned to this routine. And in an orphanage, I'm sure it has to be this way.

There was a playground behind the orphanage where the toddlers could play. (The baby house has children up to age 2) We visited in June while the temperatures were in the 60's and 70's. You wouldn't know it by the way they bundled the children up in snowsuits, hats and gloves!

We were allowed to take Sam out in a stroller on nice warmer days and saw many caregivers outside with children bundled up in strollers.

Sam was quite a chunky baby and had obviously been well cared for. When we went to pick him up at the orphanage, the caregivers were all very sad and some were crying. They obviously cared for the children
very much and became quite attached. Sam had lipstick prints on both cheeks when he left!

At that time, the orphanage was very crowded, there were children sleeping in buggy-type strollers in the some of the back hallways. Some friends of ours also adopted an infant boy from Tomsk, though on their first trip, he was still in the hospital because there was no room in the orphanage for him.

Overall it was a great experience. Tomsk is a beautiful place and very old. They are actually getting ready to celebrate their 400th birthday next year--they were pouring new sidewalks and planting flowers when we were there. It's an interesting place.

posted by AnnMarie at 11:10 AM |

I though the following was such a delightful look at adopting toddlers. From a woman on one of my lists, who adopted girls age 2.5 and 1.5: We have enjoyed more "firsts" with our girls than we've missed out on. Not until they were ours did they enjoy their own new clothes and shoes, their own toys, tub baths, all the bananas they could eat, all the formula they could drink, ice cream, lollipops, crayons, puppies, Cinderella, swimming pools, boat rides, zoo trips, French fries, baby dolls, presents with wrapping and bows, Christmas trees, Disney World...the list continues. Not until they were ours did they get hugged, kissed, held or carried whenever they want--just raise your arms and say "Up!" It took nearly a year for them to even want those things, so I know I'm the first person (with Dad) to enjoy that with them.

posted by AnnMarie at 11:08 AM |