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Well it’s hard to believe that it’s already been 1 year. That’s right, one year ago today was the day we picked up Sasha from the orphanage in Cheboksary, RU. If you’ve frequently this site for long you’ve probably already read of some of the other events of that day. But even with all [...]

Bloomington Reunion (Sasha sings) from Randy Bradshaw on Vimeo.
This is another short video taken during day 1 of our Bloomington trip. It starts out with Sasha singing one of his favorite songs from the Disney Channel to Luba. Of course, it’s all in English but she seems to enjoy it anyway. The remainder of the [...]

Bloomington Reunion from Randy Bradshaw on Vimeo.
In August we took a long weekend and traveled to Bloomington, IL. Sasha’s orphanage director (Luba) had made the trip from Russia so she could see him again. We were there for about 4 days and this short video is day 1. The trip went very well, thanks in [...]

Well, we made it. It took us about 23 hours but we arrived safely in Dallas last night. Sasha didn’t sleep the entire trip except for the final hour of the final flight from Atlanta to Dallas. That made for a VERY long day… Nothing like chasing a hyperactive 5 year old around a [...]

After weeks of proclaiming “I don’t like meat and I won’t eat it.” Sasha finally showed his true colors yesterday. We were at the flea market (see previous post) and he had his first taste of meat on a stick! We all had shish-ka-bobs and he didn’t ate more than I had seen him [...]

A very rare thing happened here today. The sun actually came out. This picture was taken at the flea market in Moscow. We were eating lunch in a place that, well, it’s hard to put it into words. Let’s just say that it was not as cold as the outdoors. We made the most [...]

Today was our interview at the US Embassy (Sasha and I). It was a pretty painless process. Basically they just asked me to raise my hand and swear that I am in agreement with all of the adoption documents that I have submitted (we did that yesterday). Once that’s done they gave me some information [...]

Sasha absolutely loves taking a bath. In fact it takes quite a bit of negotiating to get him out of the tub. We now have an agreement that once he’s all clean he gets 5 minutes to play before I pull the stopper. That seems to work. He gets a big kick out of [...]

Today Dima took us (Sasha and I along with the Wagners) to tour the Kremlin. It was very interesting but cold (again). The Wagners leave for Cheboksary tonight.

Another adopting family arrived last night. The Wagners are from Wisconsin. It’s been nice visiting with them. We have a great deal in common. They are a little older than Stacy and I with grown children already but they’ve come to adopt 2 teenage girls from Chebosary. Bob and Gerri’s faith has helped re-engergize [...]

He’s quite a handful. But then again what 5 year old boy isn’t? The language barrier is becoming less of an issue. I think that my russian is getting better but he’s also understanding that I don’t catch everything he says so he’s getting good at communicating in other ways too. Marina (our host) [...]

Well, as I had suspected, the homesickness has already set in. I spoke to Stacy today and feel a little better knowing that they made it home safely and without incident. 12 days left!

Well, today was the day I was dreading. My girls headed home. I know the trip has been hard on them all (including Stacy) and so, in one sense, I’m glad they’re heading back to the states. However, I’m missing them terribly already. I’ve never been without them for longer than a few days [...]

Today we’re all back in Moscow (via train and without incident). So since we have some spare time on our hands, Dima took us around the city for some site-seeing.

Our court date was yesterday and the family we have been traveling with is in court today. So that means we have a free day to explore Cheboksary and just have some fun! Our gracious host (Peter the Great) was kind enough to drive us all around the city and show us many of [...]

Today was our day in court. The Supreme Court of Chevashiya to be more specific.
It took about 3 hours and we were instructed to come back at 1:15PM for the ruling. There were 2 issues under consideration. One was the approval of our adoption of Sasha. The other was whether or not the judge would [...]

As my last post left off we were boarding a van for a short drive from the train station in Shummerlya to the orphanage where Sasha has spent the last few years of his life. Another family from Wisconsin was also traveling with us as they were also adopting a child from the same [...]

We were supposed to arrive in Shimmerlya (via train) at around 5:22AM. The plan was that the conductor was supposed to wake us at 5AM so we could get ready to exit the train. The scheduled stop in Shummerlya was only for 2 minutes (that’s right, 2 minutes). So it was critical that we [...]

Shummerlya is where Sasha’s orphanage is. The small city is about 2 hours outside of Cheboksary. We boarded the train in Moscow at around 7PM (Moscow time) for another 13+ hour ride accross the frozen Russian countryside. The girls were skeptical at first but it didn’t take long for them to settle in and [...]

Well, we made it. It’s amazing how quickly you forget just how L O N G the flight is from Atlanta to Moscow. 11 hours. Sitting straight up. No sleep. Then of course there was the russian “diplomat” who had claimed our 3 center aisle seats as his own and then begged us to [...]

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