I have been home this week, sick with bronchitis; in between sleeping and more sleeping, (and I love to sleep) I have had a lot of time to think about our trips to Russia and so I thought I would write not about the adoption in this post, but about my impressions of traveling 3 times to Russia.
When we travel I am one of those people who has to research everything, find out exactly where it is on a map, and plan out an itennary for the whole trip. I can honestly say that traveling in Russian, no matter how much I researched or planed I was not prepared for effect the country has on me.
5 years ago when we started talking about adoption we had no clue where we would go, but it turns out that Russia is a wonderful surprise in itself and I dream of going there again. I have traveled a lot since I married my military man. “Join the Navy and see the world” is not just for the sailors. Just think, your husband is going overseas, so why not take advantage of this and buy yourself an airline ticket and meet him in a port. Sadly so many Navy wives don’t take advantage of this opportunity; maybe they don’t want to travel alone, or think it will cost too much, but how often can you go to Europe with you husband for the cost of one airline ticket. We took advantage of this and spent our honeymoon in France because right after we married Rich shipped out on a 6 month cruise; so I spent Christmas in Paris, Cannes, and Monte Carlo. Only about a dozen navy wives made the trek to France, and the ship had 5000 men on it.
Sorry about the little detour we just took; back to the topic of this post-traveling in Russia. Of course our plan is to do this again because the adoption is not yet complete, but even if it were, I do believe this is a country I would love to come back to, while France - well I just feel been there, done that.
Why Russia, is it because our future children are born there? Is it because the history and culture was so closed off the world for so long during the Soviets control. Or because it is a culture going through tremendous changes which makes each trip different and more interesting. I don't know, but I do know that I loved enjoyed every trip-the history, the culture, the sites, the wonderful people.
I love history, I even considered a history major in college; and what amazing architectural displays of Russian history to explore. To walk on the grounds of parks and buildings that were built before our own country was born, lands where Prince Yury started building the Kremlin in 1147; to stand in front of the tsarinas throne in the beautiful Cathedral Square Church and think that Catherine the Great could have stood in this very spot 400 years ago. The beauty of the cathedrals and churches. And the renovation of older buildings in Moscow and Irkutsk is astonishing as they are restoring by hand many of the decorative ornamentation.

Here is a link to a website about Russian art and architecture: http://www.geographia.com/russia/rusart01.htm