Two Years Together

Two years ago today, on the other side of the planet, we boldly entered a world of a different sort. From the threshold of the Siberian city of Novosibirsk, Russia, we started our family. It was a non-traditional approach but had the same kind of forever results.

I've said it before, but it just feels like we've been together forever. We couldn't have been more blessed in our adoption journey. We couldn't love Anna and Alexander more than we do.

So, today we celebrated our two years of familyhood. I don't think the children took away much more than the fact that it was a day to eat fancy cake and sip hot tea (decaf for the kids) and watch our movie from when we were in Russia. The children definitely know the word Russia, that it's a place whose images of St. Basil's Cathedral they recognize and that we were all there. That's good enough for now. They hear the references to adoption and baby homes in our "Russia movie," and Mikel and I sometimes make references to when we first met them. I guess this is all good to sort of introduce the topic so that one day when the talk and explanation and realization come they won't be caught unawares.

But for now we relish in the innocence of simplicity — that we're a family, no matter how we came to be. A mommy and daddy and sister and brother who love each other very much.

For the second year, I've purchased a fancy cake for this occasion and hope to be able to do that (or make one if I have the time) every year. This year I bought a Black Forest cherry cake, which sounds like it could have Russian origins, doesn't it? But Black Forest cakes are really German. No matter, it was gorgeous and yummy, and that's all that mattered. In Russia, our adoption facilitator/translator had us bring decadent cakes to give to each of the children's baby home directors. At Anna's baby home we actually sat down with the director in her office and celebrated our adoption by eating the cake and drinking hot tea. (I remember she also offered a cup of the highly-coveted instant coffee we'd purchased as a gift for her.)

Last year you may recall that I alluded to a terrible mishap at a local bakery where I bought the celebration cake. I suppose I can finally write about it. Basically, Alexander tried to climb a multi-tiered shelving unit on which many bottles of wine were displayed.

Yeah, you guessed right. I ran up in time to prevent the whole wooden structure from falling onto him. But darn those bottles of wine. Suddenly, my senses became overwhelmed by the crashing of glass, the wailing of my child, the pungent aroma of red wines mixed with the fragrant bouquet of white wines, hits on my skull from who knows how many of these said glass bottles, the rushing over of bakery employees, the wonder of how much this is going to cost us, the desperate hope that these were not $100 bottles of wine, the scanning of the wine-soaked dainty little once-dangling price tags on the carpeted floor, the relief that they seemed to be wines priced in the $10-$15 range, the realization that there seemed to be at least 10, 11, 12, who knows exactly how many destroyed bottles.

Whew. After a year, it feels somewhat cathartic to get that out. Can you believe I almost had the gall to return this year? But even without the kids and with sunglasses I figured it best to stay away.

I'm sure you're wondering ... and the owner could not have been more generous. She showed concern for Alexander and said "things happen." What an understatement.

What more to say after this?

Let's see, for dinner tonight I tried my hand at a pretty gourmet-tasting Beef Stroganoff recipe from my Russian cookbook. It was a bit overwhelming for the kids' palates, but they managed to eat most of what I put on their plates.

Anyway, here are a few photos of us today. And also from our first day and night together two years ago, including our first family photo taken in the vehicle outside Baby Home No. 2, where Alexander lived.