[DET62]

Having adopted once from Russia and once from Kaz, there are just too many stories - every trip was an ordeal! It was 20+ hours to Khabarovsk for my daughter, 15+ hours to Petropavlovsk, Kaz, for my son.

The worst ordeal with Russia was my return trip from adoption trip 1 to see my daughter. The plane was delayed 12 hours, first, and I had to spend an extra night at the hotel. The next day, I got on a plane that was about 50 years old. The seats were jammed against one another. I sat squashed against the window in a 3 seat row for 9+ hours. The smell of BO from the old man just in front of me was godawful. The bathroom was not only tiny, the toilet seats were WOODEN. There were people in the back of the plane smoking and snarling at the flight attendants. There were many drunks.

Then I got to Moscow, and a guy from the agency met me and took me on the most hair-raising car trip across town to another airport. He defied every traffic law, drove on the median, the sidewalk, you name it, and several times I felt certain we were soon going to both die in a fiery ball of flames...

With my son, I encountered the usual scenarios, but one incidents stands out. I had just landed in Astana, the capitol of Kazkhstan, and was standing in line at Customs. A man was brought off the plane by several Kazakh guards, being arrested. When he was 10 feet away from me he tried to run for it, hitting the guards and taking off. The guards subdued him, threw him on the floor, and proceeded to beat him half to death. There was a lot of screaming and a huge pool of blood. I couldn't leave, or go elsewhere, because it was a long line and I had to get into the country. The prisoner finally started moaning pitifully, saying Help me, help me, in Russian. He was pinned to the floor lying in his own blood. I have NEVER witnessed anything so horrific.

I got up to the customs window, totally freaked out, and the woman accused me of having a false passport, of trying to get in the country illegally, and having an invalid travel visa, etc. I sweated and sweated, and finally asked for a supervisor. The supervisor took a look at my passport and visa, and waved me through, shaking her head.

THEN - oh yes, the ordeal wasn't over - I had to spend 8hours in a car getting to my destination, and there were horrible gale-force winds rocking the car. My agency's driver played really awful techno-pop music nonstop. We stopped twice for potty breaks and I had to use outhouses - really nasty places with just holes in the floor. The second one, the door got stuck and I thought, I am going to freeze to death in an outhouse somewhere in the middle of nowhere, and my driver is smoking and napping and hasn't even missed me.. aaaargh!

It was all worth it to get my beautiful kids.

Dee