Notice Anything New?

Last year before I traveled for court for Anna I start a Yahoo group for our region. When I searched for groups or others who have been to this region I could find only a very small number of people. My mind set then was I needed information on what to expect. Over the past year I have only gotten one or two applicants for this group.

I will be honest I am sure I did not promote this group as much as I should have and I do believe that there are so few who adopt from this region. What are the chances of someone wanting to join a group. Yesterday or maybe the day before I received a request to be a part of this group. Yes I have limited the membership for a single reason, I would like Anna to not only know a little bit about her Russian heritage but more specifically I would like her to know about the region where she was born.

Here in the United States things differ according to where you live. For example I was once in a small town diner in North Carolina and the waitress greeted us then told us she was all out of pig brains. Now my intention was never to order the brains and eggs but for this small town this may have been something that was not only special but culturally acceptable. Here in New Jersey eggs and brains are not something you see on the menu. If the eggs and brains were available would I have ordered them? The answer to that is yes or at least I would have seriously considered ordering them.

So I feel now that at times I am the lone ranger here because I have very few people who I can share my experience with about the little airport or walking along the river front in Cheboksary during the summer. I want that. In the past couple of weeks the discussion of adopting another child has come up. Sadly I just can not see how this would be possible right now but I do have some regrets that I did not start this process sooner in my life so that this could have been a real option.

For now the only memory of Cheboksary and Anna's orphanage is mine. I would love to go back to Cheboksary for a visit and yes a drive to Anna's orphanage. Believe it or not I am friends with the coordinator from Russia on FB. I wish I had gotten to spend more time with the people whom I stayed with while I was there. I believe I guarded much of who I am because I was afraid of how I would be perceived. I think Anna is still too young to travel that distance and perhaps she would not understand where or why we were going there so I have that on hold for now.

So my request is if you adopted from the Republic of Chuvashia or are about to adopt from this region would you consider being a part of my yahoo group? If you are living in Russia and would live to be apart of the group so that I can better understand some of the traditions I would also welcome you into the group. I would love to share all the pictures I have of Anna's orphanage with others and would love to see what it looks like today as well.