Kemerovo, Siberia

We often get asked about the area in Siberia from where we are adopting Maksim. So, my darling husband put together some facts about the history of the Region of Kemerovo.

Welcome to Kemerovo 101..with professor David

The region of Kemerovo is located in the southeastern part of Western Siberia. It’s 1,859 miles and four time zones from Moscow and another 4,817 miles and eight time zones from Detroit. Kemerovo is on the same latitude as Moscow, Warsaw, Berlin, and Wales in western Europe. In North America its, Edmonton Alberta and Sitka Alaska.

The average temperature in January is –2 degrees Fahrenheit and in July the average is 66. The highest temperature is about 100 in the summer and falls to 65 below zero in the winter. BUURRRRRRRRR!!!

The soil in this region is extremely fertile and black, but the long winters, short dry summers, and early frosts make harvests unpredictable. Even with this sort of growing season most people here still need to have their own vegetable gardens to get by in the winter. It appears that mowing the grass is a western thing! Most yard have grass that is knee deep.


*You can click on the above image to view it larger.

The city of Kemerovo was formed in 1918 from two villages. The city was called Shcheglovsk, (try pronouncing that) until 1932 when it received its name from a nearby railway station. The city’s growth was connected to the coal mining and chemical plants in the late 1930’s. Kemerovo’s industrial development surged during World War II, when large companies and factories were evacuated from the European part of the former USSR to Kemerovo. Some of these factories are still working today.

The Kemerovo region coat of arms

The Kemerovo regional flag

Hey you in the back of the class....wake up we are almost done.

The people here live mostly in Soviet era block apartments. Private houses are very rare, inhabited mostly by the very wealthy. The poor continue to live in their old, run down houses because they can't afford to repair or step up to an apartment. The average worker, for example, a clerk, earns about $180.00 a month, $2,160.00 a year. A manager might earn twice that amount.

The wildlife in this region is as varied as its natural landscape. Bears, Sable, Lynx, Badgers, Wolverines, Hares and Otters can all be found here. Our driver Eugene spends his spare time fishing for Pike in the many rivers and lakes around Kemerovo. In the forests steppes you can find Fox, Moose, and Roe deer. In the highlands of Kuznetsky Alatou to the north lives the Siberian Reindeer. (Jeff S., I think we have found your next hunting safari.)

Well, that’s it for today’s history lesson.
Stay tuned for some little known facts about Moscow, the former CCCP and Red Army Hockey.

A Special Thank You!

We wanted to thank everyone for all their kind wishes and amazing support. Thank you for all the wonderful gifts for Maksim and the wonderful hugs for the excited and a little nervous parents to be. David and I have been overwhelmed by all the encouragement, love and generosity we have received when we share our news about Maksim. It has meant the world to us! We can't wait for Maksim to meet all of you!

Happy Birthday to you...Happy Birthday to you...

Happy Birthday Dear Maksim... Happy 1st Birthday to you!! It won't be much longer...we are counting the days until we get to see you again !! We can't wait to share a piece of birthday cake with you. Happy Birthday darling little boy!

p.s. Your Gramie (Bunny) is also coming with us to Russia to help meet every one of your needs :) She is quite the expert in motherhood. She has had lots of experience in that department! So we are very happy she will be there to share in our first moments of becoming a family.

Good News!!

We are so excited to share our good news with you. Finally!! We got the phone call to travel back to Russia and pick up Maksim. We are so excited!!! Our court date is scheduled for September 10th in Kemerovo. So we are scrambling to get our documents, tickets and visas together for our trip. We can't believe the day is finally here!!! We will travel a few days earlier, so we can visit with him at the orphanage and get reacquainted. It will have been 3 months since we saw him last.

The waiting has been the most difficult. We definitely have a great appreciation and empathy for the families that have gone through this before and families that are going through it now. It has been a long road..but so worth it!!! We can now see the light at the end of tunnel. Through the whole adoption process we have learned what patience really means and to have faith that things will work out the way they are meant to be.

Thanks to all our friends and family for sharing in our enthusiasm, your love and support and all your well wishes!

We are Still Waiting...

We are still waiting to hear about our court date in Kemerovo. As soon as that date is scheduled, we then can make our travel plans to return to Russia to pick up our son. This is all part of the adoption process in Russia. Unfortunately we have no control, it depends where we fall in the court schedule. After you send your dossier in to be translated, a court date is assigned for the adoptive family to meet with a judge in the region from which you are adopting. The judge then makes the decision based on all the information you have submitted.

We keep hoping that every time the phone rings it might be news about when we will be able to return to Russia to pick up our son. The waiting has been getting more and more difficult every day. There isn't a day that goes by that we are not thinking about our little boy. Wondering how he is doing..if he is walking yet or how much he has grown.

We haven't been given any new information about him, since we last saw him in June. Although we are trying to be patient, I have to say the waiting is the hardest part. Until then we just wait and dream about the day when we have him home with us.

Everyone has been so supportive and we can't tell how much that means to us. Thank you so much to our family, friends and coworkers for all your support through out our adoption journey. We can't believe after waiting so long our prayers have finally being answered. We can't wait for the new chapter to begin!!