As many of your remember I have been traveling to Russia to spend time with a woman from togliatti. It’s been almost three years now that we have been exchanging letter by Email and meeting one time each year in her country of Russia. I have grown fond of these times that I have spent in Russia with her and her family. As it is today between the both of us we had written over 2000 letters and spent about one months time together, so I figured it was time to take our relationship a step further. On January, 11 2004 I flew nonstop from New York to Moscow to meet with my fiance. It was no surprise for either of us that she was going to be coming home with me. I have been filling out paperwork for over 9 months prior, paperwork that would lead to getting a visa so that she could come back with me to the United States. Each of us had background checks done on us by homeland security, paperwork detailing our every existence including each of our families. For me it was all part of the adventure, I researched and did everything myself. On January 13th my wife had to go to an interview at the U.S. embassy in Moscow. This was a very nervous time for both of us, each of us not knowing if we would get a Visa for her to come home with me or not. My wife setup a place for us to stay in Moscow for the night before the interview. It was a typical Russian type hotel, much like their apartment. It took us over an hour to get to this place from the airport. Moscow is a huge city, I have been their three times, and always seem to go to a different area of the city that I have never been. They say Moscow is one of the most expensive cities to visit but that has never been my experience.
I arrived in Moscow and spend the next two hours going through the usual, waiting forever for my luggage wondering if it would ever come out onto the conveyor belt, and standing in line to go through customs. As to be expected everything has slowed down since 9-11. My wife was waiting for me on the other side we were excited to see each other again. We wadded through the crowd of people mostly taxi drivers wanting to take you someplace. Trying to grab your luggage out of your hand and take you to their car, it’s always like this, if you get off a train or a plane there is a crowd of taxi drivers waiting to take you someplace. You start the bidding wars, but most of the time it’s always the same price as always the price is subject to change the closer you get to you destination. I like the taxi driver that says oh, I have to stop for gas they get to the gas station and expect you to pay for the gas. It’s always interesting the games they come up. My fiance and I got to the hotel and unpacked out things. I wanted to take my wife out this evening and ask her to marry me. I had brought an engagement ring and she had no idea that I would ask her, she did understand that one day we would be married but not when or how. I mentioned to my fiance that I would like to go to Red Square to see this place in the evening with the beautiful lights and colors and then find a restaurant to eat nearby. So we left the hotel went down under the city to use the subway system. The weather was very warm much warmer that it was in Michigan at the time. I took with me the engagement ring in the little box. It was so hard to keep this little box hidden, I didn’t carry anything and if I put it in my jacket pocket it bulged out. I kept my wife on one side of me the whole time keeping the ring a secret, it was no small task. We walked down along the tall brick walls that surrounded Red square it was such a beautiful night and a very long walk Red square is huge. We got the entrance and walked right in with no problems. I have been to Red square before in the daytime and was searched but this time it was no problem, just walked right in. Their were groups of people here and their walking about, the lights were wonderful. They have really fixed up the place since my last visit. I got to about the center of the square and I stop got down on one knew and made my proposal. The whole time as we were walking to get to the square I was going over and over in my head my little speech that I was going to make. When I got down on the knee almost forgot everything but I managed to say what I remembered. Before I even got through she said yes! And started to cry tears of joy, it was a very memorable experience for both of us, people were walking by and congratulating us, it was very cool. The second I put the ring on her finger after I said my little speech the bells on Red Square started to ring.
The next day my wife and I get up early in preparation for the interview. We didn’t sleep well because we were both so nervous about this interview. I have read stories about people getting denied the visa and had no idea what was going to happen what they would ask, and if she would say the correct answers. We left the hotel for the embassy about 8:00 and it was raining. My wife was happy because in her culture rain is a good sign for such an important day. We got to the embassy and their was already a line of people waiting to get in. We got close to the entrance and they told me that I was not aloud to go into the embassy with her she was to go alone. I could wait outside or walk down to the American citizen entrance and wait inside the building in that area. When my wife was completed, and no one knew how long it would take she would exit out of the same place she went in. Well, as it turns out their was another American guy from Florida that was going through the same process I was. We seemed to hit it off right away and decided to walk down and get some breakfast. During breakfast we both seemed to be nervous about this interview we exchanged stories and made small talk. We wandered back to the embassy to check to see if they were done but they were not but that we should expect them to be finished before 1:00. We went into the embassy to wait getting more nervous by the hour wondering if we would get the visas or not. It was only 9:00 and we want out and waited outside the door, there were women walking out smiling, and woman walking out crying. It was a crazy time. It was only 10:15 but it seemed like a whole day went by and sure enough I could see my wife coming towards the door with a smile on her face. We got the Visa! That evening we got on a 19 hour train ride going to Togliatti to spend a week visiting with her family and getting things together for her first time traveling to the United States. The week was full of get together with her family and friends. It was all very wonderful. The last day was very sad for her family as my wife has never been way from them for more that a weeks time her whole life. my wifes mother traveled with us back to Moscow to see us off, it was very hard for all of us but everyone was happy with our decisions. The plane ride from Russia started out normal it’s a long flight but as we got into the U.S. territory things really started to get interesting. We were to land in New York and at this time they were getting hit with the biggest storm of the year over 2 feet of snow and out plane was transferred to Washington D.C. we had to go thought U.S. customs so no one could get off the place we sat on the plane then when they got things cleaned up enough in New York we got back into the air an finally landed in New York. As expected by this time our transfer flights to Detroit were canceled everything was all mixed up. We ended up spending 15 hours on that plane and overnight in New York hotel. The customs in the U.S. was very easy to go through; we practically walked right through with so much as a Welcome to the U.S.A. After three days of travel we finally were back home in Detroit, it was again a memorable experience for both of us.
In the next couple of week my wife and I stayed in Michigan visiting with our family while I tried to find a place to live. I seem that the Michigan economy is just too poor right now to support the type of work that I am suited for. I wanted to start a new life for the both of us and with a lot of luck we wanted that place to be Florida. As part of the Visa that my wife received we had to be married within 90 days. So on February 4th we got into the car and drove down to Toledo Ohio and were married. It was beautiful sunny day; we took pictures outside the courthouse. Three days later we packed everything we had into a 4x6 u-haul trailer and the rest in to the back of my Chevy truck and headed on down to Florida. We stayed with my father for about 5 days while I went out on interviews to find work. Luck was again on our side and I landed a wonderful design job in southern florida. The company came though with paying for my moving expenses as well as putting us up with a place to stay while we went apartment searching. We moved into an apartment three days later. It’s been an amazing adventure. We are now in the process of going through the last round of paperwork so that my wife can live and work in this country. We still have one more interview as well as a book of paperwork but it all just seems so trivial compared to what we have both overcome in the three years that we have known each other. We spend our Sundays on the beach swimming in the Ocean it’s like a dream the rest of our time we simply enjoying making a life with each other and planning our next great adventure.
