It Takes a Village

During our retreat to Saint Petersburg, Beth's brother Brandon came for a week or so to visit.  While we only had a few days in St. Pete, we still tried to show him as many sights as possible before making our way back to Moscow.

One of those places was the beautiful Saint Isaac's Cathedral.  Because there was a significant admission fee and Beth and I had already visited the church a few times, I decided to stay outside with Liam.  Beth had fed him recently, and he had slept a while, so we felt like it was a perfect opportunity to leave him with me.  He was in a good mood, and we figured Beth and Brandon would only be about 30 minutes.  Everything would be fine.

We were wrong.

I walked Liam across the street to a park, and everything seemed very normal.  Liam was in a content mood, and I decided to sit on a bench and park the stroller beside me.  For some unknown reason (or a probably very easily known reason; babies are relatively simple to figure out), the instant I sat down, everything changed.  Liam began crying-- one of his exceptionally loud, yelling cries.  I proceeded to go through my Stop-Liam-From-Crying toolbox.  I picked him up.  Nothing.  I turned him around to have him face in front of me.  Nothing.  I turned on music.  Nothing.  Nothing.  Nothing.

Literally nothing I did calmed him down.  I didn't know what to do.  I was (and am) still in that self-conscious stage where I fear everyone around me is judging me for having a crying baby. 

After about a minute, I was bombarded.  An Orthodox woman sitting on a nearby bench ran over and kept crossing herself and saying a little prayer for Liam. Then the nearby porta-potty attendant (only those who live in Russia will understand this amazing profession)  ran over to try to help.  At the same time, another woman selling souvenirs quickly put out her cigarette and ran over as well.   Another woman just remained on the bench nearby, but did manage to shout a command here and there.

All these women tried their hardest to help quiet Liam.  To my surprise and relief, not one woman approached me in harsh or judgmental way, and all wanted to help and support me in my mission to get Liam to stop crying.  The questions came at me:

Do you have a pacifier?
Is he hungry?
Is he cold?
Does he need to eat?
Does he have a stomachache?
Does he have a hat?
Where is his mother?
Do you need to call her?

As the women passed Liam amongst themselves, I managed to quickly text Beth: "Hurry."

As I waited for Beth, and as Liam wailed at the top of his lungs, I tried to explain myself.  I would say things like:

"He was happy just a few minutes ago."

or,

"This is my first child."

Anything to make it seem like I'm not actually a horrible parent and Liam is either crying because of something that is out of my control or something I don't know about.

Finally Beth came.  And the women rejoiced.

After Beth finished feeding Liam, we left the park.  But not before going by every woman that helped us to show off a happy child.  Our way of saying, "Look, he doesn't cry like that all the time.  He really can be quite pleasant."

Beautiful St. Petersburg

So we escaped Moscow and went to beautiful St. Petersburg. We thought it would be a 3-5 day trip, however, the smoke lingered in Moscow longer than we imagined it could. We ended up spending just at 2 weeks in St. Pete. We were able to stay at St. Petersburg Christian University in their dorms. We were also able to connect with other people working with our organization in St. Pete. They were wonderful and had us over for dinner a few times...it was wonderful to have a home cooked meal and great conversation with some awesome new friends.

Last Train Out

We left the camp on Saturday afternoon with the plan to see how things were in Moscow and if they were to bad...possibly trying to go somewhere else on Monday. However, as we drove into the city we realized how bad things really were. We could not see some buildings that we knew we were passing. I started getting a headache and Liam started coughing and wheezing. We knew we needed to get out of Moscow as soon as possible. We got home, packed a few things, and a friend came to drive us to the train station due to the metro being filled with smoke. Tim stood in the long lines and got us tickets on the next available train out. Thankfully there were two tickets on the 1:35am train to St. Petersburg. They were in a 4 person compartment and we had the 2 top bunks. I shared a bunk with Liam...it was not a comfortable ride, but we were so thankful to be getting out of Moscow we didn't care. We heard later that by the next morning train tickets were sold out for the rest of the week and over 100,000 people flew out of the city. We feel so blessed that we were able to get Liam out of the smoke and somewhere safer.

Liam sleeping on the car ride back to Moscow.

Liam hogging our bunk!  This is where we both slept.

At the Camp

Tim went out to help with an English Camp outside of the city...and after a couple of days of just Liam and I in our hot, smokey apartment...we decided to go out and join him for the rest of the week. There were about 30 campers between the ages of 14-23. They were so much fun and Liam was voted the most popular person at camp. It was great walking around with Liam around the camp in the fresh air, however, it was a little surreal. Walking around the grounds of this former soviet youth camp there are many reminders of communist Russia...a time Liam will never know.

Fire and Brimstone!

It has been a crazy summer here in Moscow! Liam has had an adventurous first few months. This summer Moscow experienced the hottest weather ever recorded for the longest period of time. It was sweltering...and there was no relief. We live in an non-air-conditioned, cement block apartment building. The temperature inside never went under 100f...even at night. I have never experienced such heat...and I am an Atlanta girl!
Then came the fires! Due to the heat and drought there were over 2,000 fires around Moscow and the smoke filled the city. Some days would be bad and some days would be clear...depending on how the winds were blowing.