Traveler
I am late on posting this week for a very good reason. Our oldest son got married this past Saturday. (February 29th).
Disclaimer: Yes it is a month later. Just as I was writing this post and catching my breathe after the wedding, things all over the world turned upside down; with the virus, closing of schools, getting ‘let go’ of my evening job, a 5.7 earthquake, and needing to travel to another school to do grab and go lunches, Redoing and organizing our food room and porch room with all of the storage either needing to be replaced or moving things around and adding new things with the pandemic that is going on, for better efficiency.
Okay, back to the wedding.
This wedding almost didn’t happen. He and Tatiana have been dating for 2 years. Mark brought her home a year ago for Christmas. I fell in love with her. She is a very sweet girl, beautiful inside and out.
Anyway, she is from Russia, and had gotten a visa to come to the United States to go to school to become a nurse. Her visa has been expired for at least a year. Her mother in still in Russia and her grandmother’s health is not doing well and after Tatiana graduated (which was this past December) she needed to work for an internship and save money so she can return to Russia to be with her family.
Mark had invited us to come to Texas for her graduation and wanted to surprise her, so it was hush hush. However, just before the graduation, Mark was trying to get information from her as to details of when and where, but he ended up needing to tell her that we were coming to surprise and support her. Shortly after that, she asked that they take a break from each other, at least until she had taken her final exam.
When Mark had asked us to come down, I knew shortly after that he was going to ask her to marry him and we would need to take another trip to Texas this next year. Not a problem.
Also, when we had found out that she broke things off because it would make things harder when she went back to Russia, I had another feeling. That he would go to Russia. Yes, my mother brain was saying NO NO NO. But, I really did feel peace the more I thought about that possibility, that it was the right thing to do.
Our tickets were already purchased, so we still planned to go if nothing more than to spend time with our son, see Houston, AND be a comfort to him as I could imagine he was devastated with the break up.
While in Texas we visited with him privately (as one of our sons and our daughter traveled with us) and I tearfully apologized that I did not call him after he sent the news. A lot was said, but is way too personal to post here. That journaling will take place somewhere else. In our conversation I asked him if he would go to Russia? He said they had planned to visit there, so yes. Again more was discussed that I won’t mention here.
We all, enjoyed our visit with him, and went home. Then on my birthday, Mark called and gave us the news that he asked Tatiana to marry him. YES, YES, YES!!! We are all so excited. This too means he will indeed be going to Russia, and with her visa having expired, it means it could be a while before she will be able to come back to the United States, if at all. So yes, that means it may be possible he will be there for the rest of his life. That is sad news to a mother, however, it is the right thing. She is such a sweet girl and he really loves her in order to make such a decision.
So with this all being said, one of the places I would like to travel to someday is Russia. But if that is not to be, I am so grateful for the technology we have that will enable us to Face Time. More than just a letter (snail mail) or an email, we can see them and them us, especially as they have children.
Her mother lives about 3 hours from Moscow. To be completely honest I don’t know a lot about Russia. There have been several movies I’ve watched that talks about or takes place in Russia, and of course we learned about it in school with history classes, however that was quite some time ago.
It is really easy to get stuck in our own little world, our comfort zone, our stage of ignorance. While admitting this and saying I want to learn about Russia doesn’t mean I will want to learn about every country in the world, it does give me a chance and the purpose to learn about the land where my son and daughter-in-law will live.
Since then, we have learned that through them talking to an emigration attorney, it will be quite a while (a couple of years) before they will be going to Russia. Hooray for us. 🙂 AND that there should be no worry about how long they will need to stay. They should be able to get travel visa’s relatively easily.
You can go to https://www.visitrussia.org.uk/two-hearts-of-russia-moscow-and-st-petersburg for some wonderful photos and travel information. I am unable at this time to paste photos to this page without approval. Besides, this site has way more photos than i could possibly post here.
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