Alexander's story

My amazing son Alexander has written a story for his 6th grade English Lit. class. This is just the rough draft but I was so thrilled with his creativity (okay genius) that I had to put it up for you to read.

Journey of Love

Part One

It was 5:00 in the morning. I was sleeping. I completely forgot to set my alarm clock to five. It was a Friday so I knew that I only had about an hour until I had to start my morning affairs.

“Wake up” my father boomed.

“Oh man, what time is it?” I asked blankly.

“Its 5:15” he replied “and we’re running late.”

It was then that I remembered that we were going to Russia. I threw my cloths on, brushed my teeth, gulped down some cereal, and ran outside to the airport-van. I was tiered, but having what I was about to get was worth it.

It was about 6:00 by the time we got to the airport. I could smell all the food at the bakery and restraints. I was hungry, and wanted to eat. But there was so much to choose from. There was pizza, Burger King, McDonalds, and anything else a tiered and hungry person could want.

“Mom, I’m hungry.” I whined.

“Well, lets check these bags in and then we can go and get something to eat” she replied.

I wanted something to eat really badly, and I was about to complain, but I stopped myself. I knew that it was trouble to mess with mom in the morning. So, I waited patently for our father to check in the bags.

It seemed like an hour before he got back.

“Now can we go get some food?” I whined.

When we finally got some food it was 7:30. We were all ready to get on the plane. We got some breadsticks from pizza hut.

“How much more longer until we go?” I complained.

“You sure are whiney. Why don’t you take a nap?” offered dad.

I considered it, but quickly decided that I would not want to miss a second of any action.


When we got onto the plane (at 8:00) I wanted to play game boy. Mom had got me to new games, and I wanted to play them. Nether the less I waited an extra 15 minutes for the flight attendant to do her little presentation, for the plane to take off, and for the plane to get to a high enough altitude.

“Would you like anything to drink?” asked the flight attendant.

I took advantage of sitting in front of my mom, instead of right next to her

“I’ll have some sprite please.”

After I drank my sprite, I was able to play my Game Boy. It had been 4 hours before I asked how long it would be before we got there. I knew I shouldn’t wake mom up, but I did so any way. “At least 4 more hours.” Said mom.

I didn’t want to run out of batteries on my Game Boy, so I listened to music and fell asleep.

When I woke up we had landed in Moscow. Now was the long flight. But we had some time to kill so we got some lunch. By the time we had eaten and got to our terminal, it was time to get on the plane.

I fell asleep as soon as we got on the plane. When I woke up we still had 7 hours left on the plane. So I watched a movie, listened to some music and played some game boy. We only had 2 hours left, so I figured I’d take a nap.

When I woke from my second nap of the (long) day, we had landed. We picked up our luggage, took at took a taxi to our hotel, and went to bed. But we couldn’t sleep in to long, because we had to take a taxi to visit the orphanage where Dima was.

I was excited because I hadn’t seen Dima for over a year and a half when we saw them in California (but that’s a different story). So after we ate breakfast and crammed in the car. It took 2 ours to get there (did I mention that it was in the middle of winter, and winter in Russia is so cold it feels like Knifes stabbing you in the face whenever the wind blows). When we got there it was heartbreaking. We were greeted by the director (who had pink hair), who led us in and told us to sit down on the bench while she went to get Dima. As we waited for Dima we heard these little voices.

“Is that my mommy? Is that my mommy?” chimed little orphans.

“Nyet. No Edo, Edo (No. Now go) she snapped.

“What are they saying?” I whispered.

“They’re saying, “Is that my mommy?”” whispered mom (she could speak Russian).

“How sad,” added in Dad.

“Own thama (he’s in there).”

“Let’s go,” said Mom.

Once we were in the room we saw Dima. He was a lot smaller than I remembered him. We hugged and kissed for a couple of minutes. Then the director left.

I got out some toy cars to play with. Dima acted as if they were the most precious things he had ever got (they where). I played and played and played with him for hours. But then he said one of the only English words he knew. It gave my dad a nervous look.

“Shoulders daddy, shoulders!” he yelled.

Dad was about to deny the little orphan his wish when Mom gave him a strong look. Half-heartedly he lifted him up and onto his shoulders. Dima kept on covering Dad’s eyes. Dad said, “I can’t see” and then Dima said, “I can’t see” mimicking him. This continued for a long time.

Unfortunately, we had to leave. But it wasn’t so bad. We told him we’d come back. But tomorrow, we were going to visit max, because we would se his sister, Nastia (her real name was Anastasia.).


The next day we crammed into the taxi. I was extra excited, because of how well yesterday went. I fell asleep the second the car moved though. My mom woke me up when we got there. I ran inside, with my parent’s right behind me. But then I stopped dead in my tracks.

“What’s wrong?” asked mom.

“They're old.” I whispered.

“Well what did you expect?” she asked.

“Well I didn’t expect them to be old.” I said

It wasn’t so bad when I got used to it. We waited for 10 minutes again. Then we got to see max and Anastasia. I was so happy to see her. I got out a Barbie, but she was too old. So then I got out a coloring book, which seemed to interest both her and max. So I colored with them for a couple of minutes.
But then Mom said that we were going to eat lunch, with the director. The director here seemed a lot more mean then the one at Dima’s orphanage. But never the less I ate lunch with her. The food wasn’t so bad, but everybody staring at us was.
We then went to get Max’s passport picture taken. As soon as we got back we found all the kids crowding around my mom. So we played with them for an hour.
But we had to go eventually, so we did. But like Dima, we assured them that we would come back.

We continued visiting the orphanages for when we could, but when we couldn’t we would drive around town and find something to do like go the aquarium, or go to a museum, or walk on the on the frozen ocean. This continued for about two weeks, but then we got our court date.
I could hardly sleep the night before the court date. I stayed up until 2 in the morning reading. Then I finally fell asleep.
We woke up nervous, but excided. We got ready in silence. We drove to the court in silence. We went to court in silence. But after an hour of debating, the judge asked us to step out side. We did so in silence.
I hoped and prayed for the answer I wanted. And then, They asked us to step inside. They told us the answer, and It was ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… YES!!!!!!!!!!
We ran outside, crying with joy. And, we got to pick Max and Dima up tomorrow. It was a happy day for the Baxter family.


Part Two

I woke up the next morning bright and early, but mom and dad were already up. I poured my self some cereal, thinking that this would be the last breakfast I would have as an only child. When I finished, we set off.
First we had to get some cakes for all the people that were in this adoption (don’t ask me why, but I think its Russian custom). Like the social workers, the directors, and all those other people. So we did, and then we went to get them.
We got Max first. He was really happy to go, but someone else felt pain. It was his sister. He never wanted to come with us unless Anastasia was coming with him. But he changed his mind when she told him she would be alright. When he left she was crying and holding on to him. When she finally let go of him she stormed off, with her friends behind her.
Then we got Dima. It wasn’t as hard on him to leave as it was on Max. while we were giving the director her cake we told Dima to go and get anything he wanted to take with him. He came back with a rubber ball. Oh well, like they say “One mans garbage is another mans treasure.”.
It was a long car ride home, but Max and Dima found stuff to do. Dima played game boy and max listened to The Beach Boys.
I wish we could say we lived happily ever after, but we didn’t. We encountered unexpected difficulties. For example, temper tantrums, misbehavior, waking us up at nighttime. It was like they were 2 year olds in an 8 year old body. But we survived, and with every tantrum we learned how to counter it.
About 2 days latter we were boarding a plain back home. Max and Dima had never been on an airplane of course. Dima stayed in his seat with his game boy. But max was allover the place. He was talking to people, sitting on there lap, shining flashlights in other people’s eyes, that kind of stuff. But we got him under control.
When we got home we got a taxi back home. Max was more excited than Dima was about having a dog. When we picked our dog up he was also excited to see to new boys.
It was funny to see the boys saying it was summer when it was winter! Apparently our winter feels like there summer.
Well this is my brothers' story.