My sister called just as I was leaving Writer’s Group. We talked for
nearly 45 minutes on Seventh Avenue. Freaky. Talking to my sister, who
is in Perm, Russia, as I walk up to Miracle Grill on Third Street to have drinks with
my writer friends.

"We went to the orphanage today to meet Svetlana," my sister said. It was all a blur. We
drove 2 1/2 hours on country roads that look like New England. Arrived
at the "Children’s Home" around 1pm. We met with the doctor and a
social worker. It was quite intense."

"Tell your sister: Congratulations. We’re really happy for her," my writer friends shouted at me as I talked on my cell phone.

"And then they brought her in. She’s
really cute. Very calm and serene, but also alert and liked playing
with the toys," my sister said. "Her hair is definitely red. although she doesn’t have
much of it at the moment. She still has those big cheeks."

As I walked past Pino’s Pizza on Seventh Avenue, a firetruck whirred by, siren blaring. My sister continued: "We gave her
some of the toys we brought and she enjoyed them a lot and seemed very
engaged in play. She also liked when I read the book that you gave me.
The one about daddy. I held her for a long time," she said, her voice clear and loud considering how far away she was.

It was early morning in the hotel room in Perm and my sister was
getting ready to go back to the orphanage. Two and a half hours by car
through the country side, it’s a very long ride.

Strangely enough, the hotel they are staying in is filled with New Yorkers: music and dance artists who
are performing in an arts festival in town. Perm is Diagelev’s
birthplace: my sister learned that that from one of the opera
singers.

It’s hard to imagine being my sister right now; meeting her daughter
for the first time, trying to ascertain whether she is healthy,
struggling to take pictures, to fill out forms to show the American
doctor in Washington who is expert at detecting medical problems from
videos and photographs. The orphanage was less depressing than they
expected.  There were murals on the walls; it was clean.

I can tell that my sister has bonded with Svetlana (Sonia. Ducky).
She is scared out of her mind but feeling pulled toward this little
girl she’s traveled so far to see.

What a journey it has been. It started over a year and a half ago.
Actually, it started nearly five years ago when she and her husband got
married, ready to make a family. Things didn’t work out that way. They
tried all the medical procedures but nothing worked.

At Miracle Grill, we talked about my sister. My writer friends were
moved by the idea of my sister and her husband 6000 miles away meeting
Svetlana (Sonia. Ducky) for the first time. They sighed, they smiled,
we toasted one another. Then we moved on to other topics. I drank
Chardonnay, my body on the outdoor deck at Miracle Grill, but my heart
half way around the world.

-Louise G. Crawford