A Comment from Don Lester

I adopted two boys from Russia, both when they were 8 years old. They are now 14 and 11, and as a single dad, I have tried to immerse them with their heritage and our US culture. As I see it, I'm their father and Russia is their mother and she has given me two fine young men to call part of my family. I'm really looking forward to these events. My younger son and I were in Moscow the day after the funeral of Boris Yeltsin and I have a picture of my son at Yeltsin's grave covered in a mound of flowers. We were being given a tour of Moscow and this cemetery was a part of the tour. I have contacted other families who have adopted from Russia in hopes that they may be able to help with translations for you (unfortunately my boys don't speak conversational Russian any more). I saw first hand having been to Russia twice and having to stay and live there twice for 30 days that our people and their people are so similar that we just want better lives for our children and to be happy. More visits like this can only continue to break down the confusion that exists between our two countries and help us to both be leaders in the world who work together to solve Earth's bigger issues.