A message for Alexei in Russia

Before we left Russia September 11th, 2009 he said to my son, "Come back to Russia."

2 years later, we are taking our son back to Russia with us to pick up his sister. I suppose I never thought Alexei would be going back to Russia so soon as we hoped to make it a family trip a decade down the line, not a couple of years.

The words, "Come back to Russia" gave me a deeper sense of where we come from and how important it is, whether we are thousands of miles away or next door. My husband being from Canada, myself from America and my son being from Russia has given me a greater understanding of the deep roots we cling onto in our home countries. Of course, our home here, where ever we make our home is our home sweet home, but where we are from will always be a part of who we are.

I love when my son says, "I am from Russia." My grandmother also had roots in Russia and culturally we knew it, even though she wasn't born in Russia. She was Russian from personality, to upbringing and how we looked at life. Now, I am not stereotyping, rather giving a cultural identity to her and how she raised us. She was strong, independent and quite the leader in success. Nothing held her back and therefore nothing should hold us back, just as she would say to me, "Do what you do and do it for you."

The importance for my children and their lives to hold onto their roots play such a priority in our lives. When I created my son's life journal, separate from his life book, I created it with pages dedicated to the cultures of Canada, America and Russia. I wrote him a book in a journal, "Dear Alexei" on every page from before we picked him up until now to show who he is, who he has become and I hope it will guide him when I am gone so that he never forgets where he came from.

Although we are taking him back to Russia at age 3, I hope he can return many more times to where he is from and how far he has come as this is what makes us who we are in the present.