Mail Order Bride, Russian Woman, Russian Girl, Beautiful Russian Woman

Arina's Story Part IV
(September 2003)

November 23, 2003 marks the 5th anniversary of my coming to America. While life is always full of twists, turns, and surprises, my life over the past year has really been quite ordinary and satisfying.
I consider the following commentary and photos the highlights of the past year. I hope that any of the information will provide you some idea (even if it is a small one) of what life in America can be like for a Russian lady from Togliatti!

October 2002 saw the arrival of a new family member. "Wembley" is a sulphur-crested Cockatoo. He is a very smart and loving companion who loves attention and to play. He has some very unfortunate traits as well, not the least of which is total destruction of the furniture in our home. He must be supervised or he is almost certain to get into trouble.

In October 2002 my husband Craig and I were guests on the nationally syndicated Ricki Lake Show, along with three clients of A Volga Girl. The discussion on the hour long show was about Russian brides and whether or not companies like A Volga Girl were exploiting the women profiled on web sites. The show was supposed to offer a fair balance of opinions, though there was much more discussion about "exploitation and flesh peddling" than discussion about the thousands of happy American-Russian couples that are formed each year. A number of false assumptions were made throughout the show. The host failed to accept any positive points of view.

After I was introduced to the audience I was asked nothing, and sat like a stone for an entire hour. While I have appeared on a number of television programs, this experience left me feeling both betrayed and degraded. Of course, if one wanted to form an opinion about Russian brides, why not ask one (me)? I think daytime talk shows have not so much to do with the truth. They like to keep the controversy going.