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Advice for the travelers
Thought you would like some insight to the questions we are asking so here is our post to a group we belong to and their responses:
From: Beth B
Date: Wed Nov 2, 2005 7:38 pm
I have lots of questions for those of you who have done all th is before. How many outfits did you take? Is there a place to do laundry or have it done at the hotel? What kinds of food did you take for your kids..we are adopting a 15 month old and a 3 yr old. Should we have boots for the 3 yr old? Realistically, what are the chances of having the 10 day wait waived? How much can you visit the kids during the 10 day wait? What should we wear to court?
Anyone willing to answer, it would be much appreciated :)
8 comments:
From: Kimberly P
Date: Wed Nov 2, 2005 8:01 pm
I can answer two of your questions.....
1) Laundry.....yes there is a place to do laundry at the Hotel Volgograd. You have to give it to the girl on your floor (with the keys) by 8 am and she will have it back by 4 pm.
2) I wore a skirt and a sweater to court. My husband wore a jacket, tie, dress shirt, and dress pants. We did not take suits and we were fine. Everyone else there with us wore pants.
Hope this helps.
Kim
From: Shannon
Date: Wed Nov 2, 2005 10:58 pm
1. My husband and I took way too many clothes and recently have talked that when we go back, that we would only take our court clothes, two pairs of pants and four shirts. We would then use the laundry service after we wore each item twice. People in Russia wear the same clothes often. Our translator told us this and wore the same thing for several days as well. We believe that the added cost of heavy luggage, over the weight limit, would equal out or be less than the cost of laundry.
2. 1 year ago we were told the 10 day wait was almost never waived and I'm not sure if it changed. We were in the city orphanage and were able to visit every day. It is a little more difficult with the country orphanaged due to travel arrangments. After I'd been there quite a while, I would even walk to the orphanage alone and visit without our translator. The ladies all knew me by then and felt comfortable letting us in, even on Sunday.
3. Take lots of books, card games etc.
4. I love to eat and was very hungry on trip#2. Take snacks. Our first trip was so fast we didn't find our way around. So on trip #2 after a while we found the pizza place, a german restaurant and a georgian restaurant that had english menus. Also the mall across the street from the hotel had some good snacks. Also find your way to the big market. (the German restaurant is right across the street from the market) YOu can find everything you need in that market. They have a great baby store. We bought formula, the same as our 15 month old currently used and some cereal she currently used. we thought this would help ease any potential stomach problems. That store had clothes, diapers, wipies, etc. We even bought a stroller in the mall that was pretty cheapy, but worked.
There are no high chairs in the Volgograd restaurants so eating with a 15 month old was tough. At night the hotel has a buffet that makes eating a little easier.
5. I wish you all the best for a safe and successful trip. I'll keep all of you that are traveling in my prayers.
From: Beth
Date: Thu Nov 3, 2005 12:06 am
When did you get custody of the children? At the very end of the 10 day wait? Right before you flew back to Moscow? Did you have them any nights in the hotel? How many changes of clothes did you bring for your child? How many diapers?
Beth
From: Diane
Date: Thu Nov 3, 2005 7:08 am
I would agree in packing light and having Hotel Volgograd do your laundry. They did a fabulous job.
One of my biggest hints is to buy the children's formula in Russia -- find the same they are fed now. We didn't with our daughter and she was sick from the change all the way home. It wasn't fun on those long flights. We bought our son's formula in country and avoided that "change of food" sickness until we got home. That was so worth it!
Bring approximately 6 diapers per day -- bring lots of wipes. Although I ran out of wipes and had no problem buying more in Russia. Also, food is a toss up for the older kids. Our 13 month daughter refused all baby food (which I brought lots of) and would only eat fresh fruit and some breads. We ended up begging rolls off our stewardess' on our flights. You never know what they'll like to eat. Hope for the best and be ready to shoot from the hip.
Also, buy a seat for your child on your long flight. Especially the older kids. Our 13 month old daughter was not used to being held for long periods of time and cried almost non-stop all the way home. She also refused to be comforted by anyone but myself. I pretty much walked all the way back from Moscow, walking up and down those airplane aisles (we even had the basinette seat for our long flight). For our son, we bought him a seat for the long flight from Moscow to JFK and it was the best money we ever spent. He slept, was content and barely made a peep all the way home.
From: Kimberly
Date: Thu Nov 3, 2005 7:44 am
We bought Noah a seat for the trip from Moscow to JFK and my husband was hesitant on the extra money but I will share your experience with him. :-)
Are you from the Northeast? We are in CT.
From: Diane
Date: Thu Nov 3, 2005 9:47 am
Trust me, the extra money for that seat is the best money we ever spent!
Let me elaborate on our experience. We had a 7 AM flight from Moscow to Zurich. Got up at 4 AM to get to the airport 2 hours early. The two hour flight from Moscow to Zurich was tough. Our daughter screamed the entire way. Looking back at this -- she's the type that NEEDS her sleep. To this day, she's still nasty if she's tired and at 6 years old, she sleeps 11-12 hours each night.
When we got to our connecting flight in Zurich, we were told we were not booked on that flight, but on a flight leaving in 7 hours. I actually started crying at the gate. I've never cried in public, but I was beat at that point and didn't know how I'd get through the rest of the trip. Also, we had run out of formula and again, she wouldn't eat the baby food I had packed. So we spent 7 hours in Zurich, trying to find food she'd eat and trying to find formula. Hint -- bring an umbrella stroller. Carry it on your flight there -- you can put your carry on luggage in it and push it through the airports, etc. It also doubles as a high chair, place for your child to nap, etc.
We left Zurich and had the bassenette seat to Atlanta. Again, crying and diareaha followed us all the way home. Not to mention that word got around the plane that we had just adopted our daughter from Russia. We were the only people on the flight with a child and we must have had 40 people come and "congratulate" us -- which was great, but they'd always show up just as we and/or our daughter were trying to sleep.
Got to Atlanta, had a 2 hour layover. Got on our flight from Atlanta to Columbus and some business man delayed the flight because he didn't want to store his luggage behind him. Meantime, I'm across the aisle from him with my daughter screaming in my lap. That business man turned around to give me a dirty look, and I must have given him a look to kill. Because after he looked at me, he stopped fighting with the stewardess, stowed his luggage behind him and we took off.
All in all, it took us 27 hours from hotel room to our front door. Our daughter slept about 2 hours of that and me and my husband slept about 45 minutes of that. When we got home, our daughter mainly slept for the next 3 days. It's a story she LOVES to hear about now -- how she drove her Mommy and Daddy crazy on the flight home from Russia.
So, BUY THAT TICKET!! :) Happy traveling -- and to put you all at ease that haven't adopted yet -- I've never heard a worst travel story than ours, so I'm sure your travel will go fine.
From: Lisa S
Date: Thu Nov 3, 2005 10:27 pm
I ended up bringing way too many clothes for Elena. You will only need clothes for the2-3 days in Volograd and then the couple of days to go to the Embassy in Moscow. We registered Elena with the Russian Embassy when we got home so we did not have to stay only 2 days. You can get diapers there at the Baby store in the Flee market or the pharmacies. The price is not much different and it sure was nicer not having to take them for our second adoption.
God Bless
Our 10th day fell on Sunday so we had to count Monday as day 10. We got Elena the afternoon of Tuesday after our little going away party with the staff. We were in Volgograd on Tuesday and Wednesday nights and then flew out Thursday evening at 7:30. That is usually the plan. You are waiting on the birth certificates and passports for those few days
From: Lisa S
Date: Sun, 2 Oct 2005 20:54:53 -0700 (PDT)
Hi,
With our experience with two adoptions from Volgograd it will not take 3 months. It should be much faster. The Christmas season is getting closer
and they will try to get as many adoptions completed as quickly as possible especially if your dossier has gone to the judge already. Just go ahead and start getting prepared. They usually shut down around the middle of Dec and then open back up around Jan. 8. We traveled Dec 5ht for first trip and went back for court on Feb. 5th. It is all according to if all docs are in order and the judge and court schedule. I am so excited for all of you and your soon to be bigger families. We also used Illien and are friends with Mark and Allison that have responded earlier. It is great to be able to talk to all of you guys about somewhere that is so dear to
our hearts.
God Bless.
From: Beth
Date: Mon Oct 3, 2005 12:20 am
How long ago did you adopt? What was the court like there? How did you
dress, etc?
From: Lisa
Date: Mon Oct 3, 2005 10:55 pm
We adopted in 2001 and 2004. Court is a small room with tables for the judge to sit behind, the prosecutor table and then the parent and interpreter table. We probably have all had the same facilitator. I think that are only a few in that region. There is a man and then his wife that work for different agencies and they are both very good. I think our dear interpreter and friend Kate is no longer working with them but Anya helped us also and she is wonderful. Your petition to adopt is used in your speech so just review it and put it to memory as best you can. We had to memorize Elena's diagnosisesssssssss. None of which were accurate except she did have one minor thing that has not even had to have anything done. You will be prepped the evening before as to what to say and what not to say. We even had the same judge both times. He actually remembered us which I think helped a little. We of course did not get the 10 waived but it was easier the second time around. We were his first American couple in 2001 and then he went away for years and then we were his first American couple for his second time around. That is diffinitely not an accident. You can use a cheat sheet but we just glanced at it occasionally to help us along. Hope this helps.
Lisa
From: Beth
Date: Mon Oct 3, 2005 10:56 pm
At the Hotel Volgograd, did you guys have a double bed or single beds?
From: Lisa
Date: Mon Oct 3, 2005 11:00 pm
Our room had the single beds. There are some rooms that they have pushed the beds together for a double bed. Our little room had room to walk around in then the sitting area was also nice. We put the crib between the beds in the evenings. Our room at that time was only $35.00 which was great since we were there so long.
From: Lisa
Date: Mon Oct 3, 2005 11:02 pm
I wore a black skirt and blazer with my dress boats and Danny wore a sports coat with dark trousers. It is so messy, muddy in the winter dark is the only way to go.
From: Lisa
Date: Tue Oct 4, 2005 6:28 pm
I wore a black long skirt with my dress boats and a turtle neck and blazer. My husband wore dark slacks, tie and a sport coat. It is like Sunday attire over here. It was winter so we layered our clothes because of cold outside and usually burning up inside the buildings.
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