all aboard... the ride has begun!
We are headed up the track on the roller coaster. I can almost hear the car plugging away with all the weight to get up to the top. Crank Crank Crank!
Yesterday we received all our travel information. We are waiting for the invitation letter from Russia at this point with our travel dates on it so we may complete our visa's and make our flight reservations.
There are many things to do from now on in. We have to set up the international doctor so when we get to the region and meet this little guy we can take more photos and get more medical information and sent it all to the IA doctor who is in the states. These special doctors are very familiar with international children. They will assess the risks of the child and review all growth and developmental targets. They will call us at our hotel and go over everything about the child. We then have to make our decision.
We are a bit nervous about medical part. We decided to use Dr. Dana Johnon who started the international doctor organization to help families with this most difficult decision. Most of these doctors have adopted international children. We feel confident in his abilities and have read only wonderful things about him.
Our travel itineray will go like this: the day after we arrive in Moscow we go the region and to the 'YAC' Yaroslavl Adoption Center to get the official referral of the child. We then go to the orphanage to meet the doctor, director and the child. We can go over his medical information with the orphanage Dr. as well as gather information for our IA doctor. This will be our opportunity to take pictures and ask our millions of questions to the caregiver. We could bring in an outside Dr. to the orphanage as well however we decided to send the information the western IA Dr. instead. We then go back to our hotel to send all the information we collected to the IA doctor etc... and wait for his call. If all is good and we decide to follow through with this child we go the next day back to YAC where we will sign to adopt and get the release letter so they can schedule the court date. We then travel back to Moscow that day. We fly home the next day. Total of 4-5 days if all goes well.
If we need to do a second referral then it adds a day. Not much time to get all the medical information and talk with the IA doctors and make a decision.
We were told to dress nice in church clothes to go the YAC and to the orphanage on the first day to meet the director. We are told it would be a good idea to stop along the way and get some fresh bread, a bundle of fresh fruit and/or flowers for the director and several packs of diapers . I have put together a suitcase full of donation items for the orphanage and some items for the caregivers. Several outfits for the kids, several slippers, shoes, socks, underpants, diaper creams, books, crayons, coloring books, toothbrushes, toothpaste, writing pads, soaps, teas, pens, bubbles, mittens and onesies. When we go for our second trip I will ask the director what she may need for the children and we will get that in Russia.
We also were told not to sit on the ground as we would be scolded by russian citizens. They think you can get sick by sitting on the ground. The children must be dressed very warm even when it is hot. I hear June is a bear over there with the heat and mosquitos. We are looking forward to going on our trip and meeting our future son. We also will so do some tourist sightseeing of Moscow at the end of our trip. We will not have time to do that on the second trip so we will take advantage of this time and buy some items in Russia for future gifts for our child. We do want him to understand where he came from and be proud of his hertitage. So we will learn more about it as well. Scott has been practicing his russian, he took it for 4 years in high school so at least he can get us to the toilette. We will have a translator/coordinator with us the whole time with the exception of sightseeing. We want to visit the Red Square and the Arabat and Tverskaya Street.
I will keep you posted on our travel dates
Yesterday we received all our travel information. We are waiting for the invitation letter from Russia at this point with our travel dates on it so we may complete our visa's and make our flight reservations.
There are many things to do from now on in. We have to set up the international doctor so when we get to the region and meet this little guy we can take more photos and get more medical information and sent it all to the IA doctor who is in the states. These special doctors are very familiar with international children. They will assess the risks of the child and review all growth and developmental targets. They will call us at our hotel and go over everything about the child. We then have to make our decision.
We are a bit nervous about medical part. We decided to use Dr. Dana Johnon who started the international doctor organization to help families with this most difficult decision. Most of these doctors have adopted international children. We feel confident in his abilities and have read only wonderful things about him.
Our travel itineray will go like this: the day after we arrive in Moscow we go the region and to the 'YAC' Yaroslavl Adoption Center to get the official referral of the child. We then go to the orphanage to meet the doctor, director and the child. We can go over his medical information with the orphanage Dr. as well as gather information for our IA doctor. This will be our opportunity to take pictures and ask our millions of questions to the caregiver. We could bring in an outside Dr. to the orphanage as well however we decided to send the information the western IA Dr. instead. We then go back to our hotel to send all the information we collected to the IA doctor etc... and wait for his call. If all is good and we decide to follow through with this child we go the next day back to YAC where we will sign to adopt and get the release letter so they can schedule the court date. We then travel back to Moscow that day. We fly home the next day. Total of 4-5 days if all goes well.
If we need to do a second referral then it adds a day. Not much time to get all the medical information and talk with the IA doctors and make a decision.
We were told to dress nice in church clothes to go the YAC and to the orphanage on the first day to meet the director. We are told it would be a good idea to stop along the way and get some fresh bread, a bundle of fresh fruit and/or flowers for the director and several packs of diapers . I have put together a suitcase full of donation items for the orphanage and some items for the caregivers. Several outfits for the kids, several slippers, shoes, socks, underpants, diaper creams, books, crayons, coloring books, toothbrushes, toothpaste, writing pads, soaps, teas, pens, bubbles, mittens and onesies. When we go for our second trip I will ask the director what she may need for the children and we will get that in Russia.
We also were told not to sit on the ground as we would be scolded by russian citizens. They think you can get sick by sitting on the ground. The children must be dressed very warm even when it is hot. I hear June is a bear over there with the heat and mosquitos. We are looking forward to going on our trip and meeting our future son. We also will so do some tourist sightseeing of Moscow at the end of our trip. We will not have time to do that on the second trip so we will take advantage of this time and buy some items in Russia for future gifts for our child. We do want him to understand where he came from and be proud of his hertitage. So we will learn more about it as well. Scott has been practicing his russian, he took it for 4 years in high school so at least he can get us to the toilette. We will have a translator/coordinator with us the whole time with the exception of sightseeing. We want to visit the Red Square and the Arabat and Tverskaya Street.
I will keep you posted on our travel dates
posted by Scott and Kim Mench at 9:25 AM
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