A Dad's Journey Through International Adoption

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Random ramblings

Sunday, July 22, 2007

Of course right after I complain about the uncivil behavior of the FRUA forum a great thread is started which I found so valuable for adopting parents traveling to Russia that if you haven't yet traveled you really should take a look. And if you are already back, you may wish to contribute to it. It's the thread "What was your biggest surprise and yo..." It's within the "Russia" section on the forum.

Lots of great traveling tidbits. There were tons of posts and you could really make out the trends or consensus helping decide which advice you really need to follow. A lot of people talked about the concept of sightseeing. It was universal that sightseeing, if it is to be done, really has to happen on trip 1. Our friends who adopted from Samara took a couple of extra days and visited St. Petersburg which in addition to housing the Hermitage museum is regarded as one of the most beautiful cities in Europe. And heading there was something we really really wanted to do and then take a few days in Moscow for some more sightseeing.

However, Moscow to Samara is a mere 500 miles (about a trip from San Francisco to San Diego) while our region is almost three times that far. So we're going to lose a full day each way from Moscow to Omsk just due to travel. So now we're trying to decide how much and where we do all our "touristy" stuff. This week's Purchase of the Week is two great travel books (one on each city). Both are great but I think I like the way the Eyewitness Travel books are done.

Some good news on the required cash front. The manager at our local branch of the credit union knows all about the requirements about clean, good shape (not torn) and unmarked bills (evidentially most countries require those to avoid counterfeit bills). And he's collecting some for us and we should be able to get at least half of what we need. And the rest I can easily get from other banks around town. I do need to get a money belt though. Fortunately we don't have to carry a lot of cash, some folks I've heard have had to bring nearly $15,000!!! Thankfully we don't need even half that.

The cash is for paying our driver, translator, etc. and any money we need for food, and just traveling cash. Because Omsk is a very large city (well over 1 million population) we're pretty certain we'll be able to pay for our hotel with a credit card which is why our cash requirements are on the lower side.

Labels: money, sightseeing

posted by Steveg @ 11:02 AM 3 comments

Okay, it's getting real now

Thursday, July 19, 2007

So we've heard that referrals are now coming out from our region as well. There have been a bunch of people who have reported that other regions too are now sending out referrals. So it looks like the whole process throughout the various regions is rolling. This is both really great news but also a bit scary. I'm mean, this thing is getting real now. Damn, and just as I was getting accustom to the whole waiting thing.

Of course, we're really still in waiting mode. Because now we are waiting for our referral and there are a lot of factors that will impact when we might hear something. First, we don't know where we are on the list of waiting families not to mention that a child has to be matched up to us (which is a pretty cryptic process and no one really knows for sure how that whole thing is done). And then there's always the possibility that the key person from our region's MOE goes on vacation (next few months are the big vacation time in Russia), and from what I hear everything is put on hold till they get back.

But back to the scary part of this. Remember we were being conservative and estimating we wouldn't be hearing anything until September or October (or maybe even later). Now it's actually possible that we could possibly maybe perchance conceivably perhaps get a referral this month! And that means I need to get it into high gear. I just want to do a little legwork in advance to insure when we need to roll, we have some of the key things in place.

So I've contacted one of the two international adoption (IA) doctors we will be using just to ask how the whole consultation process works. Thankfully these folks have the whole process pretty well wired. You literally can contact them out-of-the-blue with all the pertinent medical records and usually within 48-72 hours they're providing you a consultation.

The other thing I need to do is contact our credit union and see if they will be able to provide the special cash requirements. We will need to pay the people helping us (driver, translator, etc.) in cash and the bills need to be almost brand new currency (or at least unmarked and unblemished). The rationale for this is that the banks and other currency exchange places in Russia are wary of counterfeit bills. And supposedly this is how they protect against that. Doesn't really seem logical to me since the age of a bill or it's properties (faded or repeatedly folded) isn't really a way to determine it's authenticity.

But it's what they want, so that's what they are going to get. So I just need to ask if our credit union can help us get a few thousand in brand new bills. I'm trying to decide if I should inform the teller first that we need it because we're adoption from Russia or just say what I need and see what kind of expression they get on their face. It should be good for a laugh or two. And of course we live in the San Francisco Bay Area which, I know this is shocking, has a few other banks. So even if my credit union can't help us I can easily get a major bank that can.

NEWS UPDATE More good news, there's been a number of reports from a bunch of agencies that the second batch of accreditations have happened today. We'll have to wait and see how many but it certainly appears to be at least the same number that were in the first batch. I'm getting a little worried now because the good news just keeps on pouring in.

Labels: adoption process, money

posted by Steveg @ 11:55 AM 3 comments

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I'm Steve and this is my wife Stefanie. This is our story, mostly seen through my eyes, of the journey to create our family by adopting a child from Russia.

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