Tuesday, September 11, 2007

What's next?

So we've got our travel date. It means we can now start making plans, right? But there are so many things to decide. Do we go for 2 trips vs 1 trip? Or maybe one of us goes home and the other stays to finish the process? Do we buy roundtrip tickets and pay penalties when changing return dates, or do we buy adoption fare tickets, which are more expensive, but don't have the penalties? It's hard to decide.

Other than the tickets, there are a lot of other things we have to take care of:

- Sign the Power of Attorney document for my Mom, making her Victoria's temporary guardian.

- Talk to Victoria's teachers (at preschool, gymnastics, dance and music) and let them know we'll be out of the country.

- Buy money belts. Apparently it's not safe to use the ATM machines over there, so it's better to take cash.

- Start making packing lists. Everybody says we should pack lightly, but Ukranians usually dress very nicely, and I don't want to look bad, so it means I need to take a lot of clothes. My old friends won't understand if I won't show up on high heels in designer clothes :)

- Get all the paperwork together, for example, the embassy forms, maybe the copy of our dossier, etc.

- BUY GIFTS!!! We have a lot friends in Odessa, so it's probably impossible to buy gifts for all of them, but we'll try our best. It also doesn't help when they automatically think that all Americans are rich.

- Talk to the school district about Raisa's placement in school.

- Talk to the Human Resources about adding another child to the Medical/Dental policy.

- Buy furniture for Raisa's bedroom.

And the list goes on and on... Oh well, we still have more than 2 months before our travel date, so I guess we have enough time to take care of everything!

5 comments:

Kathy and Matt said...

Your list is great. We don't even have our date yet, but I was just starting to think through - "what do I need to get done?"

It will go fast. Can't wait to read more as your travel dates arrive.

Tami said...

It seems like there's always so much to do before traveling to adopt. It's a never ending list, isn't it? It sounds like you have it under control. I can't wait to hear more about your preparations...it will help us get ready for ours (hopefully soon!) ;)

Zack, Jenn and William said...

It's overwhelming to start making all your "To Do" lists. But at the same time, it's exciting, isn't it?!

Courtney said...

What about one-way tickets? We're considering that option as well. I totally understand the "dress nicely" thing. I have a friend from Rep of Georgia and she always ships her clothes back and forth when she goes home from the US, since she has too many to take in her suitcases!!

Melissa E. said...

Wow! so much to do! Two months isn't that long, really! It's kind of fun though to have a deadline to work toward. Well, at least sometimes!

This should be an extra fun time for you guys since you will also be getting to meet up with old friends and family!