To pack or not to pack: that is the question. I already mentioned that I want to make sure I can keep up with Ukrainian fashion. Well, if I could've packed my entire wardrobe, maybe I would be able to accomplish that. But I doubt my husband would be very thrilled with this idea. So I guess I won't be as glamorous as I want to be. Maybe just 2 pairs of high-heeled boots/shoes will do?
All kidding aside, the packing list is a big deal in our family :) I know I need to pack light. But how light? Here is a list of things I compiled from reading various blogs and boards:
- Travel pack of toilet paper (some public restrooms in Ukraine don't have TP)
- A small bottle of antibacterial soap (for example, Purell)
- Wipes
- Small umbrella
- Ziploc bags (a lot of people say it's a life saver)
- Grocery bags (the supermarkets in Ukraine don't give out grocery bags)
- Adapters
- Feebreze (in case we'll need to wear the same clothes twice or more. It's acceptable in Ukraine :)
- Small alarm clock (not to oversleep SDA appointment :)
- Small gift bags (they make great gifts with the card and some money)
- Tape measure (easier to buy clothes for kids because the sizes in Ukraine are totally different from American)
- Flashlight (in case there is no electricity)
- Pen and paper (just in case you need to write something down, and you don't have time to go buy it)
- Peanut butter (we don't eat it, so we won't be taking it with us, but many people reported that peanut butter is expensive and hard to find)
- Books! Oleg and I are addicted to books, but we should be able to find plenty of books there as we read Russian. I don't think English books are readily available.
- Movies on DVDs to pass the time. Again, it's not the case for us, we'll be happy with Russian TV, but people report that being able to watch movies in English is a life saver.
The list goes on and on and on. If you can recommend something else that's essential for the travel, please let me know!
Tuesday, September 25, 2007
Sunday, September 16, 2007
We've got the tickets!
We finally made a decision about the tickets. Oleg will go back home after the court, and I will most likely stay in Odessa to finish the process (unless the wait for the passports is too long). With that in mind we bought a round-trip tickets from JFK to Kiev, hoping that Oleg will use them to fly back and I'll only need to change my return ticket. We are flying by Aerosvit (Ukrainian Airlines), and the penalty to change a ticket is $150. We also bought one-way tickets from Rochester to JFK by JetBlue. Their prices for one-way ticket are exactly twice cheaper than roundtrip, so it makes sense to buy the return tickets later and not pay the $45 penalty fee (not a big fee, but why pay it?) We could've bought a little bit less expensive tickets (about $50 less each) if buying all flights together. But in this case we would have to fly through Detroit, or some other hub, have 3 flights rather than 2, and we were not comfortable with that. Not only it would be more complicated to change the tickets for 3 legs, but also there is a chance that the flight out of Rochester is cancelled (it happens from time to time). Since we live relatively close to New York (6 hours drive or 1 hour flight), we can always drive to New York to get to our flight to Kiev.
Originally we called Lonnie Rowland from the Rowland Enterprises, who was recommended by many people from the FRUA board. He gave us several very good quotes, but they were in line with what I found online, so I decided to buy the tickets without his help. Lonnie also provides a VIP service in the Kiev Borispol Airport. Since we speak Russian, we don't need this service, but many people used it and were very happy. Just last week Sean and Tracey O'Hara used the VIP service and were very happy they did! Not only their baggage was delayed and they had to fill out the forms in Russian at the airport, but also their SDA appointment was at the same day! They are currently in Odessa adopting their 2 beautiful daughters. Please keep them in your prayers as they are hoping to have a court date later next week.
Originally we called Lonnie Rowland from the Rowland Enterprises, who was recommended by many people from the FRUA board. He gave us several very good quotes, but they were in line with what I found online, so I decided to buy the tickets without his help. Lonnie also provides a VIP service in the Kiev Borispol Airport. Since we speak Russian, we don't need this service, but many people used it and were very happy. Just last week Sean and Tracey O'Hara used the VIP service and were very happy they did! Not only their baggage was delayed and they had to fill out the forms in Russian at the airport, but also their SDA appointment was at the same day! They are currently in Odessa adopting their 2 beautiful daughters. Please keep them in your prayers as they are hoping to have a court date later next week.
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!
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!
Tuesday, September 4, 2007
WE'VE... GOT... THE... DATE!!!
Yup, we did! And it's NOVEMBER 20th!!! Oh my God, now it all begins. I'm not sure I'm going to be able to continue working today...
It will be almost exactly 11 years to the date since we left Ukraine on November 26, 1996.
It will be almost exactly 11 years to the date since we left Ukraine on November 26, 1996.
Wednesday, August 29, 2007
Day 21 - no date yet
We don't have a travel date yet, but I didn't really expect to hear anything this week. I heard from my facilitator today, he told me the invitations are issued by SDA on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Yesterday they were announcing the dates for the dossiers that were submitted up to July 14th (we were submitted on the 30th). So my online friends who were submitted on the 16th should hear something really soon!
It's hard to believe that the summer is almost over, and Labor Day weekend is in a couple of days. Alex starts his sophomore year at RIT (Rochester Institute of Technology) on Labor Day (!!!) and Victoria starts preschool 2 weeks later.
We've got some pictures from our friends' daughter's wedding we recently attended. The bride was the most beautiful I've ever seen:
So if you are happened to be in New York, Toronto or Los Angeles, go to the Russian restaurant, you'll have the time of your life!
It's hard to believe that the summer is almost over, and Labor Day weekend is in a couple of days. Alex starts his sophomore year at RIT (Rochester Institute of Technology) on Labor Day (!!!) and Victoria starts preschool 2 weeks later.
We've got some pictures from our friends' daughter's wedding we recently attended. The bride was the most beautiful I've ever seen:
And Oleg and I had a great time:
The Russian parties are a lot of fun. I tried to explain to my friends what does that mean to party like Russians (Ukrainians, or any other people from former Soviet Union), but I couldn't find the right words. But yesterday I found a very humorous essay on the subject (please don't be offended by the first sentence :)
http://www.columbia.edu/~ip71/w116/2006/06/partying-with-russians_29.html
So if you are happened to be in New York, Toronto or Los Angeles, go to the Russian restaurant, you'll have the time of your life!
Tuesday, August 21, 2007
Birthday Parties
This weekend Victoria attended 2 birthday parties. She painted the pottery masterpiece:
and had fun meeting the clown, doing the face painting, etc:
That got me thinking about her incoming birthday. It's not until December, but I thought I should plan something now, before we go to Ukraine. A friend of mine is opening The Little Gym franchise, and I think it's a good idea to have Victoria's birthday party there. And thinking about her birthday made me realize that if everything goes well, Raisa will celebrate her 10th birthday on the US soil! Her birthday is also in December, so (I keep my fingers crossed) if everything works the way we want, we'll have a busy end of the year!
Today marks 16 business days since our dossier was submitted to SDA. This Friday is a holiday in Ukraine (Constitution day), so our 20 business days will fall on Tuesday, August 28th. Most of the time it takes much more than 20 business days to receive an appointment date, so I'm not really hoping to get it next week. But it would be nice to finally have a date, start planning, get tickets, etc.
and had fun meeting the clown, doing the face painting, etc:
That got me thinking about her incoming birthday. It's not until December, but I thought I should plan something now, before we go to Ukraine. A friend of mine is opening The Little Gym franchise, and I think it's a good idea to have Victoria's birthday party there. And thinking about her birthday made me realize that if everything goes well, Raisa will celebrate her 10th birthday on the US soil! Her birthday is also in December, so (I keep my fingers crossed) if everything works the way we want, we'll have a busy end of the year!
Today marks 16 business days since our dossier was submitted to SDA. This Friday is a holiday in Ukraine (Constitution day), so our 20 business days will fall on Tuesday, August 28th. Most of the time it takes much more than 20 business days to receive an appointment date, so I'm not really hoping to get it next week. But it would be nice to finally have a date, start planning, get tickets, etc.
Tuesday, August 14, 2007
Additional days in Ukraine
It looks like the number of days we need to spend in Ukraine is increasing in geometric progression. Well, maybe in arithmetic, not in geometric (it's the former math teacher in me talking :) Yesterday the American Embassy in Kiev announced that the procedure to get the visa for adopted children has changed. Previously the process was to have the medical exam and the visa interview in one day (most of the time). Sometimes the visa was ready at the same day, sometimes the next business day. Now the process is the following:
"Parents must drop off all required documents at the Consulate no later than 12:00 noon on the business day prior to day of the actual visa interview. No appointment is required to submit documents. Visa interviews will take place at 2:00 pm on the day designated, and can only take place if we have already received all the required documents. We will make every effort to issue the visa on the next working day. However, it is important to note that additional checks are required by law if the adopted child is 16 years or older. These checks delay visa issuance by up to 72 hours. Please plan your travel accordingly."
So it's one business days to drop off the documents, second day for the visa interview, third day (hopefully!) to get the visa, and on the fourth business day people can finally leave the country. Basically another week. On a top of 10 days mandatory wait for the court degree plus 10 days wait for the passport plus unknown number of days while waiting for the court date, it comes to a long time. If in the past adoptive parents stayed in Ukraine approximately 4-5 weeks, now it's more like 6-7-8 weeks. We are definitely thinking about 2 trips now, it will be much easier financially (less days without a paycheck) and emotionally (less days without our kids).
Today is 11th business days since our dossier was submitted. Hopefully we'll know our appointment date in a couple of weeks!
"Parents must drop off all required documents at the Consulate no later than 12:00 noon on the business day prior to day of the actual visa interview. No appointment is required to submit documents. Visa interviews will take place at 2:00 pm on the day designated, and can only take place if we have already received all the required documents. We will make every effort to issue the visa on the next working day. However, it is important to note that additional checks are required by law if the adopted child is 16 years or older. These checks delay visa issuance by up to 72 hours. Please plan your travel accordingly."
So it's one business days to drop off the documents, second day for the visa interview, third day (hopefully!) to get the visa, and on the fourth business day people can finally leave the country. Basically another week. On a top of 10 days mandatory wait for the court degree plus 10 days wait for the passport plus unknown number of days while waiting for the court date, it comes to a long time. If in the past adoptive parents stayed in Ukraine approximately 4-5 weeks, now it's more like 6-7-8 weeks. We are definitely thinking about 2 trips now, it will be much easier financially (less days without a paycheck) and emotionally (less days without our kids).
Today is 11th business days since our dossier was submitted. Hopefully we'll know our appointment date in a couple of weeks!
Tuesday, August 7, 2007
The passport situation in Ukraine
The Ukrainian government recently decided to start issuing the new type of passports. Supposedly it was done to fight the corruption since all the new passports will be issued in Kiev and sent to the regions. Of course, THERE ARE NOT ENOUGH new passports! Some regions still have old passport blanks and people are still gettings passports. Some people are not as lucky. I know of several adoptive families who are currently waiting for 4+ weeks after receiving the court decree because the newly adopted kids cannot leave the country without a passport. A couple of days ago American Embassy released a notice where it says that in addition to the mandatory 10 day wait after the court, it's now necessary to wait 10 MORE days to get the passport. And the problem is that it could be more than 10 extra days to get a passport. So how long do we have to stay in Ukraine? Looks like instead of 4-5 weeks it could be 6-7 weeks or more.
I think in this case the best idea would be to do 2 trips to Ukraine. The first trip will be for the SDA appointment and court, then back home while waiting for the 20 mandatory days, and after that the second trip to finish the paperwork. Oh well, why is it getting harder and harder all the time?
We are on our 6th business waiting for the appointment date. I know of one family who was submitted on July 9th and received the word today about their appointment date on October 16th. They waited exactly 20 business days, as promised, so I hope we'll find out what our travel date is in another 14 business days, on August 28.
I think in this case the best idea would be to do 2 trips to Ukraine. The first trip will be for the SDA appointment and court, then back home while waiting for the 20 mandatory days, and after that the second trip to finish the paperwork. Oh well, why is it getting harder and harder all the time?
We are on our 6th business waiting for the appointment date. I know of one family who was submitted on July 9th and received the word today about their appointment date on October 16th. They waited exactly 20 business days, as promised, so I hope we'll find out what our travel date is in another 14 business days, on August 28.
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