We have been blessed with two special daughters and two sons from Eastern Europe. We welcome you to follow our journey as a family of five, waiting to travel and pick up #6, with the ins and outs of family, education, farm life, and love!

Wednesday, July 23, 2008

Frustration

I've been doing research, reading the FRUA site and reading advice from other adoptive parents on whether or not to take your child along on the "adoption ride". Many contributors say that their sources advised them not to, but many did and are glad they chose to take their loved one along.
I contacted our source and her suggestion was not to take your child along with you. She gave valid reasons: a.)She can't go into your SDA appointment b.)Many orphanages will not allow other children in the building c.)Travel is more challenging d.)You need that 1:1 bonding time with your new child, just as we had with her.
....Ugh. I cannot imagine being away from Hannah for that long, nor can I expect someone else to care for her while we are gone for that period of time. We have options. We could always make two trips next time around. Many people go for the SDA appointment, meet the child, stay until the court date, then fly home. We could then travel back to the orphanage to pick up our little one, go to all the necessary appointments in Kiev, then fly home. The second option would be to leave one parent in Ukraine after court, while the other flies home to be with Hannah. Again, I cannot imagine a 10 hour plane flight by myself, or Papa by himself. OR, we could do it as we did last time and stay for the six weeks with our child in the area...with or without Hannah. Who knows, maybe we could call in a friend in Ukraine to be our on-sight translator/babysitter. Seems like we have some talking and praying to do....
The Crimea area sounds like a wonderful place to visit. It is in southern Ukraine, somewhat of an island. It is a tourist spot for both Ukrainians and Russians. Take a look at the map though, and it is a HAUL from Kiev to the Crimea area! Thank goodness for overnight trains!


The area looks beautiful though. Check out some sights from some of the major cities:


The first picture is of Simferopol. It is the capital of Autonomous Republic of Crimea. It is located in the center of the Crimea area. The second picture is of Sevastopol. The city is situated on South-West coast of Crimean peninsula, a popular city to visit for its beaches and industry. With our luck, we would end up there during the cold season!
Keep praying along with us for guidance as we jump head first into adventure #2!

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Found your blog and wanted to put my .02 in about taking kids on your journey. My wife and I recently adopted three teenagers, 14, 15 and 15 from Odessa. We have three boys, 4, 6 and 9. We struggled about the decision to leave the kids or bring them. In the end we decided to bring all three. It was not easy logistically and it certainly added costs to the trip, but it is the best decision we ever made. Our first trip was right at 3 weeks. We all went home after the court date and I returned to get the girls. You can follow our adventure at thekellettclan.blogspot.com. We could not imagine leaving our kids at home for that length of time. It has been very hard being here for the last three weeks without them, but it made more sense since my wife stayed home. If yo uhave any questions, please feel free to e-mail me at DK319@yahoo.com.