Natural Child: Any child who is not artificial.
Real Parent: Any parent who is not imaginary.
Your Own Child: Any child who is not someone else's child.
Adopted Child: A natural child, with a real parent, who is all my own.
--- Rita Laws PhD
Really sums it all up.
Someone asked about if/where we were registered for "Welcome home" gifts for our girls. We aren't registered anywhere and probably won't. One of my few coping behaviors during this 2 year wait has been "nesting" for my future daughters. They have everything and more that they will need for many years to come LOL. I have tons of clothes, toys, books, educational games, bikes, car booster seats (for the younger 2), furniture, linens etc.
What we have always needed the most help with is the cost of the trip itself. All the above mentioned things were bought slowly over time. The adoption trip itself is a huge amount of cash, all at once. Thankfully, we have a wonderful aunt and uncle who had the ability to give us a monetary gift to help with this, and we were able to build up a bit of a savings account. We also have a small credit card. All of the other adoption costs have been slow and over time, so we've had no problems paying all that, its this all-at-once-trip-cost that is freaking us out.
We've been blessed with the offer of a personal loan from the same aunt and uncle, should we need it, and with cooperative and understanding employers who have worked out a way for both Andrew and I to get our full salaries while on the adoption trip. Bully for us.
Also, since we are not using an agency and are using a cool facilitator, we are saving alot of money there. We are also flexible and easy to please people, so we will have no problems in country with our accommodations, no matter how "soviet-style" they are. Our last two week trip to Ukraine cost less than $800 which included our apartments, a translator with us everyday, sight seeing, drivers, train tickets - everything but the airline tickets.
We may end up being in Ukraine a little longer than we had hoped, as I learned that June 28th is a Ukrainian holiday and most of the government offices will be closed June 28 and 29 for the long holiday weekend. Which means the SDA may not issue our official referral to the girls until July 2. I guess that will be ok as we are planning on visiting SnowWhite during the holiday weekend, so that will mean less traveling if we stay in Kyiv until the weekend, then head to the girls region July 1.
