(Ohh....I feel so adultish!)
Thanks for going through the steps to get here. Please send me a comment so I know you made it!
As you know we leave on the 17th with our SDA appointment on the 19th. Depending on how fast the paperwork goes we hope to leave (via train?) to go to the region where our orphanage is on Saturday the 21st. However, I told Alex we should be there on Monday the 23rd just in case there's a hold up and because I think it would be great to surprise him! (Thanks Andreas-for this suggestion!)
Lex goes back to the orphanage on Monday. He's been with his half brother for the past week due to the quarantine. I'll be glad to know he's back because I don't have an address or anything for this half brother so basically I have no idea where he is. Due to all the warnings and advice from others that have gone (and my friend that continually tells me "You can't trust the Russians!") I can't help but be a little paranoid.
None of my great contacts have panned out as far as helping us secure housing. It boils down to the fact that Ukraine is a cash society and I can't simply call and hold an apartment with a credit card. Both my friend from Pilate's, Mariana and Snezhana (Alex's half sister in law) offered to help us find places when we get there but I don't want to show up with no where to go so we're having Adoption Way arrange our housing. I'm just hoping they find us a relatively low cost place to stay.
Also, I have not heard back from the Kiev mission president (a brother in law of my friends) or my neighbors friend that teaches English in the Ukraine. I was hoping they could at least tell us where we could go to church or if there was even a branch in our region.
We've been told to bring $8,000 in cash!! (I know, freaky scary to carry that much cash!) But I don't know why we need so much!? The adoption fee's (medicals, passports etc) with everything are about $700 and all the facilitator fees and "persuasive gifts" (bribe) fee's are included in the $16,000 we already paid Adoption Way.
We're bringing a 46 pound bag of brand new underwear, socks and undershirts to donate to the orphanage. (Thanks to my Stake Relief Society service project) and hoping that will suffice for our"donation to the orphanage" so hopefully no large sum of money needed there.
SO, why in the HECK would we need to bring so much money??!! We don't plan to stay at the Waldorf or anything. The money we bring is basically for housing, travel and food. (Can travel be that much?) Seriously, I don't think we'll bring that much!
Many thanks to Linda & Dan for the tips about traveling with money. They gave me socks with zipper compartments in them, told me to spread the money out, don't carry it all in one place. And the best advice, is to make a "dummy" wallet with old credit cards and a little money so if we get held up or anything we can give the robbers this wallet. Wow! I have so much to learn.
I'm stressing about how to hide the money in our apartment/hotel. Any suggestions?
Good grief, you can tell by the tone of the post that I feel so free having a private blog!
Anyway, again....thanks for coming!!
Thanks for going through the steps to get here. Please send me a comment so I know you made it!
As you know we leave on the 17th with our SDA appointment on the 19th. Depending on how fast the paperwork goes we hope to leave (via train?) to go to the region where our orphanage is on Saturday the 21st. However, I told Alex we should be there on Monday the 23rd just in case there's a hold up and because I think it would be great to surprise him! (Thanks Andreas-for this suggestion!)
Lex goes back to the orphanage on Monday. He's been with his half brother for the past week due to the quarantine. I'll be glad to know he's back because I don't have an address or anything for this half brother so basically I have no idea where he is. Due to all the warnings and advice from others that have gone (and my friend that continually tells me "You can't trust the Russians!") I can't help but be a little paranoid.
None of my great contacts have panned out as far as helping us secure housing. It boils down to the fact that Ukraine is a cash society and I can't simply call and hold an apartment with a credit card. Both my friend from Pilate's, Mariana and Snezhana (Alex's half sister in law) offered to help us find places when we get there but I don't want to show up with no where to go so we're having Adoption Way arrange our housing. I'm just hoping they find us a relatively low cost place to stay.
Also, I have not heard back from the Kiev mission president (a brother in law of my friends) or my neighbors friend that teaches English in the Ukraine. I was hoping they could at least tell us where we could go to church or if there was even a branch in our region.
We've been told to bring $8,000 in cash!! (I know, freaky scary to carry that much cash!) But I don't know why we need so much!? The adoption fee's (medicals, passports etc) with everything are about $700 and all the facilitator fees and "persuasive gifts" (bribe) fee's are included in the $16,000 we already paid Adoption Way.
We're bringing a 46 pound bag of brand new underwear, socks and undershirts to donate to the orphanage. (Thanks to my Stake Relief Society service project) and hoping that will suffice for our"donation to the orphanage" so hopefully no large sum of money needed there.
SO, why in the HECK would we need to bring so much money??!! We don't plan to stay at the Waldorf or anything. The money we bring is basically for housing, travel and food. (Can travel be that much?) Seriously, I don't think we'll bring that much!
Many thanks to Linda & Dan for the tips about traveling with money. They gave me socks with zipper compartments in them, told me to spread the money out, don't carry it all in one place. And the best advice, is to make a "dummy" wallet with old credit cards and a little money so if we get held up or anything we can give the robbers this wallet. Wow! I have so much to learn.
I'm stressing about how to hide the money in our apartment/hotel. Any suggestions?
Good grief, you can tell by the tone of the post that I feel so free having a private blog!
Anyway, again....thanks for coming!!
