[Susan04]

I was out of the country 19 days both of my trips...1st trip 12 days in-country, 2nd trip 16 days in-country. The extra days the 2nd trip were due to Thanksgiving holiday closures at the US embassies. From what I have seen 3 weeks out of the US is pretty typical regardless of indy or agency. Here is what I have noticed lately:

Monday, Day 1 - leave US
Tuesday, Day 2 - arrive in Kiev
Wednesday, Day 3 - NAC appointment
Thursday, Day 4 - receive referral paperwork and travel to region
Friday, Day 5 - visit orphanage
Saturday, Day 6 - no paperwork, visit child
Sunday, Day 7 - no paperwork, visit child
Monday, Day 8 - start paperwork for adoption
Tuesday, Day 9 - paperwork processing
Wednesday, Day 10 - paperwork processing
Thursday, Day 11 - paperwork processing
Friday, Day 12 - paperwork processing
Saturday, Day 13 - no paperwork, visit child
Sunday, Day 14 - no paperwork, visit child
Monday, Day 15 - court, start chase for birth certificate and passport
Tuesday, Day 16 - finish birth certificate and passport, travel back to Kiev
Wednesday, Day 17 - arrive in Kiev, finalize paperwork
Thursday, Day 18 - Us Embassy in Kiev, fly to Warsaw
Friday, Day 19 - Visa physical, US Embassy in Warsaw
Saturday, Day 20 - fly home

Two considerations that could greatly lengthen your stay in Ukraine are 1) the 30 days waiting period and 2) the number of orphanages you visit to find your child. If your 30 days are not waived you need to be prepared to either sit in Ukraine or make a 2nd trip of 5-7 days to finalize the adoption. If you don't accept the first referral you are given, you go back to Kiev and write a letter stating why you did not accept the referral and get another appointment date. This process from one orphanage to another can easily take 5-7 days.

I would say to question if the agency is guaranteeing 7-9 days or if they are telling you that is their average. If that is their average, which is what I suspect, then I would be asking how they arrived at those numbers. How many completed adoptions in the last 6 months, last 1 year? Is this the average over the last 3 or 4 years? Adoption trips as short as 7-9 days were not uncommon 2 to 2.5 years ago, but are almost unheard of recently.

Best Wishes