[sinsjen]

We have been told that during the wait for the court date and during the 15 day waiting period and some other times, the driver and translator are not included. So we were wondering what we should expect these costs to be per day? Did any one rent a car or find other means of getting back and forth to the babyhouse? Any other expenses not included that need to be thought about during such a long stay.

Thanks,

[mlb]

It depends on your agency. Our translator was included for adoption #2, but not the driver. The driver was $10 a day. For our first son's adoption the driver was included but not the translator. I have to say that besides some key days (court, getting info about our son from the caregivers, our first shopping trip) we did not use a translator for our first son's adoption trip and it was fine. She was there when we wanted her, but we just didn't need her there a lot.
Thank you gifts are extra. Our facilitator group our gifts together and we had to buy more gifts in country.

[Mich71]

We paid a daily rate for our driver and translator (in US$). This and other travel costs were detailed out for us by our agency. The driver and translator were available to us everyday we were in country.
We were in Astana and glad we did not have to drive ourselves (the traffic was crazy). We had a prepaid cell phone we used to reach our translator incase we needed her while we were out walking alone.

Hopefully your agency will provide you with a list of things to expect. Here are few I can remember:
Hotels - Apartment - driver & translator - phone service - food/eating out & grocery - diapers - clothing - gifts - in country flights if needed - legal/document fees - Medical clinic - Embassy

Best Wishes

[lovestruck]

We took a taxi back and forth from the baby house during the "off" time. It was pretty reasonable.

We paid about $70 (US) for a cell phone.

We paid about $4 an hour if we wanted our translator to take us to dinner or sight seeing, etc. We knew about that before traveling. That is something you work out between your translator in region. It is not affiliated with any adoption expenses.

I'll post more as I think of others.

[DET62]

My agency told me after the waiting period it would be $10 a day for the translator, who was also the driver. I thought that was pretty reasonable.

Dee

[sinsjen]

we spoke to the agency yesterday and now the "extra" cabs/translator costs are included in the flat fee per day...so at least we know about this ahead of time and not once we are there

thanks for all of the responses.