[Mike67]

My wife and I finally received our court dates. Our first court date is January 20, 2006, and our second court date is February 3, 2006. We'll be flying over on the 15th or 16th of January. We're adopting a brother (3 years old in January) and sister (1 and a half years old). I think these next 6 weeks will fly by. We welcome any advice.

Mike

[MJCZYK]

Do you know anything about your itinerary once you arrive in Warsaw?

[Mike67]

We'll be landing in Warsaw on January 16th. We'll meet our facilitator/translator on the 17th. On the 18th we'll travel to Sosnowiec, near Katowice, to meet the kids for the first time. Our first court date is on the 20th and the second court date is on February 3rd. We'll be staying in Sosnowiec during that time. After the second court date, we'll be staying with cousins near Katowice. We hope to do some travelling and see my other cousins again, in Krakow and around Lancut. After the 21 day appeal period, we'll head back to Warsaw. We'll probably stay in Warsaw about a week and fly out on March 7th.

Mike

[dana_dane]

I'm just curious, when you receive a referral, do you also receive photos of the children?

[stitchie]

Hi Mike67,

Is this your first trip to Poland? You must be so excited! We adopted siblings (twins) also.

Good luck. We went to Poland three times. Such a long flight from Chicago -- I brought a lot to read.

We rented a flat; it's good that you're staying with family. That's so much more entertaining, I think.

[stitchie]

Originally Posted by dana_dane

I'm just curious, when you receive a referral, do you also receive photos of the children?

Yes, we received three referrals and at least one or two photographs and basic medical information with each referral.

The third time was the charm for us.

[dana_dane]

How much time period elapses between each referral? I'm just trying to get an idea of the process. I don't want to be in a situation where I take the first referall because I feel like I'm desperate.

[stitchie]

It depends on when the referrals become available. We had our first referral in Jan/Feb of 2004; second in June/July of 2004, and our last in August in 2004. Those were the babies that came home with us. They are now two and doing wonderfully.

[dana_dane]

Sharon,
So would it be fair to say that if you are adopting a baby then the wait is longer? We are adopting an older child and I've been under the impression that if you are adopting older children then the process is faster. Do you have any knowledge on this?
Dana

[stitchie]

Hi Dana,

I don't really know. Since we were getting desperate for the process to be finished, we opted for a sibling group (2-3 kids, under 5) and ended up with 1 year old twin sisters. I think most couples/families would want babies. We just asked for as young as possible and got very lucky with our girls. (I wish I could post pictures, but the file sizes are too big! I have to work on that.)

I've also heard that the wait is longer because Poland is now in the European Union and that has some impact on how freely people can travel over the borders. I'm not very clear on that.

Also, I think it also has something to do with competing against other countries adopting from Poland, and their strict guidelines about to whom they allow to adopt their children.

[yusen]

Mike67,,
Where are you,, we are waiting to hear stories of the beauties that you have adopted.
You can be the first to share pictures for the infamous "" Picture Parades ""

[Kama]

Hi Mike,

Like the previous poster, I would love to hear from you. We imagine you are very busy, enjoying spending time with you children, and dealing with some new situations and issues. Although I still have a long way to go, I have been looking for advice and information on post adoption issues. The following website addresses many of them (although it is called attach-china it is not specific to children adopted from China). I found it on another EE forum. Hope this will be helpful to you:
http://www.attach-china.org/

When you have time please share your experiences on this forum or PM/email us. I know this is not the most active forum, but there are few of us who are in the process and appreciate any information! Best wishes.