[Archive]

Originally Posted By joann

I don't know what happened to that last post! Gina, I would love to answer some of your questions about Russian adoptions. We have adopted from there 7 times. Sorry I don't know anything about China!

Joann

[Archive]

Originally Posted By Joni TX

If you wouldn't mind, I'd love to ask you some questions, too! I'm fast learning that the adoption community is a wonderful group of caring, helpful folks!

Did you use an agency or go independent?

Which agency would you recommend?

If you went independent, how did you go about finding a facilitator or someone to help on the other end?

From what part of Russia did you adopt? Are you familiar with specific orphanages that would be open to independent adopters?

Any information you would like to volunteer would be most welcome. I'm still trying to decide if we will do back to back adoptions in China, or go for a multiple adoption in Russia. We already have lovely bio daughters, but would like two more. I think we are settled (age 44), and have lots of love to offer. Our girls can't wait for more little sisters.

Thanks very much.

Joni

[Archive]

Originally Posted By joann

Hi Joni,

We are in Texas too! I hesitated to answer these questions on the board instead of privately because I DON'T want to be accused of advertising! So I'm warning people in advance that this is information from me as an adoptive mother AND as an agency representative.

We did an independent adoption in 1996 from The Rep. of Georgia. It was VERY difficult. We didn't even have a facilitator so we did a true independent one. We used AMREX and one of their affiliated agencies for 5 of our other adoptions and they did a great job on each one. We have adopted from Rostov, Krasnodar, Ulyanovsk and Volgograd.

Since coming home from our second adoption from Volgograd a month ago, I have been asked to be the Program Coordinator for all adoptions from Volgograd, Russia. I am so excited about this because I love the people there. There is no wait for children (including babies) from this program right now. Parents can travel as soon as their paperwork is ready. Let me know if you have any more questions.

Joann Vittitow
mom of eleven
www.adoptionagencies.org/vittitow/