[LKD]

Hello,

Can anyone offer advice on either of these 2 regions? We need to decide on one ASAP. Specifice questions:
1. How was the travel getting there
2. Accomodations
3. Quality of care at orphanages
4. Duration of both stays and time in between.

Thanks.

[ddahl]

We adopted from St. Petersburg. Known to be a slower region at times. The in and out of the country is very very smooth. Hotels are marvelous and first class if you desire. A very metropolitan city with tons of history and places to see as well. Said to be one of the top places in the world to visit before you go to the great beyond. Now that my son is home I could not agree more. The quality of care in the orphanage my son was from was excellent. The city is not poor so the baby homes seem to be clean and there is food, not a lot but our son is on track developmentally and physically. I would only go back to St. Petersburg for A #2. Good luck! Hopefully others can offer you a less biased opinion.

[ddahl]

Oops! Three months in between trips..... EEEK! The wait was endless but worth it!

[nungesser]

Originally Posted by LKD

Hello,

Can anyone offer advice on either of these 2 regions? We need to decide on one ASAP. Specifice questions:
1. How was the travel getting there
2. Accomodations
3. Quality of care at orphanages
4. Duration of both stays and time in between.

Thanks.

1. You can fly non-stop from many western European cities right into St. Petersburg. To go to Kazan you will need to go to Moscow and either take the train (overnight) or a domestic Russian airline (about two hours). A domestic Russian flight means will likely involve shuttling between airports in Moscow and all the refined charm of domestic Russian air travel too. If I had it to do again, I'd prefer the train.
2. St. Petersburg is a large cosmopolitan city with a lot of western influence and exposure. There will be plenty of accommodations from the most rustic to the most luxurious. Kazan is a provincial Russian city east of Moscow on the Volga River. The accommodations there will probably be more rustic, but cheaper too. I image the difference to be like the difference between San Francisco and Jacksonville, Florida.

Don't know about 3 or 4.

[johnandrayann]

We are in a region outside of St. Petersburg, so I can't speak about the region itself, but the city is amazing. We were there for 10 days on Trip 1, and we loved every minute of it. We shopped, went to the museums, saw a ballet at the Mariinsky Theater, ate at some world class restaurants, etc.... We live in Europe and travel extensively, but for both of us, St. Petersburg ranks up there as a favorite city - even if we weren't adopting from there we would return.

[LKD]

Thnaks to everyone who replied. Our agency told us that the children available in Kazan are younger. For those who sent to St. Petersburg, how old were your children when you brought them home. We'd like around 1 year old.

[drazil65]

We requested a toddler between 12 months and 24 months in St. Petersburg and our son was 20 months at bring home (18 months at referral). We absolutely loved St. Petersburg and you cannot beat the history and culture! Everyone pretty much spoke English (menus were in both languages) and we stayed at a 5 star hotel so it was very much like a vacation for us (our agency also provided us with a personal car and driver for us so we always had a guide with us for our down time not at the baby home). Our sons baby home was about 10 minutes away from our hotel so we were able to visit him for a total of 20 hours during trip 1 which was 5 days long. Trip 2 was 6 days (including the overnite trip to Moscow at the end and court was less than 30 minutes total with the 10 days waived. We would go back to St. Petersburg no question just for vacation at some point. We flew directly into St. Petes for both both trips. Good luck with your decision .

[JLW99]

1. How was the travel getting there
Travel was very easy, flew directly in to the city.

2. Accomodations
Expensive hotels, but I think you can also find some bargains. Everything you'd need is in the city, and excellent restaurants.

3. Quality of care at orphanages
We found the quality of care in our child's orphanage to be very good. He has no delays.
4. Duration of both stays and time in between.
First trip should be a week, second trip 10 days not waived, but only 3 weeks in between trips (past summer).

Our son was 9 months at time of referral, 11 months when he came home.


Thanks.

[k8c]

St. Petersburg is an amazing city--beautiful with tons of history! It's Russia's second largest...and second most expensive. Moscow barely beats us there--and only in some reports.

There's a yahoo group:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Adopt_StPetersburg/

Don't know anything about Kazan...

[emjay]

Another St. Petersburg fan here. We LOVED the city. We brought our son home early Sept. 2005 just before his first birthday. He was 10.5 months at referral.

1, 2, as posters said above

3. Care at orphanage - my son was in same orphanage as JLW99 - also has no delays

4. Trip 1 = 1 week
1 month between trips
Trip 2 with 10 days waived = 1.5 weeks including Moscow

[gafan]

I haven't completed my adoption, and we are in a different region. While looking into St Petersburg with a referral we turned down I found the following website that was very helpful. It is a list of places to eat, stay, shop, etc in St Petersburg compiled by parents who have adopted in that region.
http://www.stpetersburgadoption.com/
Michele

[jflan]

We adopted from Kazan twice - our son at 11 months in December 2002 and daughter at 10 months in November 2004. Email me if you have/want specific questions.

[LKD]

Thanks again everyone. Has anyone heard that St. Petersburg is now the 3-trip system or is it still 2 trips?

[azhellos]

I was wondering how you can find out the age of the children that can be adopted and the rules of the age of the adoptive parents. I am 48 years old wishing to adopt an infant or toddler.

[Ktates]

Another St. Petersburg parent here...fyi - there is St. Petersburg the city, and Leningrad, the region that St. Petersburg is in - the city follows a different system than the region - sometimes people get the two confused. The yahoo group covers both.

emjay, Jwl99 and myself all went through the city (same agency) and all are kids are from the same orphanage and I agree with their posts. The orphanage actually had just renovated the floor the kids were on before we were there and I heard they did the other floor this past summer (all new windows, doors, flooring, paint etc).

We had about 6 weeks in between trips and that was over year end holidays and the database changes. Our daughter was just shy of 1 year at referral.

Trip 1 was a week - that's just the way we booked our flights so we got to see our daughter one extra day, trip 2 was 14 days and that was with a one week court delay.

I would double check with your agency and find out if they are talking about the city of St. Petersburg or Leningrad (the region).
Hope that helps-
Karen