[Aphi86]

I don't want this to sound ugly, but more for a warning to future PAP. (Our trip is going very well, and court is tomorrow.) Today, however we spent at the babyhome and another family was there. We had left our toys for our child in the dr's office over night. When we returned we were told this other family had used them and they hoped that was ok. Well, what could I say. Our first thought was must be their first trip. Later in the morning they joined us with their two children in the Great Room. We had sectioned the room off as to give us both some privacy with our children. They showed up again with only one Barbie for a 2 yr old boy and 4 yr old girl. They proceeded to play roughly with the children for 2 hours letting them bang on the piano and generally rude and loud which was very disturbing. Also, for entertainment the dad kept lifting the kids to the light fixture and letting them touch the bulb!!!! Light fixtures are not toys in lieu of the ones YOU didn't bring. They were totally unprepared. And, here is the kicker...this was their second trip!!!! I am so offended and say this as a warning to others so they are not in the same situation, and also, they make adoptive parentns look foolish. AYE AYE AYE just had to vent!

[Ktates]

who knows - maybe they lost their luggage with the toys - or maybe they were told they couldn't bring anything in. probably a good tip to break up your stuff in case that happens or bring at least one in a carry on. I really can't think why you would let a child touch a light bulb though!
Glad to hear things are going well - looking for the gotcha post!

[waitinginnj]

Bizarre story.

[susan1326]

This reminded me of our return trip from Moscow to US on trip #1. There was a couple who had adopted a three-year-old little boy and brought ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to entertain/occupy him on the plane, no toys, no snacks nothing! Needless to say,he cried for hours while they just put on their headphones and ignored him. Yes, it makes PAPs look bad when Russians observe this kind of thing.

[GCS]

yeesh! Bad enough not to have anything to play with at the orphanage, but a plane ride home? I gotta say I would probably have gotten myself into that one and found something for that little guy to do. What is wrong with these parents?

Sam was 3 and we had a little backpack that we didnt give him until we left for the airport. It was filled with goodies. Thank goodness. The flight home was still a struggle for us but at least he had a nice time. Kind of what parenting is about, ehh?

Christina

[Jim_in_PA]

And as an added comment...they DO have stores that sell toys in Russia in case the luggage, umm...is lost. ;-)

[aimeemk]

Yep Jim,

Ours was lost and we went and bought several Russian toys. We were there with another couple who were terrified to leave their room. I am not sure why.

[DebiP]

On our final plane ride home...we encountered the same thing....in the mid section of coach there was a family that had nothing but snacks for their child to keep him occupied for 15+ hours. In the front section of Business class the four families that were there collected a few things together to give them but they did not want them. Not sure what that was all about but hey, no judging here!!!

[angelkisses0102]

Must come with the territory...hmmm. One thing we did was bring the toy donations on trip #1...which worked out great because we were with 2 other families which really didn't bring much...so we shared and then left them.

We also traded off toys on trip #2...like a book I brought for 8 month old Alex was loved by a 2 year old in the group...so I just gave it to her.

Plus, we did buy toys on all 4 trips...not too hard to find, especially when in Moscow...we spent a lot of time in Children's World (?...the big toy store in Moscow)...but I also remember seeing toys in the grocery.

Plus...how hard is it to make a toy or two out of 'common' things...

[ddahl]

We way over packed on each trip to ensure we had everything we needed. We also took little food items to the baby home and it was a huge hit. Nothing says come to mama like a nice package of gerber fruit puffs! We left all of the toys we took on trip one as we had purchased duplicates for our home. We never saw any of the trip one toys but I feel sure that someone may be enjoying them right now.

[momraine]

HI, I would not judge too quickly unless we know the whole story. However that being said, I brought toys for my last adoption and will for this one. One friend suggested this great idea. She packed a cute little backpack for her child with a new outfit and a few toys and snacks. This was given to the child when they left the orphanage. She also had several gallon sized zip lock bags. In one of these were some toys she used for at the orphanage and in the hotel room. Then she had one that she labled (for her own benefit) "train ride" it contained some snacks and toys that would be new for the train ride that he had not seen before. What she did was right before they left for the train she removed any toys he didn't seem to like from the backpack, and any wrappers and put the new stuff in it for him to discover on the train ride. Then she did the same for the plane ride, with toys that she had in still another zip lock bag marked "plane ride".
Actually because of her schedule she had two plane ride ones, and she gave him the second one half way home. She said it worked great for her. The favorite toys stayed in the backpack, and ones that did not seem so popular were removed. She also said that since when the backpack was first handed to him it had clothes and shoes in it, that it was not full when he put the clothes on, and so there was a lot of room for adding new toys. I loved this idea and thought I would share it. It ensures that the toys are divided so the child gets new toys at each major stress point along the journey to keep him occupied.