[Tuco]

Hello all,
We are preparing for our first trip to Russia, and hope to bring our daughter home early in 2007. We live in California and both of our families are in Florida. Some will visit us in spring while I'm on maternity leave (which will extend into summer because I am a teacher), but most cannot make the trip. We'd like to take her to meet everyone during summer, but are afraid that such a trip, with at least 6 hours of plane travel, would bring up frightening associations, or otherwise be too traumatic only six months after coming to America.

Has anyone had experiences travelling with children soon after coming home? We'd appreciate any advice on the subject -- particularly how long to wait to do so -- or just hearing others' experiences.

Thank you so much!
Robin and Allan

[votemom]

you will get lots of different advice here. but the bottom line i think really depends on the child. i don't think you can plan for sure this far ahead. hopefully it will be clear to you once she is home a few months.

[MamaChinch]

Hi Robin and Allan ~ I think you just need to gage how your child is doing, a lot of depends on their temperment and their adjustment and how they handle travelling. I've been home with my 20 month old since August 16th and we have driven 2 1/2 hours twice to my dad's, 3 hours once to my aunt/grandma's, all over the Bay Area, and flew to San Diego (a little over an hour flight for me) last month for visting and she has done fabulous!! She has about a 2 hour limit in the car, so I just stop and take a brake and let her walk around. How old will she be next year? Toys, snacks, etc on the plane should help. Delaney slept most of the flight to San Diego..but I know it's not as long.
Hope you get to go back to bring her home soon!!

[mycodybear]

I think Votemom's advice is exactly right. It will be different for every child. Some children it might be too soon to do a long trip, but some children adjust very easily and it might not be that big a deal. We did a family vacation for 5 days (no flights, though) about 4 months after coming home and we didn't really experience any problems or setbacks. It's something that you won't really know until you've been home with your child a few months and see how they are adjusting to their new life. Best of luck!!

[britfish]

We travelled about 7 weeks after coming home. Our flight was just over an hour and we were visiting my best friend from childhood. I knew ahead of time she would respect our attachment parenting techniques and our trip went smoothly. I don't think my friend even held Grace the whole weekend! We also took some camping trips at about 4 and 6 weeks home but they were just the three of us. All of our trips were kept very low key and at my girlfriends house we stayed in the house and tried to still keep her world small and not over stimulated. We did not have any issues travelling.

[KimOH]

I agree with votemom -- it really depends on the child.

My parents spend winters in Florida (both of my children were adopted in the autumn). We took DS to visit them only 6 weeks after coming home and he did wonderfully. And went on several trips in the first year.

We held off taking DD to visit for 6 months -- and even then I wasn't sure how she would handle it. She did pretty well, thankfully...but she's just not as "easy going" about that stuff as DS was.

I would suggest waiting till she's been home a few months before making any firm decisions. You can tell your family you'll "try" to come, but don't make any promises until you see how things go.