[his,mine&ours]

Our son's clothes, shoes, toys, caregiver gifts..... that is almost two bags by itself.

DH and I are "negotiating" over # bags.

How many did you take...carry-on and checked?

[beckyww]

Can you return the gifts? We took cash, inserted into photo cards I made at Shutterfly. Very well received, and took up no suitcase room.

We also took a suitcase of snacks from Costco. With the price of food in Moscow - whew, that saved us some bucks! On the trip home, of course, it was then filled with souvenirs.

We packed very lightly on trip #2 - everything had to go w/everything else. And it all had to be handwashable (other than Keith's suit.) We took Woolite and washed clothes in the hotel bathtub. We ironed clothing articles in the room to help them dry more quickly. We looked like the Beverly Hillbillies, but with the price of laundry service, I flat did not care.

Becky
The Woodworth Family in Beautiful San Antonio TX

[heikewould]

Make sure you take a electric kettle. (with adapter) this was the best item I had. It saves on time and energy for all the HOT water you'll need for formula, cereal and cleaning in the sink. Stuff it with socks, panties etc. The trail mix at costco was a great snack item. I bought the large one and put single servings in small baggies. (again, stuff your shoes with this).

Try to roll your clothes. buy the "space savers" bags at Costco, they will help with the lighter bulkier items (gifts) and you won't be bringing them back full. Don't gift wrap anything, use gift bags. Bring the folded bag with tissue papper for later assembly.

As far as souvieners, I really didn't bring to much back. A handmade doll from DD region. Russian childrens story book (translated into english), small smaller gifts for family, two russian dresses and a handmade blanket. Alot of other Russian items you can now get here in the states online. I really only got items from her region and handmade so that they are one of a kind.

Good luck and remember take more pictures than you think you need. That was the only area I wish I had taken more.

[catmele]

I am dealing with the same issue now.. My husband wants me to pack VERY light & I thought I could since its summer but since I need to bring cloths for DS which are for warm weather & I still need to bundle him up when we are outside its filling more than a small suitcase. We did use laundry services in region for trip 1 which was not expensive but we will only be able to use that for our own clothes since we pick up DS the night before we fly out.

[catmele]

Also we are not brining gifts this time. I stressed out BIG time over this with our first adoption & it was not worth it. We will buy dessert/flowers for the workers while in region. If we can I will give the rest $.. I really think its more appreciated than Bath & Body Works

[Waiting4Skip]

Going over, we take alot, but mostly donations and just some "essentials we HAVE to have". After six trips we have found that the four foods we found we can't get there: Peanut butter, a box of jiffy mix (there is SO much you can do with a box of jiffy) pancake syrup and plain cheetos. Russians love candy and we buy good quality boxes in region once we arrive as well. We leave as much as possible behind, leaving room for souveniers on the way back. Our region is very remote, yet we have found that you can by just about ANYTHING you need in the stores. We made our very first trip in 2003 and even in the 4 years since then, it is remarkable how much progress they have made and how the economy improves.

Our now 4.5 year old goes with us, and both his clothes, and the ones our new little guy wears when we are there are generally left behind as donations for the orphanage. We bring only 3 or 4 outfits for wearing when we go out, and what we wear inside (80 degrees in the apartment we stay in, summer or winter) we wash with woolite, line dry, and wear over and over. We do wash every nite so we need little for daily wear. Gifts we try to buy "lightweight stuff and buy at the airport duty free shop when possible". DVDs, are big hits and don't take room or weigh much. They love american cigs - though I don't smoke nor normlly promote it, Russians LOVE american cigs and they are cheap at the duty free shops." Flavored tea & coffee, again, lightweight.

[Abdulina]

Give up--LOL!!! After doing this several times, we don't even pack until the night before. Literally. We don't stress it. Take what you need. Pack some food for sure. Gifts, we learned to give money instead. That way, they can buy what the orphanage needs. As far as this past trip, I didn't give our coordinator in Moscow anything. I did in Murmansk. However, our luggage got deplaned in a storm in Atlanta. Most of the gifts got ruined. They all seemed to understand. Plus, the lady in Moscow kept telling Nik to shut up. I said he's Deaf. She said what will they do w/ him there. I said most likely he'll be able to eventually hear. Anyway, you could see the look of disgust on her face. You know, the mentality toward teh "disabled" in Russia is not so good. Urghh. Anyhow, don't stress the whole gift thing. They get teh common gifts all the time. Find out what they like on the first trip if you can. Ours liked liquor...shh. And the one guy loved jazz music. Just ask a few personal questions on the first trip as to what they like. Casual conversations but in the back of you minds, remember for the next trip.

I wish you all the best. BTW, even packing light, we had to pay the extra fee for our in country flight. Oh well. Thank goodness you only have to do this once,...oh wait, no we don't ---LOL.

Seriously, have a wonderful ansd safe trip. Don't stress the luggage issue.

TAke care,

[Waiting4Skip]

Oh yeah, the "in country" fees. We fly Aeroflot, all the way which gives us a higher baggage weight allowance per their "transatlantic" rules or whatever they call it now ever since our first experience where we were like 10 lbs over and they demanded $125 cash... I'd rather give the money to the orphanges....

[MamaChinch]

It's hard to pack light especially for trip 2 !! I gave up and didn't worry about it, I packed as lightly as I felt comfortable, making sure I had everything for DD. We each had one suitcase and one carry on and used a backpack as a pruse. The one thing to remember is that on the flight to Russia you are allowed more weight and they will only weigh your checked in suitcase. In-country, your allowance is less and it is a TOTAL weight of all you bags, including carry ons. I mis-understood this on trip one and had to pay. I was over on trip two, but they let me slide, the woman at the ticket counter said, you have baby items? I said yes and she smiled and said that's okay!
Although we did have some gifts, when we were there we asked the Baby House director what they needed. She said they needed diapers, so we went and purchased a bunch of diapers in various sizes for them, and they were very grateful for that.
Ditton on the hot pot! We made coffee, soup, oatmeal, tea......

[Waiting4Skip]

Oh, another gift story. Last trip was Christmas and our friend asked us for some more handwarmers p you know the orange packages about an inch and half long by an inch tall (Siberia is brutal - we averaged HIGHS of -20F) for her and her family since they do alot of walking and they loved the ones we brought last time. So that got me to thinking and I tucked a few packages into the gifts I gave to caregivers at the baby home. One day one of them took our friend aside and began to ask her something (in Russian of course) and then I saw my friend start laughing hysterically, then finally, compose herself long enough to respond, then the caregiver turned comepletely white, then she too began to laugh hysterically. Turns out the caregiver thought the handwarmers were teabags of some sort (I also had put flavored tea bags in their goodie bag) and went as far as to boil the water, put the warmer in the water, and drink some!

Warning: Do not give handwarmers as gifts unless the recipient knows what they are for! TOO FUNNY!

[angelkisses0102]

We took one big bag for baby and one big bag for us, plus a large carry on for each of us. By our 4th trip for DS's court date...I had it down. Very few clothes for us...no food...other than some for the baby (which really we did not need to bother with)...bought gifts in region other than some very small gifts for caretakers. We did give them all some cash as well. For the food, neither of us are fussy and totally enjoyed eating the food in Russia. In Tomsk, food was so cheap...it was easier to just buy everything there. I should note that our longest trip was only 9 days so we did not have an extended stay...I know it can get expensive if you are there for a longer stay. I also learned with DD's adoption and took orphanage donations on trip #1.

You really can get just about anything in Russia and as long as you aren't super fussy or have special dietary needs, you should be OK food wise.

For clothes for the baby...we ended up needing to buy smaller clothes for DD and did so in Moscow. Two piece mix and match outfits are great.

Fingers crossed for a July court date.

[dlhall]

Not sure of your schedule, but it sounds like you're not spending much time in the region with your son. One thing we did was we left all our baby stuff in Moscow (except a few things that we needed for the 12 hours we had our son before returning to Moscow). All the Marriotts have a bag check room that you can leave bags in while you travel to your region. This will solve the problem of too much luggage for the in-country travel part of the trip.

Also, you don't need to bring a set of clothes for every day. I think I only brought 3 or 4 pairs of pants and wore them with different shirts each day. Russians typically wear the same set of clothes for many days in a row, so nobody will care if you have on the same outfit from one day to the next.

I do second what someone else said above about bringing a hot water kettle (we bought ours at Bed, Bath & Beyond for only $10 and it heats water to boiling in less than 1 minute). It was a lifesaver for late night meals (instant soup packets).

Liz

[jeni-b]

We didn't have our 10 days waived, so I took slightly more clothes on trip 2 than I did on trip 1. Most of what we took we wore more than once and just washed and hung to dry on a line.
We took 2 large suitcases that were checked and 2 carry-ons, plus a backpack/diaperbag. One suitcase held our gifts and food, so on the way home it was almost empty, and the other held laundry, so we put both carry ons in the large bags and packed around them. Which meant only the backpack/diaperbag had to be lugged around while we had DD.
We took 4 pairs of pants, 6 shirts, court clothes for each of us. DD was east to we took a lot of mix-n-match items, so we could get 3 outfits from 1.

[Bcelli]

Buy what you can there and you will have souvenirs with Russian labels your son can pass down to his own children. We didn't take a stroller. We bought one there. We were there about 19 days total and I got by fine on 3 pair of jeans, 4 shirts and one nice outfit for court. Like others, we also washed things in the hotel and hung them on a line on the balcony to dry. We brought the orphanage gift on trip one so we didn't have to take another. The gifts we brought for others didn't take too much room and the space they cleared in baggage was replaced with the things we bought there. We took our then 5YO with us and came back with his 2YO brother, and still managed to get there and back with two large bags and 3 carry-ons (we each had our own going over; No. 2 son and I shared coming back). However, since we are military, one of our big bags was an unmarked seabag and when packed cirrectly, it can hold a whole lot of stuff you couldn't get into an ordinary suitcase. It can be done, it just takes some planning.

[Katie63011]

We took two roller suitcases and two napsacks. We each packed 3 pairs or pants and about four tops plus court clothes. Remember that you won't get your son until the very end of the trip so you probably won't have him with you for very long in the scheme of things. We took an outfit for each day plus 3 extras as well as only a few pairs of pj's. you can always get things washed. We did hand wash clothes every day - it was something to do while waiting out the 10 days! Plus we would change into sweats/shorts once in the hotel room so we could rewear our clothes multiple days.

Don't overpack, nothing worse than trying to struggle with suitcases. We even brought some clothes that we knew we would throw away before we left. I brought old heels for court and my husband brought some older clothes that we left here. Made the trip home much easier and had room for souvenirs.

We too didn't bring a ton of gifts and brought a lot in country and tipped cash. Made the packing much easier.

katie