[Jessi_76]

Hello again

Only 20 days til we leave!!! WOO HOO!!!


Thank you Mommyto4, and Amy!!

Shark ~ We will be there: July 24 - July 30 or 31 (not sure of departure date yet as agency is checking to see if we will see kids same day as court or day after).
We will book our tickets on Monday. Thanks for the advice about Singapore Air. Not sure if we can fly them from our part of the country. Our IA TA told us that typically we will always fly Delta from where we live (out of JFK). Their prices did seem the lowest and still do, but I didn't really check foreign carriers. Thank you!! We too are using an adoption travel agency - recommended by our agency. Not sure if I can post the name, but she's out of TX. She was WONDERFUL - handles our Visas and everything, but she adds a fee ranging from $25-$50 to every transaction (meaning every leg of the flight...SO...it adds up to a few hundred extra and I didn't know this when we first used her). Anyway, not sure what we'll do this second time. Probably use her again for peace of mind. Can you pm me with who you are using? Did they take care of your Visas? If not, I'm definitely sticking with our gal...

Anyhow, trips...
Trip 2 - July 24-July 30/31
Trip 3: August 6 - August 18

August 9th - your come-home day is our Gotcha Day! Looks like our only overlap is July 26 in Moscow (and we may actually already be in Kras by then...they want us to leave the same night - July 25 for Kras, but we aren't so sure...we'd rather stay in Moscow than Kras).


April*Rain~ I'm originally from NJ...lived there my whole life. Where do you live?

Sharon ~ I will DEFINITELY post updates. Thanks...


Ok, that's enough of my excited ramblings...

Have a GREAT Fourth everyone that's in the US!
xoxoxoxo

[heikewould]

Congratulations! July 29th is our 8 years wedding aniversary, so I know it's a lucky day.

Take pictures of everything
bring a hot water kettle
bring traveling toilet paper
wipes
oh, did I say take pictures
buy a local paper
but local goods
don't be afraid to go out and explore the area!

Have fun

[MominPA]

Congratulations!
Congratulations!

In addition to leaving on Delta out of JFK don't forget about Aeroflot. We flew on them for our first trip to save a considerable amount of money. I will PM you the name of the company that we used. Since it was such a last minute trip they saved us over 4,000 on airfare. Which helped paid for the expediated visa service we had to pay for.

[GCS]

YEAH!!!

[Shark01]

Jessi,
I don't mind posting the name of our agent, since she was able to do what 3-4 others couldn't:

Gayle Bunton of International Adoption Travel

Now if you are using someone you like, stay with them. If it's Allways Travel, there is quite the drama going on at frua about them.

There may be some cheaper options than Delta, we saved $1,300. I can second Aeroflot. They gave us a free upgrade to business class and a bassinet for Katerina 7 years ago. If they were still flying out of Chicago we would consider them again.

Sounds like we may cross paths as we will be back in country July 27th.

Just think, in 6 weeks the next part of our lives begin

[MissDaisyofTexas]

Jessi--

Congratulations! I'm so excited for you!!!

[Jessi_76]

Hi again, everyone!!! Hope you all had a GREAT Fourth!!


Heike ~ Thank you!!! July 27 is our six year wedding anniversary. Every year we go away to celebrate, something I suppose we would have "missed out on" if things had gone "our way" and we had children six years ago like we had planned. I've come to learn that God always knows best, and this year...this year, we will be celebrating our best anniversary trip EVER - we'll be in KRAS!!!! Congrats on your special day!!!


Elissa ~ thank you!! I got your pm and I emailed you back. I didn't even know that we could take Aeroflot out of NYC. We took Delta from the US last time and then hopped on Aeroflot from Moscow to Kras. Good to know!! We'll surely check into it. Aeroflot is actually owned by Delta and we were very comfortable with them. On our first trip, Delta had the low fares to Russia, although, as you know, they weren't even close to being defined as "low." Our IA Travel Agent said they were the highest she's EVER seen. EVER. Yikes!!


Shark ~ THANK YOU!!! Gayle is who we have been using as well. our agency recommended her and she was GREAT on our first trip. I just didn't like that we had to pay a few hundred more for her commissions, but with the help she gave us, it was worth it! She took care of our Visas and everything. I like that peace of mind. She told me that Delta will have the low fares from our part of the country just about always. We're booking our tickets on Monday, unless she's around today - but I don't think she is. We just got confirmation from our agency yesterday that we will see the kids on the 30th - the day AFTER court so we'll be coming home on the 31st. And, we may not get to pick them up on August 9th, depending on how quickly we can get the court decree, adoption, and birth certificates since it's a 12-hour RT drive to the orphanage. So...looks like August 10th will be the BIG Day!!! Can't wait to hear about your trip and see pics. Best of luck!!! It's getting SO close!! Time will fly...for both of us!!


Christina & Miss Daisy ~ Thank you!!



Have a GREAT day, everyone!! I'm off to continue getting the house baby-ready. Woo hoo!!

[ophelia72]

Congrats Jess! I am so Happy for you! I posted a congrats on another post you can tell that I am loopy. In anycase Great great news. I am so happy for you. I wwill post real soon!