[MamaChinch]

It's long flight, kids or no kids! Just know it will be over soon and you will be home and all will be fine! Be prepared for when you home for them to be off as well !! After only sleeping one hour on the flight home, we went to bed about 1 am and dd was up at 5 am!! ARGH! Also, make or buy some frozen meals for the first week or two home! You will be glad you did!
Lots of snacks, lots of small toys (I got a lot form the dollar store). Make sure you don't get things that can roll, toys WILL get flung! I made dd sleep the one hour she did by holding her while she cried until she finally fell asleep. At least three or four changes of clothes, while we didn't have any diaper problems, she did make food messes on her shirts. While the flight was long, dd wasn't bad at all, she was 18 months and it took a lot to keep her busy and entertained and fed and she didn't sleep!
If you can get the bulkhead, it's so nice! We got her a seat so she was between me and my mom and the extra room even for playing was great, but she wanted to spend most of her time on the floor. Bring a blanket or something they can sit on!
Mostly, enjoy! You are bringing your child home! Here's Delaney doing some duty free shopping! It's funny, she slept most of the four hour flight from Siberia to Moscow. Go figure! (oh, also, at 18 months, she was not interested in watching a DVD, I do not think she had ever seen TV!)

[momraine]

One thing I did for both of my adoptions, was to save a backpack full of toys for the planeride home. To this I added a few favorites and some favorite snacks purchased in country. This way the child had never seen these new toys and was more interested in them. It was still a long flight though!

[Shark01]

Originally Posted by nhjosh

1. The 8-doctor medical... how thorough are they? We've heard different reports.. anything from "it's a joke, they just look at you and sign the paper" to "it's very thorough". What was your experience?

We went through it twice in 2008 (it expires after 90 days). Seeing 6-8 doctors (some sign twice) over a 2 hour span means it isn't really that invasive, but it did make us nervous. But everything turned out OK.

Don't ask about our trip home.....12 hours of screaming Svetlana

[Purdue]

I was fine with our entire trip, right up until the 8 doc visit. I am not prudish about the human body but I am modest. I'm sure it all has to do with the differences in our cultures and how Dr. visits are conducted. Obviousy the locals have to go thru the same thing I do when they see these same Dr's.

I did not like it at all. I cried when we returned to our hotel room and were by ourselves. My husband couldn't figure out why I was crying, its very uncharacteristic of me. When I finally spilled it, he was shocked. He said that he had no clue that anythign was wrong because I didn't show it. I just didn't want anything to slow up the process or have them think differently of me for any reason.

I'm more than willing to share my experience with those of you that have upcoming doc visits. I really don't mean to scare anyone...obviously I'm fine now. But had I known what to expect, it might have made it more easy for me to cope with at the moment. So, PM me if you want.