[trnews71]

Hi guys;

Just a quick question to all? Has anyone got any grants? I have sent on January to all available (that of course does not requiere the home study to be finalized) and so far I have not got any answers yet. Any ideas? I am waiting for my home study to be final so I can send out to the rest.

DH, DD (only 2 years old) and I are adopting from Ukraine independently and on January as well we had a "small fire" in our house that caused quite some smoke dammage. DH was making french fries! I am glad that neither my DH or DD were severly hurt. DH though had taken our DD out of the house, placed her in the car seat, turn the heat on and gave her some toys to play and went back to try to turn the fire out and got some pretty bad burns in his right hand and fore head plus had inhale smoke. Both DH and DD were at the hospital for a few hours. We were blessed that it wasn't anything major. While all this was going on I was at work so just imagine how it was to come home and see DH intears and in shock!

Weeks before I had just changed our HO deductable to 1000 to save us some money for our adoption and of course the extra expenses that came with that for not being able to get back in the house for over 1 mo.

We are not being able to take a home equity because before we decided to adopt we had taken one out to do some upgrades in our home. We just did a garage sale last weekend. It went Ok. We raised 86.00. In our town you can only have 2 garage sales per year so we are waiting until it warms up a little bit so we can try again. We have also been selling pastries at work and raised 19.50...not much but every little bit helps! I work for a small office and most of us are females so of course there is the diet situation!

Any ideas that you guys can share with me please let me know about how to raise funds! My co-workers are not into raffles and that was my other option. I am not sure how much our adoption will end up being but we are able to try hard and work hard to make it happen. We also took a loan with MBNA and were granted 7500 but still you never know how much it will all be! If anyone adopted independently resently, can you please share this with me?

Thanks for all for reading and thanks in advanced for any advice!

Carla
__________________
03/10/05 First home study meeting
03/14/05 Sent I-600

[hjdeth]

Carla,
Indy adoption from Ukraine...depending on which facilitator you are using...1 child...total should run in the $17k to $24k range. Anyone who tells you less, make sure to ask them for a breakdown of their costs.

Costs have been rising. My 3 adoptions cost $15-19k, but they were 1, 2, and 3 years ago.

[jmchowat]

I can't remember where I read this (could have been another post here) that someone had arranged with her day care to allow her to hold a parents' night out once a month. She charged $25 for each child for 4 or 5 hours and then paid some of the day care workers to look after the kids.

Seems like a good idea to me, but I am not sure how easy it is to arrange. I don't think our day care would go for it though. There's probably some legal reason for it being a bad idea!!!

Might be worth looking into doing something similar on a smaller scale though.

Jane

[mom of vitalik]

We have adopted indy from Ukraine & are going back there. I would be happy to give you more information if you would like



Mina

minamcfarlane@hotmail.com

[Katherine K]

We also adopted independently from Ukraine. Wewere extremely surprised at how easy the whole process wasincluding the paperwork. The mysteries of adoption really aren'tthat hard to learn. We budgeted $15,000 for our complete adoptionprocess and spent much less. We were gone a total of 16days although at the time we were given a referral to see all availablechildren in the orphanage/region we chose.


Best wishes on your plans to adopt!

[trnews71]

"We also adopted independently from Ukraine. Wewere extremely surprised at how easy the whole process wasincluding the paperwork. The mysteries of adoption really aren'tthat hard to learn. We budgeted $15,000 for our complete adoptionprocess and spent much less. We were gone a total of 16days although at the time we were given a referral to see all availablechildren in the orphanage/region we chose"


Best wishes on your plans to adopt!


Katherine,

How long ago did you adopted?
[/quote]

[trnews71]

Mina,

I would love to hear about your trip, expenses, how is it when you get to the orphanage and the "books" where they have the children info that they show if you do not mind? Our trip might be by mid October. Thanks,

Carla

Originally Posted by mom of vitalik

We have adopted indy from Ukraine & are going back there. I would be happy to give you more information if you would like



Mina

minamcfarlane@hotmail.com

[Katherine K]

We decided in April 2004 to go through with the adoption after 2 failed IVFs. We requested an appointment on August 7th - 9th and received one on August 15th. We remained in Ukraine until September 14th, when we returned home with our son.

[trnews71]

Originally Posted by Katherine K

We decided in April 2004 to go through with the adoption after 2 failed IVFs. We requested an appointment on August 7th - 9th and received one on August 15th. We remained in Ukraine until September 14th, when we returned home with our son.

So glad to hear that you have your son home with you!

What was the expenses? Flight, meals, hotel/apartments if you do not mind me asking you please. If you want to you can PM me or email me @ carlamllr@yahoo.com. Thanks

[kizibits]

I've heard some scary things about appointment lotteries and single applicants being put on hold. Can any of you shed any light in those areas? I'm a single 42 y/o woman wanting to adopt a 2-3 year old and looking at Ukraine as a possibility.

Jeana

[jhiskid]

Kathrine K
Do you mind sharing a little about what it was like for you what happens when you get there? Do they really just set books in front of you and you look through them? What do you mean by a referal to see all available children in the region? Was that overwhelming? We are new to this, and seeking answers your wisdom is appreciated! Thanks!
JHK