I think it would be nice for everyone in the adoption community to have one place to go and find others in similar situations as themselves. With that in mind, I think it would be a good idea for members of the adoption community to reply here with where they adopted from and when. If you are still in the process just reply with how far along you are or your expected date of travel.
This should make it easier for everyone to find others who can offer up advice particular to a country or even a season for travel.
We began our journey to adoption in February 2006. We chose to adopt from Kazakhstan. Our dossier went to Kaz in November 2006. We received our LOI in February 2007. We traveled to Ust-Kamenogorsk, Kazakhstan in March 2007. There we met our beautiful son on March 12th. Our court date was March 29th.
We chose the two trip option and returned to the US on April 1st. My husband went back alone for the 2nd trip. He left the US for Kaz on April 22nd. They were in Ust-Kamenogork until May 5th then they traveled to Almaty on the morning of the 6th. The attended the SOS clinic on the 7th and had their Embassy interview on the 8th. May 9th they finally came home!
We adopted our son from Ukraine summer of 2007 at the age of 6 1/2 years old. We had our SDA appointment 7-26-07, met our boy on July 30, had our final court date on August 13, 2007 and returned home on September 16,2007. My husband stayed for five weeks and I was in country for eight weeks due to changes in the passport laws mid-adoption and unusual circumstances with our son's registration. We were mainly in the Kherson region but traveled to Crimea, Zhitomir and Kyiv as well. We hope to return in 2008 for our teenage daughter whom we met at our son's orphanage.
I am a birth mother (11/22/78) and would like to connect with others in the Adoption Triad. I live in CA and the adoption was with Catholic Charities in NJ. I was a senior in high school and got pregnant first time. The father was the oldest of nine kids in a catholic family and we opted for adoption.
As the single parent to two boys on the autism spectrum (different father) I would like to find the young man to let him know that this might be in the genes and that Alzheimer's is in my family history.
The birth father has a younger sibling with MR and my sister had a brain tumor. The agency knew about that and I have no information since then.
I did call the agency years ago and learned that I could write a letter to him and have it in his file (cut off was before he turned 18) but months before that I learned of the autism diagnosis for my older son who is now 13 and I had to make a decision and opted to deal with my present situation.
For those who have been adopted - would you want to know this information that could be in your genes and something to consider when you decide on having a family? ~ Bonnie
