Potential Adoptive Parents notes

Just a few notes for those traveling to the Ukraine:

I am simply adding to a much more detailed list.

Take some hard copies of pictures of your family and house. Also, if you take a picture of you with your prospective child, print it while there to have to give to the judge if he would like one.

Small gifts from Wal-mart or Oriental trading are great for the class for the going away party for your child. I bought large balloons that are the thicker kind for bopping, not just party latex. The boys loved them. They also loved the hotwells cars and the girls lipgloss went over well. On the return trip I took one barbie that sang in English and 1 small lego set that made three different vehicles to leave for the class. The barbies and legos are VERY expensive there. I also took chocolates that are from the US, like York Mints, Reeses PB cups, etc. Most of the girls like magazines that they can cut pictures from.

Games to do w/the class or your child really help bridge the language barrier. Old maid was great and you can use it for concentration. Black Jack was easy to teach and spoons they loved. We left the cards for them too. One day, I took chenille stems which packed easy and we made designs, one day beads and made bracelets.

Purell and hand sanitizer wipes are a must. Plus I took very small pkgs. of hand soap, shampoo and laundry detergent that I bought from Geek.com I think. They were about 1x2 inches and so I carried the handsoap in my pocket. Most bathrooms don't have soap. We saw ladies in offices carry their soap dishes to the bathroom w/them. I also took travel toilet seat covers which fit in my pocket. Many public toilets have no seats and some (like in the Donetsk airport) don't even have a toilet, just a hole in the ground . The train toilet was NASTY. Go ahead of time and don't drink much b/c it is over night. The train was horribly HOT AND SMOKY! We felt like we were suffocating and did not sleep much. The plane ended up being $100 - $150 and the train was $20 each w/4 people to a tiny compartment. But for this situation, the extra money was worth it to us. If you go by train, you need SHORT sleeves. We only had long johns to sleep in and could hardly stand it. they do have sheets and pillow cases. Take a bottle of water.

I took a very small sound machine and was really glad b/c we were right on busy streets 2 times in apartments and it helped block out noise. It worked w/our adapter/converter on low. We had to take a different converter for our computer b/c it has 3 prongs. Check yours.

For the long plane rides, ear plugs don't block out all noise, but help make it more enjoyable. An eye mask helped me to sleep for a few minutes here and there. Keep the salt, pepper, sugar packets in put in a baggy that you carry in your carry on. It is great to have when you are in Kiev for just a couple of days in the beginning and the same at the end.

Keep a book or cards, small notebook and snacks in your backpack at all times. We never knew when we were going to be in an office waiting for a couple of hours, or an extended time in several offices, notary, etc. Many times we didn't stop to eat until late afternoon. You need to keep running while you can b/c sometimes offices close up early, people leave early or the electricity goes out.

I carried protein bars, jerky and oatmeal from home. They were great for the backpack and for sharing w/our driver/translator. The oatmeal was great if we hadn't had time to buy something to fix for breakfast and for early morning flights. We all took chewable Acidolophilus while there most days and didn't get sick. You can buy them in the pharmacy section of most drugstores or large grocery stores.

Someone suggested a bungee cord for drying clothes. We used ours a little but there's plenty of places to hang them. We did small loads at a time and dried heavy stuff like jeans on the radiator. (Just remember to turn it off when you are leaving:) Someone suggested a stopper for the sink. I took 3 sizes and none worked. We bought regular sponges so we would have them to wash with and used them to stop up the sink.

We didn't blend in very well. Everyone wears dark clothes, mostly black, probably b/c as the snow melts everything becomes a muddy mess. Women wear very high heel stylish black boots, a few daring reds. I had on tan insulated hiking boots and a blue ski coat!!! My feet were comfy though, but black would have been better. Take things that dry easily. I took a long skirt for court and it was hard to keep out of the muddy snow (and yes, I wore long johns under it).

Credit cards work at the large grocery stores and some restaurants. We used ours a few times just until we made sure we wouldn't have to get any money wired over. You have to alert your CC company that you will be making charges out of the country and most charge a small fee on each transaction, so ask. Ours was minimal, a few cents on each purchase. Always have cash as a back up. One restaurant refused our card each time. We think they just preferred cash b/c of the bad economy and luckily we had just enough gryvna! Check prices on everything. We neglected to check the prices of freshly squeezed juice and ended up spending $45 on 4 glasses one night.

Most of all, be patient and prepared. This is not the U.S. Things can be slow and unpredictable. However, it ended up having a real pull on us. I was actually looking forward to going back the second time.