This past week has been filled to the top. We are so busy with so many different items on our to do lists. Successfully checking off completed ones just puts such a smile on my face. Getting closer to seeing Bunny again. I can't wait to hold you.
Our paperwork for the Russian Court hearing has been delivered to the agency. Not without a couple of annoying hang-ups. One involved a persnickety Bank Manager that our Dr. thought would be a whole lot more helpful with doing some notaries. Then a complete moron at the Secretary of State Super Center refused to apostile four of our documents. I showed her, I went to other center in a different County and got it done. I so want to go to her office first thing Monday morning and stick my tongue out at her.
There is one other thing that is more than a hang-up. We thought we had our flights all worked out with a travel agency. Thursday night our credit card was charged and we had a firm itinerary and I was so happy. I actually sleep well that night. Friday at 8:00am we got an e-mail that they had made an error and if we still wanted the flights it would cost an additional $1,000.00. So not cool! We asked for a full refund of course and I will check to make sure on Monday. Anyway back to the drawing board so to speak. We will get that done as soon as possible.
I hope you don't mind sharing, we have a question for anyone who has traveled before us. Regarding the court and pick-up trips. How important is it to be able to change the dates on your flights?
JUal Beras
10 years ago
15 comments:
I did NOT have to change my travel plans once in country. I did have to change them before traveling...
My suggestion is to call Lynn Fredricks @ Countryside Travel. # is 866-423-3504. She's FABU.
Mike and I never had to change our plans but I do know of people who have had to. I'm not sure where you are located but we used a great travel agency out of Boston, Mass, cEventa. We communicated through email and phone and they were able to get everything ready for us: flights, Visas, hotels, etc. Great group.
Melissa
We almost had to change our plans to come home later. . .but we ended up coming home a few days early, so we did change them. Being able to (having paid a little extra up front to be able to) saved us in the long run!! By about $1500!
We had to change our flights when we did our last adoption. That was the point in time when the 10-days stopped being waived and we had expected ours to be waived. But, I would not recommend non-changeable tickets. In IA you just never know what hold-ups might occur;-). We have also been delayed when the American Embassy computers had a temporary glitch. So you just never know...for sure. Big Congrats!!!! Many blessings...Trisha (mom2b4#10)
I second Lynn at Countryside. I didn't even have to worry about my travel plans as she was right on top of it.
Yes, we did change our dates in country and we called her and she took care of it.
You have been one busy girl.
Joy
We did not have to change our travel dates and I think the staff in Russia tries to make sure that does not have to happen, but really the only dates you may have to change would be the return flight after picking up your child.
I have heard about families having to change their plans once the tickets are booked but do not know how often that really happens. Once our court date was set, we felt pretty confidant so ended up booking the cheapest round trip tickets we could find online and thankfully everything worked out with those. I know things can just happen but we felt comfortable doing that. It helped that our agency seemed to have everything under control and did not expect any hiccups along the way. Sorry for the long response!
Wow - busy busy! Wish I could help with the travel question. I wouldn't be sleeping much either. :)
Kim
For our first adoption we wanted to change our tickets to come home early, but because of the cost didn't. On our second adoption we made sure we had changeable tickets, and it was a good thing because we got go come home early from that trip. We used Eldo at Golden Rule travel in Kansas. He is great and has helped many adoptive families.
Hi-
We did not have to change our dates but we almost did- and at that point I was glad I had changeable tickets. We knew in the beginning that our 10 days would not be waived so we planned on that and it was true.
We used Rainier Travel (Elise) - and they were great.
Good Luck and hope you are there soon!!
hiyee!!! I am very excited to get to go to Russia with you. I love you very much, and I cannot wait to meet your lil bunny!
As we sit here in Moscow it appears that we will not have to change our travel plans, but I will say it does bring peace of mind knowing that we could change the tickets if we needed to. Don't know if that helps at all :o)
We changed our flights to come home early on trip 2. Our travel agent did it for us (for a small fee) but we were able to do it completely by email. I can recommend Gayle at International Travel - she did both trips for us and was wonderful by email - you can reach her initially Toll Free: 800.755.2193 or 888.278.1441.
De-lurking to say, congratulations on your court date..that was fast!!!
I can't wait to see your new little one....and I know you can't wait to finally have him in your arms.
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