traveling blind and alone

The two questions I get from other people who understand the world of international adoption are:
-- are you traveling blind?
-- are you traveling alone?

Yes to both -- I am traveling blind and alone.

"Traveling blind" is the term used to describe adoption processes where adoptive parents travel to the country to meet with several children and choose one child to adopt. The alternative is to travel to a country after receiving "a referral" -- photos and medical information of one child designated for you to adopt.

Some single adoptive parents bring along friends or family when they travel to the orphanage. I have chosen to travel alone (not that many people have been jumping up and down begging me to take them with me to experience summer on the steppes of Kazakhstan), but know that I have many people "virtually" beside me who will be following along on this blog and through e-mail.

Keep those questions coming...

one step closer

Meet my new favorite person: Katerina Krasnobaev from Panorama Travel (at 20th Street and Fifth Avenue in Manhattan). She is responsible for getting my Kazakhstan visa and making my travel arrangements between New York and Almaty. Today, I visited with her to pick up my passport (with visa) and plane tickets (yes, I'm using old-fashioned paper tickets). I'm also glad I could thank her in person for providing really great service!

leaving for Kazakhstan on July 6th!!!

Okay, the Kazakhstan Ministry of Education changed the date on which I can start the "bonding period" at the baby house -- now I am supposed to show up there on July 9th (perhaps they didn't like the joke about "loss of independence day" in the last posting). My flight plans have been changed so that I leave from JFK on the evening of July 6th and after a long lay-over in Heathrow, I arrive in Almaty, Kazakhstan early in the morning on the 8th. Later that day, I will fly from Almaty to Karaganda. The next day, then, will be the first day I will visit the Malutka Baby House in Karaganda.

The delayed departure from the U.S. meant that Katerina (from Panorama Travel) was able to get me an aisle seat from JFK to Heathrow (I had been booked in a middle seat on the July 1st flight). Those of you who have traveled on long flights with me know my strategy -- drink lots of water, get up to use the restroom frequently -- which is much easier to put into effect when I have an aisle seat.

leaving for Kazakhstan on July 1st!!!!

Woo hoo! Kathy from Children at Heart called this morning to say they have received my Letter of Invitation (the long-awaited, much-coveted permission from the Ministry of Education for me to travel to Kazakhstan to adopt a child)! My visa is being processed and the flight arrangements are set: I leave on the evening of July 1st from JFK and travel through London to arrive in Almaty, Kazakhstan at 4:40 am on July 3rd. On either the 3rd or the 4th, I will take the short flight to Karaganda to visit with children at the Malutka Baby House. [Someone has already joked that this year's 4th of July will be my "loss of independence day."]