Q&A #115

More Q&As on the adoption blog.

just curious to know why you are changing her name? I don't have a clue about this so I am in no way judging or being condescending, i'm just wondering...won't that make it harder for her? I would think that's her only sense of identity left and something she understands.
Most families who adopt choose to change their child's name for one reason or another, so you could go from blog to blog and get different answers... a lot of which are VERY good and valid answers! But for us, Kellsey is young enough that she will catch onto her new name easily. We've seen this from experience with our friends who have gone before us... and really, we didn't want her to come to us years from now and ask why SHE is the only one without a K name... I mean, wouldn't you wonder, if you just met me? "Hi, I'm Renee, and these are my children: Kassidy, Kameron, Kennedy, Keeghan and Victoria." Ummm what?! LOL You ran out of K names? You just don't LOVE her as much?! For every family it's a personal decision and like I said, they all have their reasons, this is ours... if she were older, we probably would have given her the choice, but this is our only chance and so, going off of the experience and ease of others, we decided this was the best decision for US... not to say it's the best for everyone. :)

I am curious about Frank's extended stay. Will he stay in a hotel or do they provide some kind of housing through the agency you are using? I am sure a hotel would be so expensive.
Hotels are EXTREMELY expensive here. We are currently staying in an apartment... which isn't exactly cheap! LOL We're paying $69 a night, but compared to a hotel here it's MUCH cheaper AND compared to another round trip ticket for Frank, it's still cheaper for him to stay the 10 extra days. Plus this way we have a full kitchen so we can cook sometimes and not have to eat every meal out, which saves money as well. We've been eating about 1 meal out a day... and if we get pizza we eat for about $6.00 which is really good! (Just gotta remember to ask for no mayo! haha)

so now that she is officially yours. When can Frank take her out of the baby home and back to the apartment?
WELL now we have the 10 day wait which should be over on the 20th. THEN Frank has a lot of running around to do. He has to get her birth certificate and passport and visa and he has to go to the bank here and pull out the money in HER account that the government has set up for her, which he will then donate to the orphanage... because that's just what we're expected to DO. It keeps relationships good between the US and here so they let families continue to adopt and we definitely want that! THEN when all of that is done, he can get her out of the baby home. THEN he has to take her to get her medical done... after that they should be ready to go. He isn't going to want to get her out while he has all the running around to do... it's a lot of waiting in line and it's boring and it's COLD and she'd HATE it. Not exactly the best chance to bond, you know?! So he will get her when Nadia and Oleg say that it's a good time. We don't want her unhappy! He will get to visit until then though! :)

Poor little peanut, I wonder why her face is broke out like that?!
I don't know! They are saying it's from Gummy bears?! Really?! I don't know about that...

Does the baby home take in "hand me downs" to cloth the kiddos?
I would assume so... I'm not sure where they get the clothes from...

So, have you decided. Are you going to let her hair grow out or keep in short? I just love her little bangs..
Absolutely let it grow out!!! But we'll probably keep the bangs! I can't WAIT for it to get long though!!!!!