Sergey turns 13 today. Here is a picture of him and Sparkle from when he was with us in August. We sent him a birthday package, we hope he enjoys it. But I think we will have an even better birthday present for him soon. And Valya.I am officially freaking out today.
Inna, one of the followers of our blog, mentions in her latest post More News! that their dossier will also be submitted next Thu., and her source tells her that they will learn their appt. date within a week and maybe travel in November.
"She also told us that the SDA told her that they will give us a travel date within a week after submitting, because the age of the children we are adopting and because we already know them. So she is estimating that our travel date will be sometime in the middle of November 2008!"You can never be sure about anything with Ukrainian adoptions. But since our situations are so similar, I will glom onto that info and pretend that it applies to us, too! Thanks Inna!
So... today I called the bank about getting cash for the trip. I'm talking serious cash here: $20,000. Payments to our facilitator and money for in-country expenses require new or like-new bills. There can be no tears, markings, or wear on them. So the bank asks, how soon do you need it? They can't get any brand new bills until after Thanksgiving. Mulling now about what to do. Any advice from experienced people would be appreciated about now.
6 comments:
Ooo...is it really possible? This is really great. I'm sorry I don't know how to get new bills...could you try ironing some nonripped bills to see if they'll suffice?
Happy birthday to Sergey! :-)
It does seem really soon. We were told our dossier would be submitted by the 27th, but not to expect to travel until January. That's not that far away!! Perhaps your travel date will be soon also.
We have not taken new bills on any of our three trips to Ukraine. But they do need to be in good shape; no tears, no marks and no creases. We went to our bank and just went through hundred dollar bills until we had enough that were in descent shape. Had to go to two branches, I believe, to find enough. The tellers that helped us actually enjoyed doing so; it was like a treasure hunt! Another thing that helped was wiring the money we owed our facilitator and just taking whatever additional cash was needed. Also, my husband had some worn bills that the little kiosks would not accept but our facilitator was able to exchange them at his bank so that is something to keep in mind if you run into any trouble while there. Congratulations on things moving forward! Suzette
We were not able to get new $100.00 but we were able to get new $50.00 with no problem and only 1 week notice. I am sure our bank did some work for it but it was very doable. It is the $100.00 that are hard to get.
Cindie
Friends today got their SDA date for Nov. 5 and were just submitted (not the full 20 days for notice) Praying again for good news soon!
We too had to take the cash the bank could get, and we are exchanging it $500 a day through the ATM since those bills are always crisp! About 1/3 of our bills have to be changed out so we are glad we got them early!
Oh, I wish you good luck with your submission and travel ate. We got word 8 days before we weere to leave, it is doable, but chaotic.
We went to three different banks to get the best bills we could find. Towards the end of the trip I was running out of the really nice bills, thankfully the bank in Vorzel was kind to me.
Our adoption was last year, i can hardly believe it, and our little girl turns 4 this year too.
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