With an adoption you have to pay a lot of fees. Fees to the adoption agency here in the U.S., fees to the orphanage in China, fees in China for notaries and passports, medical exams and on and on. Credit cards and checks are not acceptable forms of payment for these fees in China. We must pay in cash. Okay, that in and of itself makes me a little nervous because that is a lot of cash to carry. There is a $3,000 mandatory orphanage donation. Only two provinces allow this money to be wired and we were lucky because our daughter's province is one of them so we do not have to carry around this additional $3,000.
The money that we do need to bring must be brand new, not folded or bent money. I went to Commerce Bank in September and they actually ordered the money for me. I know yo aren't supposed to do this, but I put the new bills $5,000 in cash in my safe deposit box (I am fairly certain this is against the law). I certainly didn't want to carry around this money with me and I figured it would be safe there until we needed it. I didn't know then that the orphanage donation would be wire transferred, so all that means is that I have additional money that I can spend in China. I plan on buying whatever we need with cash versus credit cards. A lot of places in China do not take credit cards too, especially the little shops.
AR and I each have money belts so we will split up the cash and will each carry half. I will divide up the money into individual ziplock baggies and label each bag for the amount of the fee to be paid. The zippy bags will bulk up the money belt, but this seems to be the easiest way to keep the money flat and dry.
Friday, October 01, 2004
Monday, September 27, 2004
Visas Arrive!
Our visas were delivered on September 27, 2004. It took less than a week to get them. I didn't want to go into NYC to get it because then I would have to take off from work and I can't afford to waste any time off right now.
Most of our travel companions are flying from the midwest. They all seem to want to fly into Los Angeles and then get a connecting flight to Beijing. We've been toying with the idea of not stopping in LAX. We are thinking of going to go the direct non-stop flight from JFK to Beijing. However, we are finding that the flight appears and disappears when we are checking prices, meaning sometimes it is there and sometimes it isn't. We may just have to make our way to LAX and join the group after all. I guess it mostly depends on what happens when we are told to GO! andmake travel plans.
Most of our travel companions are flying from the midwest. They all seem to want to fly into Los Angeles and then get a connecting flight to Beijing. We've been toying with the idea of not stopping in LAX. We are thinking of going to go the direct non-stop flight from JFK to Beijing. However, we are finding that the flight appears and disappears when we are checking prices, meaning sometimes it is there and sometimes it isn't. We may just have to make our way to LAX and join the group after all. I guess it mostly depends on what happens when we are told to GO! andmake travel plans.
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