Russia Heritage Trip

That is so awesome. We are so excited about this trip!

The Sticklens are in. The kids are very excited.

Gladney is hosting a conference call on Tuesday, September 22. If you are interested in joining the call please e-mail Arienne Harvey at Arienne.Harvey@Gladney.org requesting to attend the call and provide her the following information: Your Name Your address Your phone # Your E-mail address Your Region of adoption The Year of your adoption She will then provide you with the conference call details and instructions. We are in the planning stages of the trip and would really like your input in order to make this a wonderful once in a lifetime experience for your family. It is our hope that through discussions with you we can build a thoughtful, exciting and child centered itinerary. We are very excited about this trip and hope you can join us for the call. Warm Regards, Your Gladney Russia Heritage/Service Trip Team

We are scheduling a conference call on Tuesday, Sept, 22, at noon CST, for families to call in and learn about the trip, if they would like too. We would like to have questions ahead of time... We know the biggest question is cost and we aren't able to give a firm number as some of that depends on how many families go; whether we stay in a air-conditioned hotel or rent air-conditioned apts, rent a bus for 10 people or for 30... Also, we have a private e-mail list of potentially interested families and we would like everyone to be on that list so you can get up-to-date information and the conference call call-in number. (Will you e-mail Arienne Harvey at HQ so she/we have your e-mail address.) We anticipate the call will be about an hour. It is totally optional...

Hi, we do plan to spend two full days in each region. Our time in the regions is limited to during the week when the baby house director and officials we want to meet with are working. Hopefully we will do some kind of service project at each baby house and some sightseeing in the region. The sightseeing time in Moscow serves a couple purposes: one, it lets the kids get to know one another while seeing their native land and two, they get to see some historic places which they may or may not ever see in person again. Of course, some will not remember that they saw many of them when they were infants! If you look at the schedule we posted back in June, we fly into Moscow spend 4 days there, travel to the regions and depending on whether you are visiting one or two regions, you could leave Wednesday, the 23rd, or Saturday, the 26th -- just a little over a week! The St. Petersburg visit is optional... Let us know what other questions you have... Although it doesn't look like it we are working hard trying to nail down some key decisions. We plan to schedule a conference call with all interested families-- hopefully -- within the next month

I am very interested in this trip. I'm sure I will not be able to do the whole two weeks. I am more interested in going to the kids' region than sightseeing. Can't wait to see how it all shakes out.

Andreis, we are still working on costs -- a ballpark round number high guestimate for Moscow and 1 region is $1000 per person for Moscow -- before you have a stroke, that is based on only 2 people to a hotel room in Moscow and it includes transportation from airport and back, plus tour buses based on 10 people traveling.... We anticipate 20-30 people going which will help reduce those costs and we are looking at apts for Moscow which can also bring the cost down without sacrificing comfort... The trip to the region is considerably less -- two mostly full days in Rayzan -- traveling there I believe by car/van. The whole trip is supposed to be less than 2 weeks including St. P. Sorry I took so long to respond. We hope to have more accurate numbers soon... we've been waiting for Karen to get back from Russia where she was gathering info first hand for us!

We're interested in going. Will depend upon cost and length of the trip. I like the idea of being able to leave early. Not that we don't want to see St. Petersburg. I'm uncertain if I will be able to take more than two weeks of vacation. There would be four of us. We would be using miles. How many days would we spend in our region? Ryazan is our region.

Hey, I just wanted to update you on our Russia Heritage/Service Trip for June 16-29, 2010. We are still working on cost but we are trying to keep it reasonable! We plan on letting everyone be in control of their flight plans so they could use miles, travel on whatever airline they wanted. We are looking at some hotels away from the center of Moscow so they would be affordable. We are also looking at the possibility of renting apts... if it is a very few families then possibly homestays. Other costs are Russian passports for your child and then VISAs for everyone traveling. We will do a lot of sightseeing in Moscow and St. Petersburg, some of which can be optional. It is our intention that everyone get to go to the region(s) where their children are from. The second region and St. Petersburg are optional! Karen Jordan and Arienne Harvey are going. We are tentatively looking at the following: Leave US on Wednesday, June 16 Arrive in Moscow on Thursday, June 17 Friday, June 18 - Moscow - start program. Have a "kick off" dinner for all families. Saturday, June 19 - Moscow Sunday, June 20 - Moscow Sunday evening some families will get on the overnight train to their region Monday, June 21 - families to their region by car (or arrive early in the morning on the train depending on region) Tuesday, June 22 - region Evening get on train back to Moscow OR car trip back to Moscow Wednesday, June 23 - Moscow recoup - not such a busy day in Moscow Just a thought - Maybe have a "good bye" lunch in Moscow because some families may only go to one region and want to go home Thursday or Friday. Some families will leave from St. Petersburg and some will leave from Moscow. This may be the last time the whole group is together. Thursday, June 24 - region Friday, June 25 - region Evening get on train back to Moscow OR car trip back to Moscow Saturday, June 26 - Any families going to Pskov Region can go by car directly to St. Petersburg if they would like (rather than going back to Moscow and then going from Moscow to St. Petersburg). It would make more sense for the families going to Pskov region then to go directly to St. Petersburg. Some families arrive back in Moscow. Some families may want to go back home if they don't want to go to St. Petersburg St. Petersburg Sunday, June 27- St. Petersburg Monday, June 28 - St. Petersburg Farewell dinner for all families who are in town. Tuesday, June 29 - Departure for US. Meals - not included except : kick off dinner the first night, Wednesday lunch in Moscow and Tuesday dinner in St. Petersburg... Let's get a chat going about what you'd like to do, not to do, where you'd like to visit, what regions you want to go to, OK?