Archives 2017

Make no mistake about it, summer in Athens is HOT!

We spent a month and a half in Athens and the surrounding areas this summer. At times, the temperature was a sweltering (and dangerous) 115 and higher. While the sea was an inviting way to stay cool, it was often too hot to even trudge to the car to reach the shores.

Still, there was much to see and do in Athens on the less-than-murderously-hot days. Here are the top five things we enjoyed. More to come!

The Parthenon

This ancient temple at the Athens Acropolis is pretty impressive. It has everything a good traveler could ask for: impressive history, ancient-looking rock stuff and a gentle pathway to the top for easy viewing. Still, when you have to fight crowds of tourists and blaring tour guides. Dodge pointy parasols and be barked at by bitter tourists, you realize the Parthenon is one of those once-in-a-lifetime stops. The structure is impressive, but covered in scaffolding and hard to photograph given the crowds and metal and wire support structures.

With Kids- the Parthenon

Our daughter enjoyed chasing lone lines of ants around the giant marble slabs that make up the entrance to the Acropolis. That and the slushies near the ticket booth were the highlights for her.

The Beach

There are a few  great beaches to choose from if you’re in Athens. We went to Rafina first. This beach is rougher than what you’d picture for the Aegean. Rough rock led out into beautiful turquoise water where you could slip under the waves and watch little crabs and small fish poke in and out of the formations. It is about half an hour from Athens.

Marathon Beach is the site of the famous battle between the Athenians and the Persians who outnumbered them. The Athenians wom, repelling the invaders. Legend has it a runner dashed to Athens to tell of the victory, dying upon arrival. The beach today is quaint and quiet. Sand leads into gentle water without much surf. There is no shade.

The nearby Battle of Marathon mound is worth a drive by.

Poseidon’s Temple Beach is a great little spot to cool off after you see Poseidon’s Temple. The temple is 8 Euro per adult and 4 for EU members. It is every bit as cool as the Parthenon, only smaller and without any crowds. The views of the sea from atop are unparalleled. Its about an hour outside of Athens. The water is warm and gentle, though rougher than Marathon Beach. Sea urchins and loads of rocks make for a more dynamic adventure.

With Kids- the Beaches

Rafina– not for young kids, but if your children can swim comfortably or wear a mask they’ll enjoy the wildlife.

Marathon– Perfect for young kids who can’t swim. They can still sit in the water and enjoy the gentle waves.

Poseidon’s Temple Beach– Rougher water and the perfect mix of rocks for snorkeling and gentle surf for younger kids.

The Bazaar

The bazaar isn’t one thing but several streets with souvenirs and trinkets, high-end memorabilia and antiques. The flea market ranges from people’s home items displayed on little blankets along the cobble stone to book sellers with loaded carts. In all, the area is worth a visit. Of additional  value, the views of the Ancient Agora and Acropolis are great from along the bazaar alleyways.

With kids: The bazaar- There are trinkets and ice cream for the kids, but mostly they’ll be unimpressed by a shopping adventure in high heat. 

The Food

Athens has great food! Downtown there is no shortage of restaurants, and many of them offer great local cuisine, including seafood. In the more central tourist areas the food is overpriced and mass produced, but if you find a side street or a higher-end establishment you’ll be wildly impressed.

With Kids: The Food

We’d like to call out an unlikely win for dining with kids- Athens Beer. This establishment brought out a baby cradle when we arrived, and accommodated our older kids with great after dinner drinks that mimicked the adult drinks.

The Museum

We visited the Archeological Museum on a rather warm 114 degree day. The draw was not only the wealth of amazing history but the air conditioning that would make viewing it possible. The rooms of pottery were interesting, but the real attractions are the rooms full of statues. Some of these artifacts are in mint condition, others are the classic no armed Greek garden piece you’ve come to expect. Still, the collection will blow away even the most seasoned museum visitor.

With Kids: The Museum

Skip the pottery side rooms and go straight to the first floor statues. We had fun trying to mimic the poses of the statues and drawing them in little notebooks.

As anyone who follows international adoptions already knows, China released unexpected changes to their adoption requirements on the 6th of July. The new regulations became effective immediately. One of the new regulations precluded our family from adopting from China.

We started the process earlier this year. Here is more about our first steps on the road to adoption.

To share something personal. The day we found out that the new regulations would preclude us was one of the hardest days in recent years. So much emotion goes into an adoption and to have it yanked away in an instant was crushing. We spent the day in tears, all of us. As an adoptive parent you think of your adopted child as yours– even now before we even know what she is like or who she is. She’s out there somewhere. She’s our daughter’s sister. She’s part of our family. To suddenly find out she’s never coming home was almost too much.

In desperation, we called and emailed our adoption agency in the USA. They were swamped with similar correspondence but did finally get in touch with us. “Hang tight,” was their suggestion. They promised to petition on our behalf and reach out to China for more information.

The regulation that precluded us was the new youngest child rule. The youngest child in the home must now be three. Previously, there was no youngest child rule. Many other Hague signatory countries have similar rules so China is tightening up its requirements. Still, the timing and lack of grace period was surprising to our adoption agency.

I emailed and called friends and contacts in China to better understand the origin of the new regulations. No one knew anything substantial. More correspondence with our agency revealed that they were had people in China, petitioning for waivers for families like ours who were already well into the adoption process.

We waited 14 grueling and painful days, but this morning at 2:30am we got an email from our adoption agency that China has agreed to grandfather our case in under the old regulations!

Thank you China, and thank you to our adoption agency for petitioning on our behalf. After two weeks of pain and anxiety, we’re only back where we started but now we’re elated to be there!

With that painful bump in the road behind us, we are now ready to be paired with a child. Basically, China takes a look at our dossier and takes a look at the kids they have in orphanages and institutions and they try to find kids that match. When they do, they’ll send information on the child to us and we’ll determine if that fits our needs. Essentially, they do their best to make a good fit, and we do our best to stay open minded and not get an image in our head of a specific person. You don’t know the most important things about a person from a picture or a medical summary. What they will like, their personality, their interests… all of those important things can’t be documented. That’s the adventure.

As with our two lovely kids, we’ll find out who our adopted daughter is as she grows and lives with us.

So, the adventure continues and we’re all the more thankful to be on the road to adopting from China.

We began the journey to adoption the way many parents start thinking about adoption: by realizing just how lucky we are. We have a beautiful family; we have food, clothing and the means to provide. We have all of these things but we know that there are a lot of people out there who have nothing.

It was a long road from thinking about adoption in a detached, distant way to thinking about adoption in “we could really do this!” way. And so, after months of discussing the idea, we finally started researching the process.

If you don’t know anything about adoption, prepare to be confused. We sure were. To start, it is an expensive, bureaucratic nightmare that only an insane person would ever try to navigate. And there are many beautiful, insane people out there who have trudged through the process because the end result is worth the agony.

I don’t know who made this graph, but it perfectly summarizes the clarity of the Hague adoption process.

International adoptions by Americans have declined between 65-75% in the last ten years. A fact that isn’t lost on anyone now navigating the Hague process, especially from abroad. People give up because of the cost, because of the paperwork required, because of how invasive the whole process is…

The average adoption costs about as much as a few cars. Once we looked at the cost this way, we realized we could do without some things to make room financially for the adoption. We don’t need a new anything. We can do without luxuries. When you wrap your mind around the total estimated cost and then decide not to let the little fees get to you, the process becomes much less stressful.

The money is spent in a range of fascinating and bizarre ways. First, home study and adoption agencies charge application fees, technology feeds, document fees, processing fees and so on. While they are accredited and must adhere to non-profit laws and Hague requirements, they sure find creative ways to nickel and dime prospective adopting parents. So, before you even officially get started, you toss away a grand.

Next you pay for your home study. Since we live abroad, we pay more to have an “international” home study. We filled out mountains of paperwork. We filed dozens upon dozens of documents. We wrote essays. We asked friends for recommendations. We ordered police certifications. We paid to fly an accredited social worker over and paid for his hotel, his flight, his transportation and even per diem. Then we paid the home study fee. Then we totaled it all up and said goodbye to another three and a half grand.

Then we called our adoption agency (not to be confused with the home study agency) and paid their first fee. Mwah, another three and a half grand. And in return, they send us another bundle of paperwork to fill out, documents to order, tasks to complete. If you want to adopt and don’t have access to a free notary, that’ll be a big part of your total cost. If you want to adopt and don’t have the patience for bureaucracy, that will add a lot of time.

After the dossier is prepared and the home study is done, we file with USCIS for approval to adopt. They, of course, also charge a fee.

So, this is where we are now. We’ve turned in every required document. We’ve jumped through every Hague hoola-hoop of bureaucracy and now we wait. We wait for our agency to: A) approve all of our documentation and; B) charge us the next three and a half grand fee to actually send all of this to China. At each step, you pay to play.

From there, we pay China. Then China matches us with a child based on our home study and dossier, and we accept or reject the match. Once we’re matched we’ll fly to China, pay the orphanage, and pay for visas and passports, do a bunch of paperwork, jump through more interviews, red tape and Hague hoops, and then go home with our child.

It’s so exciting and terrifying to think our kid is out there right now somewhere in China. Playing the same waiting game that we are. At least we will have patience in common with our child.

From other adoptive parents we’ve heard this is actually the hardest part of the process. The waiting. You do all the song and dance and then you sit on the sidelines and wonder what will happen. What our child will be like. What our family will be like. Just wait and wonder.

Wish us luck as we wait.

And Wait.

and wait.

Read the next post about our China adoption here: Adopting from China: A Bump in the Road