Tomsk

Well, I did a little research on the Tomsk region. Basically, there were a lot of adoptions here a few years ago, but the region closed when all the agencies lost their accreditation. It just opened again in the last few months. I found a group on Yahoo for Tomsk adoptions. All of the feedback seems very positive. The orphanages are very clean and the caregivers seem to really care about the children.

Many of you are probably wondering where Tomsk is located? Siberia is a large area! Tomsk is located in Southwestern Siberia. It is a four hour flight and three hours ahead of Moscow time (which is 8 hours ahead of Cleveland time). I see some serious jet lag in our future! I found a small map of Russia below. Tomsk is in red.



The City of Tomsk is where about half the population of the Tomsk region lives. There are six universities there, so there are a lot of young people. Many of the restaurants have English-speaking servers or English menus. Also, many of the adoptive parents on Yahoo mentioned going to a pizza place there several times on their trips.

I feel like this will be a great experience. It is so out of my comfort zone, which is why it will be the best thing for me.

I am hoping to get a better handle on when we will be going. For now, I am waiting for the list of documents Tomsk requires to complete our dossier. The paperwork is endless!

Kristin