If someone were to ask me what I had to share from our experience ... well, Reece's Rainbows volunteers had all sorts of advice for us, and I'd highly suggest you pay attention & read all the material they send you. They send it for a reason!
But, personally, my number one tip would be make sure your passport is updated! My passport had my maiden name on it - and when we got married, I sent it in for a name change (which is free) instead of getting a new passport. This was fine, but it was such a hassle & slowed us down, REPEATEDLY.
My tickets were always booked in my married name (of course!) and so a look at my passport - they don't match! I was constantly having to flip it open to the end & show the addendum. Even in the US airports, they were caught off guard by this. Then, as the adoption progressed, my passport wasn't matching up with Lilya's new name on her birth certificate, and it was harder to explain with the language barrier. Luckily, it was never a serious issue, but just a constant little annoyance.
It was worse at the end, because I didn't have Brian with me - so if I hand over my passport at the airport, they'd look for my ticket under my maiden name ... and then I was trying to bring a child with a different last name out of the country ... like I said, it went fine in the end, but it was just unnecessary stress on my part. I should've gotten a new passport when we started the adoption!
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