If you have never been to Israel - what are you waiting for? If it's been years since your last trip, but you have yet to go as a family, it's something to think about.

When we officially adopted Anna in the fall of 2005, the first thing that I started to work on was getting her a passport. For adoptive families, especially if your adoption was very recently processed, this is the first step. In order to leave the country, Anna obviously needed a passport. In order to get a passport, we needed her birth certificate - a new one with her new last name on it. Her adoption was finalized in October of 2005, but we didn't receive her birth certificate until April of 2006 - cutting it a bit close, since we had plans to go to Israel in June of that year. But we made it! We ended up paying extra for rush service to make sure we had her passport back by the time we left for Israel.

How to Plan a Trip to Israel:

-- Make sure everyone in your family has a passport. If any passport is set to expire within six months of your planned trip, you will probably need to renew it before you go.

-- Get certified copies of your adopted children's birth certificate and adoption papers. Most of the time, you will probably go through security at the airport without a problem. Although we did explain to the security officers that Anna was adopted when asked, we were not asked to present any papers as proof - but one can never be too sure.

-- Check out tourism sites. If this is your first trip, first trip as a family, or first trip in a long time, you will probably want to focus on touring for a good part of your trip. Check out this link - the official site from the Israeli Ministry of Tourism.

-- Rent a cellphone for the time you are there, or check with your cellphone company about international rates and capabilities. A good program I have worked with is TravelCell - you reserve the cellphone, it arrives before you leave so you can give out your international phone number and you mail it back when you return. You'll end up paying much more if you try to rent one at the airport in Israel.