My husband and I traveled with 3 children, ages 5, 9 and 12 to adopt a 6 month old baby and the packing list was the hardest part of all. I found a modified version of this list online (sorry, I can’t remember my source!) and this was a lifesaver.

Download the list (.xls)

Here are some other tips for using the list and modifying it for your own needs:

• Spreadsheets are the best programs for creating and utilizing packing lists, especially for a big trip. By using a spreadsheet, you can organize items by person, piece of luggage and quantity and sort accordingly. When we were getting ready for our trip, I would sort the list by person and give each person their marching orders to gather their items then sort the list by piece of luggage for quick and easy packing. If you don’t know how to sort in a spreadsheet, it isn’t hard at all. Here’s a pretty good tutorial.

• You won’t need or want to bring everything we did and you will likely have to add in your own items, particularly if you have any special medical needs. Because we traveled with children, our list will look totally different than a single person or couple who travels alone.

• We managed to pack everything into 3 pieces of checked luggage and 3 carry-ons, as seen in this photo. The baby had her own checked luggage and one *might* suggest we went overboard on packing for her but her outfits were small and didn’t take up much room and we weren’t sure on her size. I don’t regret packing as much as we did for her. We used two big suitcases for the three kids and us adults, believe it or not. And then we also checked a large duffel bag full of orphanage donations. For carry-ons we brought one large rolling carry-on with extra clothes for all of us and then 2 other carry-ons for necessities, snacks and entertainment on the plane. IT CAN BE DONE! And we didn’t even come close to hitting any weight restrictions.

• Another thing we brought but I don’t think made the list is a binder full of pertinent information - questions we wanted to ask the nannies/director, pictures we wanted to make sure we took, an outline of how things were expected to go, a medication dosage chart for the baby, etc. These things were really helpful.

• Most of all, don’t forget you can buy almost anything in Vietnam these days. So if you forget something it shouldn’t be a big deal. However I will say that I needed three things that I could not find anywhere: deodorant, bug spray and cold meds. Trust me, if you need any of these three things it REALLY sucks to try to just do without!!! :)  So make sure you bring enough to last you the entire trip.