Ukraine Adoption

February 02, 2010

Five years ago today...

...we saw a picture of our little girl for the first time. It was a baby picture, she was maybe 9 or 10 months, outdated, we learned she had just turned 2. The photograph was small, maybe even black and white, but we could tell she was smiling. (Much later, we asked for that photo but they would not give it to us).

It was Feb. 2, 2005, and we were at Ukraine's adoption center after a long journey of document-gathering in the U.S. and frustrating delays in Ukraine. But there we were, in folding chairs in a small room with a psychologist and a big, fat book that looked like a photo album with pages and pages of children without homes. The ones with special needs or recently updated health issues had sticky notes on them, with handwritten scribbles. This was their system. It was far from perfect.

The psychologist, a pleasant young woman, asked our facilitator again if we were looking for a girl? Yes, she said. The woman looked skeptical. But at last she showed us our daughter's page. My first reaction was, oh my she is only 2 years old. I had a notion that our daughter was probably older, maybe 4 or 5. Children younger than 2 are very difficult to find, we were told many, many times. But this little girl had just become available for international adoption only days before.

Would we like to go see her? Yes, of course we would. We were still in shock when we left the adoption center. Wow. A 2-year-old girl. We forgot to ask her name.

A few days of approvals and more documents went by before we finally met our daughter. This is your mommy and daddy, she was told. (Can you imagine?) She was scared. She cried. We tried to comfort her, we tried to explain.

We will be back tomorrow, and the next day, and the next. And one day, we will take you home. We will give you everything we could possibly give. We will open the world to you. We are so happy for this day.

Posted by Laura at 01:02 PM | Comments (0)
Posted to Tara's Story

December 23, 2009

More blogs

For the story of Tara's adoption from Ukraine, go to the archives at the bottom of the right column and start reading in February 2005. Little Tara was two years old when she left an orphanage with her new family. When she began kindergarten in the fall or 2008, we stopped our regular entries about her new life in America. Now it's her to story to tell.

But we can't resist posting some pictures every once in a while. In addition to the one above taken this spring, check out some new ones by clicking on the Adoptlove Photoset in the left column.

Here, we keep a running tally of blogs from families adopting in Ukraine so that others can follow along. For some of us, it's about reliving the adventure, the frustration, the miracle. For others, it's about hope for finding their children in Ukraine.

Watch for the most recent blogs at the bottom of this list.

The site that hosts the blogs in the right column, Blogrolling.com, has been down for a while and not accepting new posts. Hence this list. Enjoy

Kevin and Pam, Ukraine--11/08

The Higgins, Ukraine--11/08

Jill and Tyler, Ukraine--11/08

Louise and Ray, Ukraine--11/08

The Bergs, Ukraine--11/08

The Dudleys, Ukraine--11/08

The Campaus, Ukraine--11/08

Hrcahjkiws, Ukraine--11/08

Teresa and Jim, Ukraine--11/08

Millilo family, Ukraine--12/08