Ukraine Adoption

They are waiting.

orphans
Originally uploaded by lessnau.

They are waiting

orph3
Originally uploaded by lessnau.

Who will help the children?

The National Adoption Center in Ukraine declared rather suddenly last week that the center was no longer accepting new adoption dossiers from families in the United States, Spain and other countries.

According to the U.S. Embassy in Ukraine, the decision to temporarily suspend accepting these dossiers was based in large part on the past non-compliance of some families with post-adoption reports, which are required by Ukrainian law.

These reports detail the progress the children made. They are sent to the Ukraine Embassy, then the NAC and ultimately, the orphanages. We hope that parents who have adopted children from Ukraine will take heed; this may be just an excuse to stop the process for a while, but we don't need to give them excuses. Just like us, other families went through so much work to get their dossiers together, only to be stalled now.

The annual report is rather simple. You answer questions about your child's well-being, schoolwork, social life, health. For those who have adopted but haven't found time to send this to the appropriate Ukraine embassy in the U.S., please get the form here: http://www.ukraineinfo.us/consular/adoption-report.html

Fortunately, The NAC is expected to continue the adoption process for families that submitted documents before last week. But we're not sure why it hasn't shut down yet to move into a different division of the government.

Meanwhile, thousands of children are waiting for homes. And now, they'll have to wait a little bit longer.

A good morning

DSCN0209
Originally uploaded by lessnau.

Hanging out

Monkey
Originally uploaded by lessnau.

Ukraine, teacher conference

The new president of Ukraine has pretty much dismissed his entire government. There were outcries of corruption, private interests may have been prevailing. It's hard to watch this democracy struggle to take shape. The adoption community is waiting to find out how any of this affects them, and the children waiting for homes. And they're waiting to find out when the National Adoption Center will close for a few months in order to form a new adoption process that will hopefully be more streamlined, more sane, more successful.

When I look at Tara's bright blue eyes, I see so much hope. She will be three years old in January, yet in some ways she seems so much older and wiser. The people of Ukraine have a lot of hope. If this little child of their country is any indication, they will persevere.

These are the words that Tara's teachers used to describe her at our first parent-teacher conference this week: cheerful, determined, affectionate, very friendly (I'm told that each teacher thinks they are her favorite--maybe the word here is political) smart, fast-learner, helpful to younger kids, very aware of her surroundings (hey the toilet is overflowing, stuff like that) playful, loves art, likes to sing, a little stubborn, a bit defiant at times.

Did I mention that we like her at home, too?

Through Tara's eyes

Did you ever wake up in a hotel and wonder where you were, at least for a few seconds, your eyes scan the room looking for anything familiar?
Now imagine a child waking up, six months after she left an orphanage and everything that she ever knew.

Every morning, little Tara Vika wakes up with a big stretch, a look around, and a smile. She slips off the bed and stumbles into my arms. There is no fear in her eyes. She asks where her dad is, she asks where her brother is, where the kitty cat is. Each time I tell her they are home. I suppose that is her way of getting her bearings.

I will be meeting with her pre-school teachers later today for our first conference. I know they will tell me that she is a happy kid. What else will they say?

Welcome

We're glad you hopped over to our new site! We own this one, and we hope to have more features on it very soon, like how to adopt in Ukraine. The procedures are changing already and there are many more expected this fall.

Meanwhile, we are settling into our routine, with Austin in fifth grade and Tara at pre-school. She is learning the names of her teachers and friends. One of her teachers described her as sometimes being "defiant." She needs to learn the rules and not say no when she's asked to do something. This doesn't worry me as much as if they would have told me she was completely complacent. She no longer has the dull eyes that she had in the orphanage. The child's spirit has awakened!

Katrina

It's hard to stress out about the little day-to-day things in life when our country is trying to recover from Hurricane Katrina. The photos, the stories, the television coverage. It's so difficult to imagine what the residents of New Orleans and parts of Mississippi are going through, their homes under water, their families trapped on rooftops.

Some sheriff's deputies from our county packed up some SUVs with supplies, borrowed a mobile home and headed south to help out in whatever way they can. They didn't want to wait days for the governmental paperwork that would tell them it's OK to go. They didn't want to let beauracy slow them down. They wanted to help the people. Godspeed.

Meanwhile, the rest of us feel helpless, watching the horrifying news reports of the floods, the fires, the snipers. I made a donation to Red Cross' hurricane efforts. For now, it's what I can do. What can you do?

http://store.yahoo.com/redcross-donate3/