Ukraine Adoption

Families in limbo

Another update from the US Embassy in Ukraine, Dec. 30, 2005

Dear Members of the American Adoption Community Interested in Ukraine:

This is a follow-up to our December 28 notice regarding the sudden stoppage of adoption processing in Ukraine. As we reported earlier, on December 22, 2005 the National Adoption Center lost its legal authority to process adoptions as a result of the new law transferring authority over adoptions from the Ministry of Education to the Ministry of Family, Youth and Sports.

Despite numerous representations by the U.S. Government at many levels to the Government of Ukraine, an interim resolution to address families caught in various stages of the adoption process in Ukraine has not yet been approved. According to recent communication from senior Ukrainian government officials, an interim resolution requires a change in legislation whose processing may take up to one month.

The NAC advised that they will provide an official letter explaining the current situation to all adopting parents . The NAC further advised that it will then contact all prospective parents who are registered with the NAC within ten days after the legislative changes are approved.

American prospective adoptive families who have January appointments should not travel to Ukraine until the Government of Ukraine officially confirms that you can complete the adoption process and return to the U.S. with your children in a timely manner.

The Embassy will continue to track this and other adoption-related issues closely, and provide updates as appropriate on our website: http://kiev.usembassy.gov/amcit_adoptions_eng.html

Please do not hesitate to contact us if you have any additional questions.

Sincerely,

Adoption Unit/Immigrant Visa Section
Consular Section
American Embassy
Kyiv, Ukraine
Tel: 38-044-4904422
Fax: 38-044-490-4570
adoptionskiev@state.gov
http://kiev.usembassy.gov/amcit_adoptions_eng.html

In accordance with E.O. 12958 this message is not classified.

Families on t he brink

There are several families bailing out for now, with plans to return next year.

This family is still in Ukraine. I believe they had their court hearing Dec. 23 and are waiting out a 10-day mandatory waiting period. Hopefully things will continue to move along for them. Here is their blog:

http://www.coughlinadoption.blog-city.com/

These two families made it home with their children, just in time. Thank God. And a Happy New Year to them.

http://spaces.msn.com/members/CopelandAdoption/

http://www.becomingafamily.blogspot.com/

Imagine

Imagine being in the midst of the adoption process, the emotion and fatigue involved in collecting all of the tedious and time-consuming documents, being interviewed by a social worker who examines your house room by room, being poked by a doctor for tests on syphyllis, TB and all kinds of awful things. Imagine the excitement you still have, that carries you through each day, knowing that at the end of all of this, all of this, you will have a child. One that you are certain was meant for your family all along.

Now read the latest entry in the Adoption News category (to the left). The process has halted, really halted, for now, while one government agency shuts down and the other one prepares to begin. We knew this was coming, we just didn't know it would be so abrupt. What about the families in Ukraine right now? What about the families with appointments in January? We hope the US Embassy has enough influence on the Ukraine government to make a difference. After all, it's really for the good of the children. Isn't it?

The new ministry--but when??

This letter was sent today from the US Embassy in Kiev to the American adoption community. From what I can tell, the process has stopped abruptly while they change from the National Adoption Center (NAC--which no longer has any authority) to this new central government authority, which isn't quite ready to operate. Let's hope the new organization is up and running very, very soon and honors everything that has already been processed by the NAC, including appointments and families in Ukraine who are in limbo. I'm fairly certain that I hear a collective sigh from here to the land across the ocean...

Dear Members of the American Adoption Community Interested in Ukraine:

On December 20, 2005, President Yushchenko signed the law transferring authority over adoptions from the Ministry of Education to the Ministry of Family, Youth and Sports. This law came into effect on December 22, 2005, upon its publication in Parliament's official newspaper "Holos Ukrainy".

According to the new law, the Family Code of Ukraine will be amended to give authority over domestic and international adoptions to the Ministry for Family, Youth and Sports. The new central authority will be called the State Department for Adoption and Protection of Children, under the Ministry of Family, Youth and Sports.

According to information from the National Adoption Center (NAC), although the NAC under the Ministry of Education has not yet been dissolved, the Ukrainian Supreme Court has determined that the NAC no longer has legal authority to process adoptions. This decision effectively creates a processing gap, with no Ukrainian ministries' having the authority to handle adoptions at this time.

The Embassy has raised the U.S. Government's concern about the sudden stoppage of adoption processing and has asked the Government of Ukraine to take steps so that families already in Ukraine can conclude their adoptions and return home. Although officials at the Ministry of Family, Youth and Sports have indicated that they wish to find an interim solution for the families caught in the balance, any such resolution will likely not be approved until mid-January of 2006, after the Ukrainian holidays. (All Ukrainian governmental organizations will be closed from January 1 to January 10, 2006, for the New Year and Orthodox Christmas holidays.)

The Embassy also has asked for clarification on the status of the referral appointments that the NAC had scheduled for January 2006. As soon as the Ukrainian authorities respond, the Embassy will issue a follow-up notice with that updated information. Please monitor the Embassy's web page for the current status of adoption processing in Ukraine: http://kiev.usembassy.gov/

The Embassy will continue to track this and other adoption-related issues closely, and provide updates as appropriate. American adopting parents who are currently in Ukraine and are affected by this abrupt closure are requested to e-mail us (adoptionskiev@state.gov ) and provide your points of contact

American prospective adoptive families who have January appointments to travel to Ukraine should not do so until such time as the Embassy has confirmed to the extent possible whether you will be able to complete the adoption process and return to the U.S. with your children in a timely manner.

Please do not hesitate to contact us if you have any additional questions.
Sincerely,
Adoption Unit/Immigrant Visa Section
Consular Section
American Embassy
Kyiv, Ukraine
Tel: 38-044-4904422
Fax: 38-044-490-4570
adoptionskiev@state.gov

In accordance with E.O. 12958 this message is not classified.

Merry Christmas to all

Excited! Happy! Overwhelmed! Tara's first Christmas with our family was lovely. We hope you have a wonderful holiday, too.

Rocking Horse

It was around this time two years ago on a cold night in Ukraine that a young woman made a painful decision to give up her baby daughter. The little girl was quarantined for a month with other abandoned babies, through Christmas, and then placed in an orphanage with 119 other children.

There, she learned to walk and talk and shared a room with up to 10 other toddlers at a time and a rotating staff of caregivers. The holidays were celebrated, though there were few actual gifts ever given to the children as their own.

Just a few days after she turned 2, an American couple visited her. She cried. But they knew right away that they wanted her for their own.

This Christmas, 2005, the new American girl, little Tara, has asked for only one thing from Santa: a rocking horse. How can Santa resist getting that for her?

Baptism

We were more nervous than Tara was as we gathered at the alter today for her baptism. She was wearing her special white dress. She wiggled in my arms, smiled at Father Norm, wiggled some more, got down, walked behind us, pointed at our friends in the pews, lost one shoe (which her Daddy promptly tucked into his pocket.) Well you get the picture. We were glad we had a private ceremony.

But really, she was a good sport. At one point, the priest blessed her with oils on her forehead and she held very still. When it was time to wet her hair, she held very still again. She didn't cry at all. At the end, she was all smiles. And so were we.

Special thanks to her new godparents, Caroline and Mike. Our family and friends made this truly a special day.

(more pics in the photo album)

A special day

Tara will be baptized on Saturday, a special day for our family and friends to celebrate. She will wear a beautiful white dress with layers that flow when she spins. She is excited to wear that dress. I have tried to explain to her what will happen, about the priest, her godparents, the church. I told her that the priest will pour water over head. She said, "Mommy's too?!" I told her no, this is a special day just for her. She nodded, and said that is OK. But will it really be OK? Stay tuned.

Christmas tree

We were walking up and down the aisles Sunday morning, shivering in the cold, looking at real Christmas trees. Such a decision to make! Tara was skipping and touching and talking. Another adventure for the little girl from Ukraine.

Finally, finally we decided on one, mainly because Austin and I were so cold, our toes were getting numb. We loaded the 7-foot tree onto a cart and hauled it out to the car. But we left John at home! How are we going to get this thing onto the car?

After a few minutes of struggling, we got it in the back of our mini SUV and pushed it forward, right past Tara's seat. She squealed! A tree was going home with us. Wow.

We played some holiday music while we decorated the tree. Tara hung ornaments--all on the bottom branches in a group. Austin suggested I move them, but I think they are in just the right spot.

John and Austin set up the train around the tree. They skipped doing that the last few years, but it seemed like the right time to bring it back out and continue with the tradition. It's a special year, we have Tara now.

The ABCs of life

Tara is learning the ABCs of her life. Here is just a sample:

A is for Austin, the 10-year-old brother she loves to jump on the bed with, chase around the house, and screech at with this high-pitched haunted-house scream that's enough to get him into trouble. ("AUSTIN!!!" "I didn't do anything!")

B is for baths with bubbles and toys and all kinds of cups to pour warm water onto her toes, and to lay on her tummy and pretend she's swimming.

C is candy. Yep, she's discovered it and wants it and she's sneaky about it. But she doesn't lie. "Tara, you can have one piece." "OK." Later, she's still chewing... "So how many pieces did you have?" "I had two!" (two fingers proudly displayd) Sigh.

D is for dancing. She does this whenever she hears music, where ever we are. She puts her arms up, sways, and wiggles her behind. Sometimes she just jumps to the beat.

E is for eating. She doesn't do a lot of it, unless she is bribed by exasperated parents that if she finishes everything on her plate, she can then have dessert. I think this is why they invented dessert?

OK, any ideas for more of Tara's Alphabet are truly welcomed!

Give me an F

The F is for frustrated, fearful, fed up. Too many families left Ukraine in November with no children. Imagine that! They were told that there were no available healthy children out of the tens of thousands who live in orphanages. If you look at some blogs of families there now, you will see a lot of very sweet, young children playing in orphanages. Can they really all be unavailable??

Here is what I think the Ukraine system needs: Investigators to review all files of "unavailable" orphans and aggressively seek out their biological parents and determine which children are truly abandoned. Get the family members to sign off their parental rights if they know they will never, ever be back for their children. It's a sad reality, but so is leaving a child in a place with no parents, no special attention, no real love, no family bonds, no room or toys of their own, no hope for the future. Put them in the available category. Give them homes! Americans keep trying to do just that.

Is there more to this story? Do the regions in Ukraine not want us to adopt their children? Maybe some feel that way and they're known for being very difficult to deal with, but certainly not all of them.

In the fall, the adoption center decided to stop accepting new dossiers from U.S. families until they receive the 500-plus annual adoption reports from families that already adopted. Last week, they decided to accept dossiers in limited circumstances, like for children over 10, special needs kids and siblings of previously adopted children. This is a good sign. But it's not enough. What's the point of going there if they tell you there are no mostly healthy young children available?

The adoption community and the US Embassy are watching the system closely, hoping the new process that the president declared a few months ago will actually make things much better. Is it in place yet? Does anyone know for sure?

Americans may feel powerless, but we always feel that our voices can be heard. Can they hear us in Ukraine? Are they listening?
For the children's sake, let's hope so.