July 03, 2006
New hope
The minister for family, youth and sport affairs Yuri Pavlenko held a press conference in Ukraine today, and told journalists about plans to begin the adoption system again. According to various reports, they will begin the process fairly soon, with the first families arriving in September, and they will get through all of the registered families by the end of this year.
All registered families will be required to fill out a form that confirms their intent to adopt. Some of the files date back a few years and it is believed that some families gave up waiting. The ministry said 1,200 familes are registerd from throughout the world, with 385 from the U.S.
They are also forming 93 family group care homes and 486 foster homes for orphans. It is a good start, though clearly not enough to help the tens of thousands of children in Ukraine orphanages right now.
So the new adoption center is operating, the families are feeling a glimmer of hope, the facilitators are scrambling to get information for their clients. There's the ongoing stress of updating paperwork, worrying about when to travel, scrambling to prepare our employers and families for our absence.
And then, there are the children. Let's not forget their fate. They know what waiting is all about. To us, it's an inconvenience. To them, it's their world.
Posted to Adoption News