Ukraine Adoption

Children with hope

Many families are in Ukraine now or heading there by the end of the year, hoping to find children to become part of their families.

Some are trying desperately to adopt a child they met through a hosting program; others are traveling "blind," they will learn about some available children and try to choose when they get there, based on very little information and an outdated picture.

Some of their stories are posted in the column on the right. They are hopeful, frustrated, emotionally drained, physically worn out, yet most remain optimistic through all of the craziness. The documents that keep cropping up that need notarizing, the long lines, the delays, the unanswered questions, sitting in a car for hours while you wait for something from someone, you don't even know what. There is no "complaint department," there's no suggestion box, you can't ask to speak to someone's superior, you just have to sit there and take it. Day after day, week after week. What do we need now? I thought we already did that? It's brutal.

Yet, there they are, traveling across the ocean, schlepping their way through the international adoption system that is basically a blurry, moving target that seems to take longer with each family.

And why, you might ask, do they do this? For lots of reasons, different and the same.

And they probably saw something like this video from a family in the process of trying to adopt a little girl they hosted in 2006. They met these children on a mission trip to Ukraine.

After you see this, if you suddenly feel an urge to adopt, I'll let you know how to get started...

Here is the video.