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

Viktor and Inna, Ukraine, 12/08

Nick & Nancy, Ukraine, 12/08

Paula and Michael, Ukraine, 01/09

The Haags, Ukraine, 01/09

The Epperlys, Ukraine, 01/09

The Mortons, Ukraine, 02/09

Moloneys, Ukraine, 02/09

The Turners, Ukraine, 02/09

Tucci's, Ukraine, 03/09

Dan & Colleen, Ukraine, 03/09

Dawn and Mark, Ukraine, 05/09

Marsha and Alan, Ukraine, 05/09

Ashley and Jason, Ukraine, 05/09

The Land Family, Ukraine, 07/09

The Quon family, Ukraine, 08/09

The Bell Family, Ukraine, 08/09

Hosford Family, Ukraine, 09/09

The Cosseys, Ukraine, 10/09

DeYoung family, Ukraine, 11/09

The Daniels, Ukraine, 11/09

The Finleys, Ukraine, 10/09

Tim and Rita, Ukraine, 2/10

Davie family, Ukraine, 2/10

Leslie and Crawford, Ukraine, 2/10

The Higgins, Ukraine, 03/10

The Krebs, 5/10

The Bockisches, Ukraine, 06/10

The Hinksons, Ukraine, 06/10

The Corbetts, Ukraine, 06/10

Cherystyn and Matt, Ukraine, 7/10

Julia & family, Ukraine, 7/10

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.

(More pics in the photo set on the left)

I will try to post some pictures later.

Our neighbors will watch our kitty, as he wouldn't do well to be boarded. Let's hope he doesn't get angry at being abandoned by us and pee in my closet again. Sigh. At least I had a good excuse to buy some new things last year.

I grew up in a very quiet house, I don't remember any of us five kids screaming. Austin is a very quiet kid, so this is something we're not really used to even after 3 years of Tara!

Her screams can go from hysterical to laughter in a flash. Sometimes by the time I get into the room, she is laughing with tears still streaming down her cheeks. When I try to remove her from the situation, she gets angry. Sometimes I ignore it. Maybe she just wants attention. Or maybe she is just feeling small and that's her defense mechanism. It's hard to know. I put her in time-out yesterday after a long screech during a pillow fight with her brother. She was more mad at me than him.

If anyone has suggestions on how to deal with this, they would be most appreciated. Or maybe she will just grow out of it? I mean, she won't be screaming when she walks down the aisle to pick up her medical degree....will she? Oh, that would be me screaming. :-)

Yes, it's true. I have avoided business trips and our vacations have all been with the family. So while she was ready for her first sleepover, I wasn't so sure I was ready to drop her off and drive away.

The overnight adventure was set up because Tara didn't want to go with us to a baseball game Sunday, and Aunt Karen has been wanting her to spend the night for quite some time. You see, they both love arts and crafts. Aunt Karen had a bunch of projects for them to do; Tara would be thrilled. I knew this.

So during the 30-minute drive in the rain to Aunt Karen's Saturday evening, I reminded Tara to be polite and say please and thank you and to tell Aunt Karen if she needed something. She had band-aids in her pocket and a few extra pair of undies in her bag. Finally, Tara said, "I'll be FINE, Mommy."

Indeed. When we arrived, Aunt Karen and cousin Caroline were there to greet her. Karen pulled out all kinds of artwork for them to work on and explained each project to a wide-eyed Tara. I hung around longer than I needed to, hovering, holding my keys. Finally I said good-bye but they hardly noticed that I was leaving.

At home, I felt a little guilty for enjoying the short-term sense of freedom that I suddenly had. I read a magazine, uninterrupted, and ate an entire candy bar. I had a conversation with Austin, uninterrupted. And John too.

At the baseball game on Sunday, I called to check on Tara. Did she sleep ok? Has she been behaving? Is she crying? Karen told me Tara slept good and was just fine. Does she want or need to talk to me? I asked. Some mumbling on the other end. No, she says she's going to eat lunch now, Karen told me. Oh OK.

We had a lot of fun at the game, and I have to admit, it was much easier without Tara getting bored and restless.

Hours later when I picked her up, Tara told me she had a lot of fun at Aunt Karen's house. Caroline got her McDonalds for lunch, they made chocolate chip cookies, Uncle Mike playfully flipped her around, a pile of artwork sat on the table.

It seems we both survived this milestone.

If the puppy could talk, what would he say? I asked her. "He'd say goo goo, ga ga." Is that it? "Yes, he's a baby, he can't talk yet." Somehow that makes sense.

What do you like about our new puppy? I asked. "Well, I'm glad he's a boy because he likes to play. Girls just sit around and don't do anything." OK...

If our cat could talk, what would he say to the dog? "Hey! Quit jumping on me!"

In the car, the puppy was panting a little. Tara said, "Why did we get the big-tongue one?"

She asked me when we are going on vacation. In three weeks, I told her. "Is that like, two days?" she asked. No, it's 21 days, I said. "Oh. So like, when I wake up tomorrow, will that be two days?"

OK, photos of the puppy will be posted soon. As soon as we get a new camera...