Jenks is a 1 year old neutered male. He is pictured to the right. Short story is that I rescued Jenks. I got him at 3 days old and bottle fed him. He is very close and loving to me.

My darling daughter Natasha over a 6 month period convinced me that she could take care of a rat. After some research, I agreed to a Hamster.

One of my biggest objections to adding a rodent to the household.... I thought our cats (Jenks... more

I have been busy (diabetic coma.. not mine, doing favor for single dad, work politics). But I haven't posted because I am just wasn't sure what to say. I am not depressed exactly... maybe more emotionally tired.

I want to adopt a second child but nothing is moving forward. I am registered as an adoptive family with foster care. However I am not accepting an risk placements. And the fact that I want to adopt a single child seems to be the problem.

I adopted my darling Natasha from Ukraine back... more

International Ukrainian adoption has started up again as I mentioned in Ukrainian Adoption Happening: Sept 6 Appointment.

And Starbucks Loving Mommy has another interesting post about her adoption experience so far. She has her referral and is traveling by train to the Oblast.

RUMOR REMINDER: Remember... more

Natasha is 9 years old now. She was adopted at 3.5 years of age from Kharkiv, Ukraine. Sometime around 5 years of age I told her that her adoption story was hers to tell or not. She owned the story, I was just the guardian.

A couple of months later she heard me talking to another mother. Other mother was interested in adoption and I was chatting about the process. I was talking about my emotions and experiences. Natasha very huffy came up and pointed a finger at me.

Natasha... more

Some days are like Penguins on Grass... They aren't bad but rather slightly weird. I have had a slighly weird month. First I went to an Ukrainian Adoption Reunion (loved it) in Omaha. Then I had my involuntary Internet vacation because my computer became overheated and died.

It got too hot because I went to Omaha over the weekend.... I left my computer on and turned my thermostat up. I have a programmable thermostat which allows me to save money by turning up or down the temperature when no one is home.... more

For all those Going Crazy Waiting for Your Ukrainian Appointment Letter, then is hope.

Three families who are adopting older children received their appointment letters today. They received them via UPS as "cash on delivery". The families had to pay about $50.00 to get the letter.

One family is adopting a child they hosted in 2004. Another family registered in March 2005.

GOOD NEWS.... Everyone... more

Picture: Natasha in Mama's Hat

I adopted my daughter Natasha from Ukraine in December 2000. She was 3.5 years old.

Natasha was full of anger and had every right to her anger. She was in the orphange system for 2.5 years. I believe that the adults did the best that they could. But Natasha was in an institution. She did not have a single item that she could call her own.

When you see underwear that you wore last week on someone else....

You have to know that you own nothing. Natasha had very little... more

When I adopted my darling daughter in 2000, there weren't many studies on outcomes in international adoption..... At least I didn't find many.

I recently found an interesting list of various doctors who are doing research on international adoption.

And then I found this email in my inbox.

My name is Frances Tung and I am currently a graduate student in the Clinical Psychology program at Suffolk University. I am currently conducting a... more

My darling daughter has ADHD and language based disabilities. It can take her twice as long as the "average" person to learn something new. And I wonder what her adulthood is going to be like. Will she be a happy and productive citizen?

I really wonder what I should focus on. Should I make Natasha practice her handwriting more? It is really awful. Or should we be drilling on spelling? Again it is awful. (Natasha... more

I found Yuri's post on CousinConnect.com. (I have a copy of it below.) He was adopted by Americans from Ukraine in 1992. It startled me because the adoptee is doing the search.

See up until this point, adoptive families searched for their children. Their kids were too young to do it themselves. I was startled by the idea of an adoptee doing the search because I didn't do the math.

:)) (laughing at myself... because I didn't realize so much time has past)

2006 - 1992 = 14 years

International adoption from Ukraine started in 1991 when the Soviet Union dissolved. And these children from the early 1990s are old enough... more