Natasha has been sick at home for the past 3 days. And since I generally follow the medical advise on the Children’s Tylenol bottle we went to the doctor today. When Natasha hears the word doctor she starts on her, "I hate shots" mantra.

If sore throat is severe, persists for more then 2 days, is accompanied or followed by fever, headache, rash, nausea or vomiting, consult a doctor promptly.

from: Children's Tylenol bottle

My poor darling has a strong grudge against shots. When she first came home to me, she was 3.5 years old.... more

Here is another heritage weekend being held during the father's day weekend. The other one is in Central Wisconsin.

As I mentioned in my prior blog on Heritage Weekends there are 2 basic reasons to attend this type of weekend.

1. Normalizing the adoption for your child. 2. Parent share experiences/socialize

And at some point during the weekend, families can explore Ukrainian culture.

This... more

There are many different gatherings during the year for families who adopted from Ukraine or Eastern Europe.

Sometimes these gatherings are called reunions. The weekends can be arranged by adoptive parents or adoption agencies.

Many of these weekends focus on exploring the Ukrainian culture or Eastern European. There are 2 primary goals for these events.

1. Normalize adoption for your child. Let your child met and play with other children who are also adopted. These weekends greatly helped my daughter Natasha's self esteem. She wasn't alone in being adopted. Children playing and doing craft activities together tends to be a major focus for many of these gatherings.

At... more

I sent an email to adoption@ukremb.com (Ukrainian Embassy in Washington DC's adoption section) and asked how many post adoption reports they had for my daughter.

Post adoption form is located here.

http://www.ukremb.com/consular/docs/adoption-report.rtf

Now in the past I have waited 2 weeks to 6 months for a reply. I received a reply within a few hours.

I filed post adoption reports for 2001, 2002, 2003 and 2005. You do 1 report per year for 3 years. Then you do a report every 3 years. I filed the report in 2005 because my adoption faciliator asked... more

Ukraine shut down adoptions (except for children older then 10, sibling of a child you adopted previously, handicapped children) for all countries until the "missing" post adoption reports were filed.

Well, good news for several countries. Families from Germany, Spain and Canada who adopted from Ukraine have filed all the post adoption reports. Adoption is open for citizens of these countries.

And France is not far behind. They are short about 30 reports.

It seems US adoptive parents owe about 900 reports.

Getting 100 % of post adoption reports in the US is going to be so difficult. I have heard stories already about a US family refusing to file the annual report.... more

My daughter was visited by the Lice fairy yesterday... I just have to get this off my chest.

I HATE, HATE, HATE, HATE LICE.

I hate the smells associated with the treatments. I hate picking the bugs, eggs and nits out of the hair. I hate washing and washing clothing, stuffed animals, sheets, pillows, etc.. with hot water.

And I really hate having to treat myself. I certainly cannot see if I have lice or have combed them out. And my head starts itching the moment the school nurse tells me about the lice on my daughter's head.

Normally I have to ask my daughter's school nurse to check me for lice.

My darling daughter came home from Ukraine lice free.... more

ForUm is a source for Ukrainian news. Recently an adoptive mom named Jeri sent in a letter to the editor. I would guess that Jeri is an American.

Her letter looks like a reaction to some of the recent new stories in ForUm on Ukrainian adoption. Here is Jeri's letter. She has some beautiful pictures.

http://en.for-ua.com/letters/2006/02/07/171550.html

Here are the recent new stories. The first one is about the creation of a new government body to control adoptions in Ukraine starting in May 2005. The Adoption Center (old Ukrainian government department) will be able to process adoptions until the new... more

The JCICS (Joint Council on International Children Services) has posted a press release at

http://www.jcics.org/Ukraine%20Press%20Release_Feb06.pdf

Adoptive parents need to turn in their annual reports. Even if they adopted in 1996, the Ukrainian government wants the reports.

Ukrainian adoption is mostly shut down (there are exceptions... child 10 or older, handicapped, sibling of previously adopted child) for Americans since September 21, 2005.

http://kiev.usembassy.gov/amcit_adoptions_notice_0921_eng.html

This... more