My earlier blog this morning left me feeling sad/mad. So I went searching for a happy story..

And I found a sweet story about a single Dad. He adopted his son, Michael, from Ukraine in 2001 at 6 years of age.

When Michael was 9 years old he started ballet class. And it seems he is a natural dancer. He is 11 years old now.

In... more

I am so torn about this... Torn between anger and sadness. The evils that man does. There are no words.

John Krueger was found guilty of molesting 3 boys in late November 2006. He is a 53 year old single man who has adopted from Ukraine several times. I believe his first adoption was in 2001.

He was charged back in April 2006. And the case immediately caught the eye of Ukrainian... more

By this time many folks have read the Alone again news story. Jeff and Michelle Bignell adopted 2 children from Ukraine in March 2001. They adopted a 7 year old boy and 4 year old girl.

Let's call the boy S.

The Bignell family felt like they couldn't cope with S's many mental/developmental issues. He broke his sister's ankles, ran away and killed pets. So we aren't talking about small issues. Feb 2005, S was... more

Here are some recent news articles..

Family looking forward to first Christmas since adopting two children from Ukraine.....

The Coughlin family adopted a 3 year old boy and 4 year old girl from Zaporizhya.

Ukrainian adoptions on average seem to be taking 4 to 5 weeks to process in Ukraine. But this time can be broken into multiple trips. After the court hearing there is a 10 day waiting period. Parents can return home and... more

A Ukrainian human rights group has started an annual anti-award program they call Thistle Awards. They are trying to call attention to the most brutal violators of human rights.

First place winner: Prosecutor General’s Office for restricting access to information on natural disasters and accidents.

Runner up: Government Department that runs the prisons for the high number of... more

Frontier Horizon in the news... They are one of the best hosting programs for Ukrainian orphans. They are a non-profit organization, not an adoption agency.

It is a beautiful story and I am quoting more then I normally do. I think this newspaper only keeps the current week of news on their web site.

Notice the bold text. This is how families used to adopt hosted children. They had no guarantee that the child would be available. Many families were able to adopt their hosted child.... more

Starting with the blogs... Amy the Starbucks Loving Mommy has an entry on her darling daughter's meltdown over a kitten. They had their court hearing and are parents. Now they just have to wait 9 more days before they can pick up their daughter from the orphanage. Right now they just have to visit her at the orphanage. It takes 10 days before the court decree is final.

The Nolte family has headed out for Kerch, Crimea. They... more

I posted about Oxana Malaya back in July. She is the feral Ukrainian child who was raised by dogs. Here is a recent news piece on her. I continue to be interested in feral children because I think adoptive parents can learn from them.

A recent documentary produced for Australia's Channel 4 (and described in a July story in Sydney's Daily... more

Here are some of the news stories that I am reading.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

PRISON

Similarly to Russia, most of them [former Soviet countries] also have high rates of female imprisonment.

..........

Ukraine is "quite high" at 6.1 percent.

..........

Russia's number "is quite high" at 6.5 percent..... the figure is too high, considering that there has been a reform of the penal system that prevents many women from... more

Here are the Ukrainian news stories that I am reading now.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

MILITARY

Ukrainian soldier shot for watching TV

The NATO military exercise in the Crimea was canceled back in June because of the protests. Many Crimean cities passed "NATO... more