Why are Ukrainian adoption experiences are all unique? And why does a translator's job seem to be more then translation?

I read a very heavy and scholarly book called "State and Institution Building in Ukraine". This is edited by Taras Kuzio, Robert S. Kravchuk, Paul D'Anieri and published in 1999. It was food for thought.

I believe that institutional uncertainty plays a major role in why everyone has a different experience.

Ukraine is not the only country with this issue. For an US example see the BCIS.... more

The U.S. Congress removed the cold war Jackson-Vanik Amendment for Ukraine back in March, 2006.

This removal allowed Ukraine to work on membership in the WTO, NATO and the European Union.

It looks like the process for joining the WTO is moving forward. Ukraine aiming to join WTO in the fall of 2006.

Here is an interesting tidbit.

The conclusion of Ukraine's talks with the... more

We are still waiting for the Ukrainian final election results. Election was on Sunday. This election is for the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine. Some folks shorten it to Rada. By the way Rada is an Ukrainian word meaning council.

The election was reported as fair by the election monitoring groups (European Parliament members, Organization for Security and Cooperation, European Election... more

Good news.... The US is well on the path to normalizing trade relations with Ukraine. We just need the US President's signature and there it is.

This repeal of the cold war Jackson-Vanik Amendment is needed to support the Orange Revolution. There are many Ukrainians asking what changed with the Orange Revolution. They aren't seeing a difference in their day-to-day life.

And this action (removing Jackson-Vanik Amendment) really needed to happen before Ukraine's March 26 elections. It is boiling down to contest between a pro-Russian vs a pro-western party.... more

I didn't realize that Max Levchin who co-founded paypal.com in 1998 was born in Ukraine. Too cool...

Around the time he immigrated to Chicago from Ukraine as a teenager in 1991, Max Levchin became obsessed with cryptography. Living under the old Soviet regime convinced him of the need to carry out communications undetectable by authorities. As a computer science student at the University of Illinois, he immersed himself in the mathematics of creating and breaking codes, not only making it the focus of his studies but also, he says, turning his pursuit into a "huge hobby" that consumed countless days and nights at the supercomputer center on the Urbana-Champaign campus.... more

Ukraine has a very homogeneous population. Based on a 2001 census 77.8% of the population is Ukrainian and 17.3% are Russian. The remaining 4.9% are Belarusian, Moldovan, Crimean Tatar, Bulgarian, Hungarian, Romanian, Polish, Jewish and Other.

The African and Korean people of Ukraine fall into the Other category.

While many people realize there are Rom children... more

This post is about Ukrainian and Russian ethnicities inside of Ukraine. FYI... I drew the Ukrainian and Russian flags in Microsoft Paint.

Ukrainian joke: Ukrainian man insists on adopting a black child. So husband and wife travel from orphanage to orphanage. And finally they find a black child at the tenth orphanage. They adopted the child and get him settled in the car to take him home. Wife finally asks, "Why did our child have to be black?". Husband replies, "This way, I am 100% certain he isn't Russian".

Ethnicity... more

Recently a study was published and the results were as expected. Children do better in foster care environments compared to orphanages.

[Dr Dana Johnson and colleagues] did the first scientific comparison of what happens to children raised in orphanages versus those raised in foster care and children raised in normal families.

from: Orphanages stunt growth, foster care better-study

This study took place in Romania.... more

Adrienne's blog on Bring a hat - or else! was a flash back for me. It made me think about my experience with hats, oranges and frozen ovaries.

As I mentioned in my post Ukrainian History: Suggested Reading Ukraine wasn't a country until 1991. And many areas of the country more closely identify with Russia then Ukraine. So there are many cultural similarities between Russian and Ukraine. (Adrienne adopted from... more

My darling daughter was adopted from the Kharkiv oblast. This is the Ukrainian spelling. The Russian spelling is Kharkov.

She is from a tiny village outside of the city of Kharkiv. Yes... the oblast, district and city name are Kharkiv. Instead of oblast some people will call it a state or region.

Kharkiv is the Ukrainian spelling. It is pronounced Harkev.

Kharkov is the Russian spelling. It is pronounced Harkof.

The Kharkiv region mainly speaks Russian. However they do use Ukrainian spellings. And my daughter is from a tiny,... more