I am linked to Ukraine because that is where my first child was born. I would like to adopt a second child. And I have been exploring my adoption options.

My research has been going on for a while now. I have been looking at adoption from the US foster care system, US private adoption and international adoption.

I have been exploring adoption from Haiti, Vietnam, Ethiopia, Russia and Kazakhstan because they all allow single women to adopt. Ukraine is off my list for now. Ukraine is back on my list. Single adoption has become more difficult. But single men and women are adopting. They are just being restricted to children who are 7 years or older.

I am an analytical person. And I like using statistics to explore. I know that numbers cannot tell me the entire story of Ukrainian adoption. But they can help show patterns and trends.

The United States Office of Immigration Statistics produces a document called the Yearbook of Immigration Statistics. It breaks down all international adoptions completed by American families from 1996 to 2006 by gender and age.

From 1996 to 2006, Americans adopted 6,282 children from Ukraine.

* 51% were male
* 49% were female

* 9% were under 1 year of age
* 61% were 1 to 4 years of age
* 23% were 5 years or older

The average age of adopted Ukrainian children has increased since 2002. It used to be 3 years of age. Now it is closer to 5 years of age.

The cause for this shift was the "medical list" being revised. Ukrainian children have to be registered for adoption for 14 months before being made available to international adoption. But if the child has any disease on the "medical list", they didn't have to wait this long.

The "medical list" used to have issues like heart murmur and cleft palette. Now the issues are cancer and missing limbs.

As the above graph shows, Ukrainian adoption has been up and down. The 2006 slow down was due to the re-organization. The Ukrainian government moved their adoption authority department from the Ministry of Education to the Ministry of Family, Youth and Sports.

Ukrainian adoption is fairly stable right now. Americans are turning in dossiers, getting appointments and completing adoptions. Americans expect to complete 588 adoptions in 2007. And it is fairly easy to adopt multiple children. I know several families who are adopting 3 and 4 children now.

If you are over 50 years of age, you should know that the Ukrainian parliament is trying to restrict older adoptive parents. We should know for certain by June 12.

Ukraine is a blind referral system. You get an apointment at the SDAPRC (Ukrainian government office that holds adoption authority) to receive your referral. Then you travel to the orphanage to visit with the child. Once you accept the child, you can start the legal adoption process.

Families are in Ukraine for 4 to 6 weeks to complete their adoption. This can be broken up into 2 trips.

It is possible to return from Ukraine without a child. My personal guess is that 1% to 3% of families failed to find a child and return home. Families who are flexible in their criteria (age, gender, health of child) tend to be happiest with the outcome.

Ukraine will only provide 3 referrals. If you turn the first 2 down, then you must return home. The SDAPRC will give you another appointment in a few months to try for the third time.

Your total costs could be between $15,000 and $30,000.