Occasionally I blog about my involvement with Life2Orphans' charity. I volunteer to coordinate and fund raise for my daughter's orphanage.

I last talked about Life2Orphan's Christmas project last month. Because of the shipping time (about 8 weeks to get items delivered from the United States to Ukraine), Life2Orphans needs to get their project finished... more

Thanks Jenna for introducing Love Thursday to adoptionblogs.com. It was an awesome idea.

Recently Natasha and I finished carving our pumpkin. We put it on the front porch with a candle to take a look. And then we played outside in the dark.

I had forgotten how much fun... how free it feels...... more

You probably wouldn't guess just by looking at this picture..... You are looking at the strongest willed person on the planet. This is Natasha at 3.5 years of age. She was black - hole - sucking - everything - in - and - not - letting - light - out strong willed.

She came home developmentally delayed in all ways; emotionally, gross motor skills, language. She was a walking talking puzzle of different developmental ages.

But one thing that she was absolutely clear on. She was the boss. She ran things.

At first when she got angry at me, she would show a... more

Sighet Romania is Elie Wiesel’s 1928 birthplace with around 40,000 people. And it is very close to the Ukrainian border, which is how I found this blog. I was searching for "Ukraine adopted".

It doesn't directly link to Ukrainian adoption. But it was amusing to read. It is written by a Canadian named Matt who studies at Oxford.

Read this blog, to see how Matt accidentally... more

I know that I haven't posted in close to a week... partly because I was trying to decide what I think about the recent (kind of depressing) Ukrainian news. And I have been sick and tired. I caught a virus from my darling daughter Natasha.

So I have a lot of news to share.. I am going to start with the big brouhaha on the Adoption_from_Ukraine Email List. It centered around a woman named Mary who decided to... more

Here are a couple of sites to help you figure out what to pack, what to see, what to buy during your Ukrainian adoption trip.

Let's start with Travel to Ukraine. I like the Cultural Norms section. There is a good description on why the Ukrainian government makes visitors buy the special medical insurance when they enter the country. It is a form of... more

I told another women thinking about adoption to take her time... do the research. For my first adoption, I researched about a year before deciding to adopt from Ukraine without an agency (indepedently).

There are few protections for adoptive families, which is why the best advise I can give to any family looking to adopt. Read, read and read some more.

For example Yunona in early 2006 had its California offices raided. Their... more

The Jack-o-lantern above is from last weekend. Natasha enjoyed the "slimy" feel of pulling out the seeds and scrapping the inside of the pumpkin. Then she drew the face. It is a happy face in case you are wondering... It is yelling with joy.

This weekend, Natasha had her BFF (Best Friends Forever) for a sleepover. They are... more

I blogged that information on specialized (handicapped) Ukrainian orphanages and internats (orphanages for children 7 years and older) is available on the internet.

There is no grand conspiracy to hide the truth about these orphanages. Life is hard. I remember hearing of a Ukrainian orphanage in 2003... 25% of their children died from Chicken Pox. When a child's immune system is weakened due to poor nutrition... more

I am continuing to list the places to find information and photos on Ukrainian specialized orphanages and internats.

(Note: I am use the "cool stuff" photo because these bloggers are doing very cool things.)

Amber has a short piece about visiting Yolichka. This is a baby orphanage in the Crimean, but since they have AIDs babies, I counted them as specialized.

Next a visit to Donetsk.... I am pretty certain that Makievka... more