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.)

I love the Hibs football (soccer) fans. This Scottish team traveled to Dnepropetrovsk Ukraine to play a match in 2005. And their fans decided to visit and drop some donations off at an orphanage. After seeing so much need at the orphanage, they banded together and created the Dniprokids.com... 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. Sometimes a child dies because "no one cared enough to buy $10 worth of penicillin".

(Note:... more

The International Social Service (ISS) completed an a 128 page assessment of Ukrainian adoption in October 2005. The backstory on why this report was produced is found here.

The ISS recommended.

A placement facility [for a child taken into state custody] should be selected as close as possible to the child's environment,... more

I shared a news story about the modern slave trade.. now know as human trafficking.

And I found a story about Hungary emerges as base for foreign organised crime groups. Hungary-Ukraine border experiences cigarette and human trafficking.

And I discussed Ukrainian... more

While you are waiting... waiting for your appointment, waiting to submit your dossier, doing your research.

Here are some interesting ways to pass time.

1. Read adoptionblogs.com blogs. I am 1 of 36 bloggers. And sometimes the bloggers interact with each other. So you can follow a thought through them. For example weight loss and the one blogger who refused to believe her scales were correct. :) Or right now a few are talking about why adoption blogs can feel negative.

2.... more

Terry Hallman (American living in Ukraine) wrote an blog/opinion piece that he titled Ukraine's Death Camps for Children. I really didn't like the emotional language that he choose to use.

I did an informal poll. I cannot find a single person (friend, family or stranger in the parking lot) who didn't think Holocaust when I said "death camp". But Terry and a few other folks... more

I am so tired which is why I haven't been blogging much this month and last month. I am doing a favor for a single Dad. He wasn't able to get affordable child care for his daughter.

So I am watching the daughter (along with my darling daughter) in the morning before school. This means I get up at 6:30AM.

I really am not a morning person. And I really haven't adjusted to getting up so early.

Also I am getting over a sinus infection. Ugh.... I have experienced too many sinus infections in my life.

But I have been... more

I adopted my darling daughter Natasha from Green Forest Orphanage in 2000. This yellow building is where my daughter lived for years. She was 3.5 years of age at time of adoption.

Green Forest Orphanage is specialized. I remember being told by the NAC (Ukrainian adoption authority in 2000) that my referral was at a specialized orphanage. I freaked just a little.

I was very emotional (as most... more

I love NPR's This American Life show. But somehow I missed a great episode.

If you have broadband access you have to listen to this show.

Act 1 is about a family who adopted a child from Romania. This child spent the majority of his time in a crib... 7.5 YEARS. Then an American family adopted him

There was a brief honeymoon where the child tried to act perfect. But then he displayed all his pain and rage. The child put... more

65 years ago today, Ukraine wasn't a country. Lvov (Lviv) was part of Poland. In Lvov a Jewish Ghetto was established in late 1941 with 106,000 people. The province of Ruthenia still existed and was part of Czechoslovakia. After 1945 this land became part of "the Ukraine" (the borderland).

The German Army arrived in Kyiv on September 19 1941. And some people thought the Germans were the lesser of 2 evils when compared to Stalin.

It was a confusing time... more