This was in my mail box this morning....

There are a couple of new tidbits.... Now the dossier updates must be mailed to the SDA. And the SDA will start posting appointments to their web site.

Dear Members of the American Adoption Community Interested in Ukraine:

This information is addressed to the US prospective adoptive... more

Rob and SallyAnne started a blog and then.... strangely decided to post comments rather then blog entries. They hosted a boy via Frontier Horizon. They decided to visit him in Odessa in July 2006. They asked about their appointment while in Ukranie. They didn't get any information.

But after returning home Rob and SallyAnne received a letter with September... 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 mentioned yesterday that another single women is posting questions about adopting from Ukraine.

I adopted my darling Natasha from Ukraine in 2000 at 3.5 years of age. I was 32 years old and single. I am 38 years old now and still single. Natasha is 9 years old.

In my early 20s I decided.... no husband by 30... I would look into adoption. I could get pregnant. But I decided that I didn't need to get pregnant. I didn't have baby fever. And I had become concerned... more

There is a single woman posting on Ukrainian email lists and forums.

She is asking all the questions that I asked back in 2000. And these are questions that I am asking in 2006. I would like to adopt a second child. I don't want my daughter Natasha to be an only child.

Question: How much time to complete an adoption?

Answer: In the past it was 1 year from start to finish. Now it is about 2 years.... more

There is a man by the name of Terry Hallman (American living in Ukraine) who has written an blog/opinion piece that he titled Ukraine's Death Camps for Children. You can also find it here.

Terry posted his piece about 5 months ago and I have been thinking about a response.

First I need to start with why I HATE this writing. I don't believe the Ukrainian government is deliberately concentrating children into orphanages to KILL them.

Terry's language choice was unnecessarily emotionally inflammatory.

Buuuuut he has a couple of valid points... more

I sent an email to the US Embassy in Kyiv on September 14 about the latest rumors.

SDA closed last 2 weeks in October Single women and men cannot adopt from Ukraine. Even if they have an approved dossier they won't be able to adopt. It will be against the law soon.

I received a reply this morning from the US Embassy.

Ukrainian... more

Chris and Julie Nolte have a SDA appointment September 25. Their blog is here. They are adopting bio siblings of Alyssa. They adopted Alyssa from Ukraine in 2004. The siblings (click on the link to see a picture of the children) are 6 and 8 years old.

The family registered in Feb 2006. Their registration number is 159xx. And they are in Ukraine now. Yeah!

... more

When my darling daughter was young and couldn't or wouldn't communicate what was going on with her... Rather then asking her questions, we would draw pictures together.

Then we discussed the pictures. Sometimes the most amazing, thoughtful things would come out of her mouth. Here are the stories that she told me about life with crossed eyes and with fixed eyes.

Natasha has congenital... 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