Picture: My darling Natasha at 3.5 years of age. This was taken prior to her adoption being finalized in 2000.

What lessons about human development have been learned from feral children?

What is helpful for parents adopting Post Institutionalized children to know?

Feral children, infants or children abandoned to the elements who miraculously survive and are returned to civilization, are nature's attempt at the Forbidden Experiment. As it turns out prolonged social... more

My mind turned back to feral children because Oxana Malaya is in the news again. Some people don't list her as feral because her case is one of extreme neglect. From 3 years to 8 years of age (before Ukrainian child protection authorities became involved) she mainly socialized with dogs.

23-year-old Oxana Malaya from a village in Ukraine is a feral child, one of only about 100 known in the world. When she was three, her alcoholic parents left her outside one night and she crawled into... more

I was in high school when I first heard about feral children. What I actually heard was a story about The Forbidden Experiment. It went like this...

In 1211 the 16 year old King of Sicily (who became the Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II officially in 1220) ran an experiment. He was a very modern man.

(Freddie was married at 14 years of age and his wife quickly gave birth to a son. So he was very much of an adult at 16 years of age.)

He could read... more

Continuing about this inspiration story of special needs adoptions by Ukrainian citizen Svetlana Bondareva. She started adopting children when she was 20 yeasr old. In 2001 she had adopted 15 children. Even though this article doesn't mention it, I am almost 100% certain that she also adopted black children.

Her attitude toward adoption secrecy seems to still be typical. Most Ukrainian families adopt babies so that they can hide the adoption.

What I found interesting is the older children's... more

Continuing about this inspiration story of special needs adoption by Ukrainian citizen Svetlana Bondareva. Her life experiences build empathy in her and she started adopting children at 20 years of age.

When Bondareva was 12, her father, grandfather and two grandmothers died within a few months of one another, leaving her alone with her mother.

"I felt it very acutely. I thought, 'How can other children live without any parents?' I decided when I grew up I would take in orphans," she said.

So at 14, she began collecting addresses of orphanages.... more

My darling daughter has ADHD and language based disabilities. It can take her twice as long as the "average" person to learn something new. And I wonder what her adulthood is going to be like. Will she be a happy and productive citizen?

I really wonder what I should focus on. Should I make Natasha practice her handwriting more? It is really awful. Or should we be drilling on spelling? Again it is awful. (Natasha... more

So you have decided to adopt internationally. And you have decided adopt from Ukraine with the help from an agency.

(50% of Americans adopt from Ukraine via an agency and the other 50% adopt independently.)

If you can, you need to remove your emotions from the picture. Research, research and then research agencies some more. Ask for negative references. Knowing how an agency dealt with a difficult situation is more telling then knowing how they dealt with happy news.

... more

When I read this story in 2001, it inspired me. A single Ukrainian woman, Svetlana Bondareva, adopted 15 children. Her mother supported her decision, but most other people (including Ukrainian government officials) didn't.

I have no plans to adopt 15 children. I have never felt called to have a large family. (I am hoping to parent 2 or 3 children. Right now I just have 1 child.) But I love reading these types of stories.

Sveta [adopted at 8 years of age] is now 17. She is mobile with the help of artificial limbs. She loves to read novels... more

I remember reading this news story in 2001 and I just stumbled across it again. It is a wonderful story because it so clearly expresses many different issues.

Why are children in Ukrainian orphanages? Plight of disabled children Secrecy in domestic Ukrainian adoption Large adoptive families are rare in Ukraine Ukraine foster care vs adoption

November 2001

Svetlana Bondareva adopted 15 orphans. Six of them are disabled.

When she was 8, the girl's future... more

I found Yuri's post on CousinConnect.com. (I have a copy of it below.) He was adopted by Americans from Ukraine in 1992. It startled me because the adoptee is doing the search.

See up until this point, adoptive families searched for their children. Their kids were too young to do it themselves. I was startled by the idea of an adoptee doing the search because I didn't do the math.

:)) (laughing at myself... because I didn't realize so much time has past)

2006 - 1992 = 14 years

International adoption from Ukraine started in 1991 when the Soviet Union dissolved. And these children from the early 1990s are old enough... more