I learn something new every day.... I didn't realize that Love Thursday had a flickr group. Thanks for the information Jenna.

Love is letting the cat groom your hair and enjoying it.

Intelligence is knowing when to stop the grooming. Notice the position of Natasha's hand. Sometimes Jenks (the cat) will move from grooming to chewing. It is much easier... more

I posted back in December 2006 that the Ukrainian adoption had become much more difficult. And the SDA was limiting singles to adopting children 7 or older. And the SDA refused to take dossiers from single men.

Then in Jan 2007 the SDA refused to take dossiers from single women.

March 20 2007 it got worse. Ukraine has just passed a bill making single foreign adoption illegal. Single Ukrainian citizens will still be able to adopt.

I am single... more

It seems pretty much confirmed that the SDAPRC's director Volinets (also spelled Volynets) and deputy director Balim and international adoptions director Remen have resigned.

What does this mean to someone adopting from Ukraine?

Probably not very much....

My guess is this boils down to Ukrainian politics. Volynets and Remen resigned back in December... more

I haven't been blogging very much because emotionally.... I was hit hard. I have been grieving and feeling stupid for grieving.

It started on Feb 8... actually it started earlier. As a parent I am constantly preparing my child for her next challenge. She has some learning disabilities that impact reading and math. And she has ADHD.

My darling... more

I found this news story because Focus on Children has a Ukrainian adoption program. They are an adoption agency licensed with the state of Utah.

What a huge mess and heart ache for Samoans and Americans. And while this investigation is just focused on adoptions from Samoa, the U.S. Attorney office may also look at Focus on Children's activities in their other adoption programs.

It... more

Steven Spielberg's company has completed and released a documentary film on Babi Yar. It appears to only be available in Ukraine right now.

Babi Yar is where the Nazis killed and buried about 100,000 people. 30,000 Jews were killed in just 2 days. I have a longer blog about it here.

.... more

I almost missed Love Thursday again. But I made it..

Love Thursday is viral... and has spread among the adoptionblogs.com bloggers.

This is my darling Natasha yelling loud for me... and then giving me a happy smile.

Love is playing pretend with my daughter.

I have been enjoying Aaron's blog about his pending Ukrainian adoption. He and his wife are adopted a 2 year old and 15 year old. I am reading between the lines... it looks like Becky (the wife) did missionary work in Ukraine and met the children at an orphanage.

Their SDA appointment date is March 14, 2007.

Alana,... more

I played chess when I was a child. I remember teaching myself to play based on a rule book. And I didn't have to twist my younger brother's arm too much... He eventually played chess. It was just a fun game.

Illya Nyzhnyk is 10 years old and just beat the pants off of quite a few adults in the Moscow Chess Open 2007. And he did it with a teddy panda bear snuggled in his arms.

YouTube has a short movie/interview with Illya when he was... more

I want to share a blog that is new to me. Markus Wolf has been living as a missionary in Ukraine for over a year now.

He has run a summer camp for orphans in Uzhgorod and has a great sense of humor.

July 15 2006

Imagine if this happened to you. You’ve been assigned to lead a camp of 90 gypsy orphans, but you can’t speak their language, and few of them can speak yours. You want to run a program to meet as many of their needs as possible, but they range in age from maybe 6 to 18.... more