[hopeful_mom]

We are considering international adoption and after reading about many countries' policies, procedures, expenses, etc., we decided on Ukraine. However, this is our first child, and we would like to adopt a child no older than 2 yrs. Now I am encountering discouraging info. First, one agency in our area told me they discontinued their Ukraine program b/c they were unable to locate healthy young children. Then the agency we are considering told me that Ukraine is "not the most stable of countries right now as they are undergoing a change...they have recently had many problems with families finding children under 5 years of age that are healthy." Yet this agency is not closing their program. For us, age is really more of an issue than "health," which I realize is not the same there as by American standards. But this isn't exactly what I want to hear from an agency I'm considering. Does anyone know what the real story is?

[Sandwich in Wi]

They may have more specific info.

[CEE]

Go to....... www.frua.org

Click on chat....post there...you will find lots information.

Also check this board.

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Adoption_from_Ukraine/

Good Luck

[Sharona H]

Hi!
The Ukraine was our first choice when considering international adoption also. Unfortunately there have been a lot of changes there in the past year and it has become much harder to adopt young children. Since we had not started our paperwork when this came up, we opted to choose another country and are now in process to adopt from Russia.

The downside is that it is more expensive to adopt from Russia. The upside if that the program there is established, and relatively stable (as stable as you can get in international adoption).

I would highly recommend signing onto the Ukraine mail list thorugh eeadopt.org. I'm also amazed at the knowledge level of laws, policy changes, etc. on that list. For example, there you would have heard with 24 hours that the Ministry of Education was replaced in the Ukraine.

Best of luck! You will find your child

[evermom4aj]

I agree that Ukraine may not be as predictable as Russia (if there is such things as predictibility in the world of adoption). The waiting time to travel has dramatically increased. They do have shortage of healthy young children. Families are still returning home with young kids but unless you are askin directly you will not know the health status from the happ pictures
As for the health issues, unless you are willing and able to adopt special needs (as in FAS, Autism or communicable disease) be very clear as far as what you mean by being flexable regarding diagnosis. There are minor correctable things like extra toes and there are the above, none of which may be treatable or correctable . You cannot adopt an infant in Ukraine unless they have missing limbs or cancers. There is a list that is pretty exclusive of anything that is even moderate. Children become available for adoption 14 months after they are entered into adoption database. So the youngest you can adopt is 14 months. There are more boys available then girls.
Do not assume that all diagnosis in Ukraine is incorrect and you will be pleasantly surprized when you get home. If you go in with those kind of hopes - you are likely to be shocked rather then pleassantly surprised.
The new Director of the Adoption Center appears to be fighting corruption, specificly at the local level. This means that agencies and facilitators who could pre-identify children in the past can no longer do so or at least are severely limited in what they can do for their families.
Getting there faster is not as important s getting out of there with a child. NAC now decides when you will travel to Ukraine, not your facilitator.
There have been failied adoption in the past, some reported on these boards and some were not. Families cried their tears and moved on. Some talked about it. It is usualy not well received because noone wants to hear unhappy stories and noone wants to think that it can happen to them.
Finaly, cheaper is not necessarily beter. There is a certain cost to each adoption and you will pay it no matter what. You will pay the amout straight or it will be "pulled out" of you gradualy (bribes / "expediting fees", extra transportation cost etc).
If you are looking for more predictibility and adopting reasonably fast - Ukraine may not be the best country to adopt from. nowdays.