[adoptukraineblog]

There is a rumor going around that 30 or 40 or 50 families in Ukraine now.... They cannot find their child and are on their second appointment. And some families are returning home without a child.

I don't know how true this rumor is. But if you read blogs you will see some families talking about their second appointment. They have to return home and wait for an appointment date for a third appointment. I have only read (in blogs) about one family who had a third appointment this year.

On my blogroll I point out a couple of families who are waiting for a second appointment.

http://ukraine.adoptionblogs.com/index.php/weblogs/ukrainian-adoptive-family-blo groll

AC let me post her story back in May. She and her husband returned without a child.

Ukraine Adoption Blog - Returning Home Without Child
Ukraine Adoption Blog - No Child - Family's Story

http://ukraine.adoptionblogs.com/index.php/weblogs/why-do-families-return-from-u kraine-with


And just some historical perspective... There have always been families who return from Ukraine without children. I adopted in 2000 and it was happening then too. In 2000/2001 about 1% to 2% (I base this number based on public and private emails/sampling) of families return home without a child. There are many different reasons why this happens. Every family's story is unique. But being unable to find young child is one reason why this happens.

Families who are flexible about age/gender/health have a more postive Ukrainian adoption experience.

[Max'smom]

I'm curious to know why these families are led to believe that they can request a child under 24 months from Ukraine. My friends who are long-term volunteers in Ukrainian orphanages say that for several years now, since the "birth payment" was increased significantly, there have been no children in that age group available for IA in a number of orphanages they work with. Do you think these families have been misled by their facilitators or agencies?

[adoptukraineblog]

I know that Canadians have limited adoption options and limitations. It varies by state, but most Canadians cannot adopt a child over 3 years of age. And because of the public health system, they aren't allowed to adopt children with medical issues.

Some Canadian agencies may not have been very clear about the risks that parents were taking with Ukraine. I don't know.

And with some American families, I have seen the adoption agency having a role too.

I don't know any faciliator (but there could be some) who are telling families they can adopt young children.

Personally I have told several people who 100% want to adopt a child < 5 years... I told them to adopt from another country.

The information on adopted children's age is out there. Heck the US government supplies it.

[fionab]

We are australians wanting to adopt internationally. There is very little information available to us on countries such as Romania, Ukraine, Russia. How should we start? is it best to go through an agency? Could anyone who has had a successful adoption from these regions help us to map out what we need to do?

[soba]

First of all I'd like to apologize if I make mistakes. I am new to this forum and don't know how everything works yet.

Me and my husband adopted our daughter from Ukraine in 2004. We are Swedish and adopted through a Swedish organisation (like an agency, except adoption agencies run for profit are not legal in Sweden). Since the organisation took care of most paper work I am not entirely sure what they had to do, but I believe they have to follow the same rules as any other organisations/agencies from abroad.

We had some bad luck at first, as it turned out the adoptions authorities had forgotten(!) about our appointment. There was noone available to see us that day. Our Ukrainian guide (employed by our Swedish organisation) then rescheduled and we returned the next day. On that day there were no young children ready for adoption and we did not have permission to adopt an older child. We were going to be first-time-parents and Swedish authorities are reluctant to let you adopt older children if you do not have plenty of experience with children. As far as I can remember there were no difficulties getting a second appointment. Or a third, or a fourth... We must have been there at least six times over a period of ten days before we were given information about the little girl who as to become our daughter. Maybe it doesn't work like that any more?

I was also surprised to see that it is difficult to adopt children under the age of five from Ukraine. Our daughter was barely 15 months old when we first came to her orphanage. I know several other families in Sweden who have adopted from Ukraine and their children have all been younger than five years, most of them around 18-24 months. The newest arrivals among these children were adopted early in 2007.

I have been told that it is difficult to adopt young children in good health from Ukraine. Maybe that is what is meant here? Our daugther had no serious condition, but there were a couple of medical problems that are either healed by now or not very significant. Some of the children from Ukraine that we know have been completely healthy at the time of the adoption, but I believe that most of those who have come during the last 3-4 years have had something wrong with their health, although it has usually been minor things.

[mom4three]

We have been reading blogs in the last 3 months, and a number of families are coming home without children or are having to be in the Ukraine for 5-6 weeks to get their second appt and court date.
These families have asked for healthy children under 2. They are usually given 3-6 files to look at and the children are very sick. Some have chosen a child to visit only to have a doctor with them/or in the USA to tell them not to do it. The agency's need to be telling us this. Instead they say we can get a healthy child 18mths and older. Finally, after submitting our money they then say be flexable with age and health. Once we were having our homestudy done they were then trying to push 3-4 yr olds on us.
We finally decided to leave the Ukraine program because we wanted a child under 2 yrs old. Now we are looking at Bulgaria, which you do receive a referrel for.
Also it seems like they do a "bait and switch" in the Ukraine. They try to keep families there as long as possible and then sometimes show healthier children at the 2nd appointment or say there are no new children available you need to go back to the USA and wait for another invitation to the SDA. Families that have done this have ended up leaving the Ukraine program and adopted from Ethiopia. Just some thoughts if you are considering Ukraine.
The sad thing is that those orphanes are the ones to suffer. I understand the Ukraine government wants their citizens to adopt the babies but what happens to the children you arent being adopted because people are playing God at the SDA?

[Jessi_76]

How heartbreaking for those families...

Hi FionaB ~ We are adopting from Russia - two children, and although we are in the U.S., the process has been very smooth and quick, and the experience overall wonderful, despite a few minor glitches that could not have been prevented. Feel free to pm me if you want more info about Russian adoption.

Best of luck to everyone!