12 Children Are Adopted in Ukraine Every Day

On Ukraine's National Adoption Day, a new statistic has been released by the government, stating that 12 children are adopted every day, 7 by Ukrainians and 5 by foreigners.


12 children are adopted in Ukraine every day in 2009
National Radio Company of Ukraine

Kidnapping of Hosted Kids

Bad news reaching the internet tonight, a man who hosted 3 girls through Frontier Horizon is refusing to return them to Ukraine. Understandably, the Ukrainians are upset about this. He has no legal right to do this and is jeapordizing the future of hosting and adoptions from Ukraine.

Ukraine Says Local Man Hasn't Returned Kids
WFTV

Bootsie Is Gone

This morning one of our cats, Bootsie, passed away.

9 years ago we bought our first kitten, Patches, to keep Mark company, since he didn't have any siblings. Turned out Patches was lonely, so a week later we bought our second kitten, Bootsie. They've seen their world change since then - we've gotten our dog Sparkle, and have adopted our 2 Ukies. Mark has gotten older and doesn't spend time with the cats like he used to.



Last week Boots seemed normal, but in the last couple of days Nancy noticed that she had lost weight. This morning we found her laying down in their kennel and she was mostly unresponsive and cold. I scooped her out and put her in a box with a towel and took her upstairs for the kids to take turns holding her before school. Mark didn't want to hold her, so I put her in his lap. He really wasn't sure how to handle it. His cats were his buddies since he was 5.

Nancy and I took her to the vet the first thing this morning. The Dr. said that she would do a blood test and try to rehydrate her and warm her up, so we both left for work. About 5 min. later I got a call that she had passed away of kidney failure, but that there was a volunteer at the clinic holding and comforting her when she went, and she died peacefully.

The poor thing, she was only 9. I am surprised at my own grief today. She was my favorite of the two cats.

This is our last picture of her. I took it as we were leaving for the vet's. She died 1/2 hr. later. We love you Bootsie and will miss you...

Finally Met the Wolff's

This weekend we attended the huge LifeLight Music Festival in Sioux Falls, where we were able to meet the Wolff family from nearby Iowa. The Wolff's adopted 2 teen girls from Ukraine, in fact from the same orphanage as our son Sergey, #4 in Odessa. We had gotten to know the Wolff's last year through our mutual blogs and emails. Like us, they were stuck in adoption limbo when Ukraine imposed adoption quotas last year. They were a source of encouragement for us as we shared that difficult and frustrating period together. Then, with just a few days notice, they got word of their SDA appt. early last Fall. Their blog during their time in Ukraine was interesting, but they have since removed most of their material. However, they have left a few posts up, including the must-read post on The Lie, which should be required reading for all adoptive parents.

It was fun to finally be able to meet David, Cindie, Anya, and Anastasia. We all said we felt like we knew each other even though we had never actually met before. Ah the wonder of the internet!