River of Thoughts

So we’re learning that the only sure thing in a Ukrainian adoption is that nothing is a sure thing! In the past couple of weeks, we have seen some major changes to our expectations. At the time of our last posting, we knew that our dossier was in the hands of our facilitator in Ukraine, but that there were some roadblocks at the SDA (the Ukrainian Adoption Ministry). We had no idea when our dossier would be submitted, and we feared that it might be summer before we would be invited to travel to Ukraine for the adoption. Given the […]

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Some of you may have heard the good news by now; a couple of weeks ago, we learned that Masha had an opportunity to come back to America for a couple of weeks in late March for another hosting program. Since we are still very uncertain about when we might be able to travel to Ukraine, we leapt at the opportunity to bring her here, even for a short time. The tentative date for her arrival is 17 March, and I’ve added a countdown clock at the top. We will be very busy planning her visit, and we’re getting crazy […]

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You guys are full of questions! In particular, a number of you have asked about the name Masha, and why we sometimes call her Mariya, but more often Masha. I wish there was a really clever story behind it (maybe you all can help us invent one??), but really, the answer is pretty simple. Just as many names in the English language have common nicknames, so do many names in Russian. Where an American named Robert might go by Bob or Bobby, a Russian (or Ukranian) named Mariya is often called Masha. Not all names have a nickname, but many […]

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People often hear about celebrities adopting foreign children, and it seems like they swoop into a country, see a child, take them home, and that’s that…There is actually much more to the story than that, despite media portrayals. For those who have never experienced adoption firsthand, it seems like an infinite stream of papers and approvals and corrections and re-approvals. Each new document feels like a new obstacle, but it helps to understand that many of these requirements are intended to protect the children. The Homestudy(Began 30 August, completed 23 September) Any adoption, domestic or foreign, requires that a social […]

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…A very good place to start. So many of you have asked how we got into this, and I think you all deserve an answer! The Discovery Last spring (March or April, 2006), we stumbled across a brief column in the local newspaper about a “culture camp” for orphans from Ukraine that would be coming to Fort Wayne in the summer. It explained a program that enabled children ages 6-12 to visit the United States for about three weeks, learn more about the US, and get the experience of living with a family. While the hope is to find “forever […]

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