As promised in our survey of the various adoption options open to LDS families, I will be sharing a few stories from families who chose to adopt through each of the avenues we discussed. Today's story is from L.W., who tells us of her family's experiences adopting a son independently from Ukraine.

We have 4 daughters in a row and then a "caboose" son, six years junior to his next oldest sister. We felt bad for him that he was the only boy and so much younger than his sisters. I had him when I was 38, so really didn't think trying to give birth to another brother would be a viable idea.

When he was about six, I started pondering about what to do about his "only boy" status and the fact that he would be the only child in the house for about 6 years after his last sister left home and it was not appealing. Letting my mind wander, I hit upon the idea of adoption. Domestic adoption was briefly considered, but I knew one had to foster to adopt, and that nothing was a sure bet with that route. Plus, it seemed that these kids had already gone through a lot and would have a lot of emotional baggage that I was not sure I was equipped to handle.
The idea of international adoption popped into my head, followed shortly by the idea of adopting from Ukraine. Why Ukraine came into my head, I don't know, but that's the idea that stuck. I pondered on this for several weeks, and then finally discussed it with my husband. He was amenable to the idea, but was concerned about the cost. I checked out agencies; they were all very expensive and less than enthusiastic about adopting from Ukraine. They pushed Russia and Kazahkstan as better places to adopt from.

We got involved with a group that hosted orphans from Kazahkstan and rushed to get INS paperwork and homestudy started. It turned out that we didn't actually host any children because it was expected that we would adopt the children we hosted; we found out the projected costs of the adoption using the sponsoring agency and decided the cost was too high. After a year, our INS form was kicked "out of the system" because we hadn't completed all the paperwork, specifically our homestudy. At that point, my husband said that we should just forget the idea because it was just too expensive. My mind agreed, but my heart would just not let go of the idea. I kept looking for options. I got in contact with a local international agency and had many chats with one of the directors. She was really pushing me toward Russia, but Ukraine kept pushing back. The final impetus was when we attended an open house that this agency sponsored for some dignitaries from Kazahkstan so they could see prospective adoptive parents and also families who had already adopted from Kazahkstan. My husband probed the director with questions about what all the fees they charged for adoption were for; he could get no direct answer.

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