Also at this open house, I asked about adopting from Ukraine, but was put off with comments that Ukraine was not a good place to adopt from because they "put up roadblocks". We went home frustrated (me) and angry (my husband). When we got home, he said that if I wanted to continue with this, I would have to find a way to do it independently. That night I got on the Internet and found Cathy Harris' group Ukrainian Angels. She detailed her adoption struggles in Ukraine and told about how she decided to make it easier for families to adopt independently from Ukraine. She told us that an agency was NOT necessary for the adoption process in Ukraine and that an adoption was possible to do on our own, without having to pay high fees to an agency.

She sent me step-by-step instructions on how to put together a dossier and how to get the process rolling. Later, we contracted with a translator in Ukraine and he also helped us with paperwork and all the myriad of questions that come up. We started the process in earnest in mid-Jan. 2003 and traveled to Ukraine in Sept. 2003. We found our son in Mari'inka, just outside of Donetsk and he was officially adopted on Sept. 29, 2003. We chose to do an international adoption because we didn't want to foster a child first with the possibility that he could be taken away at the state's whim before the adoption was final. We chose to do it independently because we had more control over the process, and we weren't being charged exorbitant fees. We had also heard several horror stories of agencies that misled and ripped off clients and never did provide the services they promised. We had a wonderful translator who took care of every detail, yet made sure we knew we were still in charge. I knew we were supposed to adopt from Ukraine and we ultimately did. It has been a wonderful experience and our son Vitaliy is doing great and we love him. We are very glad we adopted him and that he is a part of our family.

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