Eric and Angie’s Ukraine Adoption Story

It was the little girl pictured above that started us on a journey we did not expect….

Olena was an orphan in Ukraine. She and her older sister, Valentina, stayed with us for just two nights in December of ’06. Our church had a last minute hosting need and Eric and I volunteered. (The kids, along with many chaperones and adult actors, were in America performing the musical “The Russian Shoemaker”). In those two days, Olena and Valentina completely touched our hearts and opened our eyes to their situation in Ukraine. We heard the statistics. Maybe you have too (if you haven’t CLICK HERE). I remember lying in bed after meeting the girls and wondering how I was supposed to turn away from their situation; to look the other way and pretend they had loving parents back home. Both Eric and I couldn’t. We kept saying… “they have no parents, no one to take care of them when they leave the orphanage, no real hope for the future….” We had to do something.

Eric and I have always been open to adoption, both of us having adopted siblings. We always said…”if it falls into our lap, we will do it.” We felt convinced that it had fallen into our laps. We had parent-less children sleeping in our home and knew we had the resources to take them in as family. Immediately, we found a social worker and began the adoption process. It turns out that these two girls were not meant to be ours. While in-country adoptions are rare, they were adopted by a family in Ukraine and we are very happy for them.

We now have had the joy of hosting 10 other orphaned children from Ukraine for UOO camps and feel completely blessed. We love having these kids in our home and watching them interact with our daughters and son. Laughter fills our home when they are here and tears fill our eyes when they go. It is amazing how quickly you can get attached to these kids! I look forward to writing them and hearing their responses.

We recommend being involved with these camps to everyone! Let yourself be touched by these wonderful kids! It feels good knowing that they go back to their lives in Ukraine with a different perspective on life. They see all the kind people involved with the camp, face-to-face, who cared enough to spend their time and money on them. I am convinced they feel more loved and lovable, and see far more hope for their future, after participating in our camps.

Angie and Eric

One Response to “Eric and Angie’s Ukraine Adoption Story”

1. Jack says:

   August 16, 2011 at 1:23 pm

   My name is Jack and my wife’s name is Laura. This summer we had the pleasure of hosting an orphan girl from Ukraine. Her name is Anna and she recently turned 14 years old. She is from the Donetsk region. We also had the benefit of knowing before her visit that she was available for international adoption. We decided that if all went well, we would adopt her. As a matter a fact, we began the paperwork for adopting Anna before she arrived in anticipation that everything would go well.

   We were told Anna had a very pleasant personality; however, we went into the hosting with guarded emotions due to our previous experiences with adoption.

   The three weeks we spent with Anna far exceeded our expectations. Anna is an amazing young lady. She is beautiful, smart, funny, caring, compassionate, outgoing, and affectionate. There are so many other words to describe her but these are the first words to pop into my head.

   We enjoyed doing many activities with Anna while she was visiting us. Also, Anna was eager to help with household chores. We took Anna to the zoo, the Children’s Museum, the movies, and swimming. Swimming was one of her favorite activities.

   About 2 weeks into her visit, one of the other families called asking if their hosted child could talk to Anna on the phone. I said sure, not knowing what they were going to talk about. As it turns out, this other child told Anna that they were going to be adopted by their host family. We intended to have this talk with Anna but hadn’t had it as of that time.

   She had a brief crying episode the next night. We didn’t understand what was wrong with her. A close friend of ours has 3 children she adopted from Ukraine. One of them talked to Anna to ask her what was wrong and Anna explained that she was upset with something that was said to her on the phone by one of the other hosted children. We later found out what the details of that conversation consisted of.

   This was the only time during her entire visit that Anna was absolutely happy. We didn’t have the adoption talk for several more days after that night. We didn’t want this talk to be closely associated with what happened that evening.

   Our friend’s daughter came over the night we had the adoption talk. We asked Anna several questions about her life back in Ukraine. As the questioning continued, I could see a smile building on Anna’s face. She knew what we were about to tell her. Our friend’s daughter then told Anna that we wanted to adopt her and asked her if she wanted to be adopted by us. Before Anna could answer, Nadia, our friend’s Ukrainian daughter, told Anna to take a day to decide. I could tell she didn’t need it. The next day, she said yes without hesitation.

   There were still several more days remaining in Anna’s visit after we had the adoption talk with her. We were waiting to see if her behavior changed after finding out that we were committed to adopting her and she no longer had to be on her best behavior. She didn’t change at all. her behavior was just as pleasant afterward.

   I would say my favorite moment of her visit was when she came into our bedroom and said for the first time, “Papa, I love you!” My heart absolutely melted. For my wife , her favorite moment came on an evening that I worked late. My wife was laying on bed watching TV waiting for me to get home. Anna got into bed with her and snuggled with her.

   Before Anna’s visit ended, we made Anna a photo album with pictures of her doing things with us. This was for Anna to take back to Ukraine with her.

   The day Anna returned to Ukraine was a very difficult day for us. At the airport we were very upset and had tears. I was confused because I didn’t see any tears from Anna. I wondered why she wasn’t crying if she loved us and now she was leaving us.

   Anna was being escorted back to Newark International Airport from our airport, Indianapolis. Newark was the airport all the other orphans were catching their flights back to Ukraine.

   A friend of ours escorted Anna back to Newark Airport. Our friend said that as soon as Anna was past the checkpoint and we could no longer see her, Anna began crying. This is making me tear up as I type this. Here is this beautiful 14 year old girl who has lived in an orphanage in Ukraine for 5 years being so strong that she didn’t want her new momma and papa to she her cry. All I can keep saying is that she is absolutely amazing.

   During the layover and flights to Newark, Anna pulled out her photo album every 5-10 minutes to look at it. Our friend said everytime she did it she would cry again.

   After Anna returned to Ukraine, we have talked to our friend over there who is facilitating our adoption. He has talked to the staff at Anna’s orphanage. They have told him she has packed her few belongings and is ready for us to come get her. Also, they said she talks about us non-stop about how her American momma and papa love her and that we are coming to get her.

   On the adoption update, our dossier is in Ukraine now and will be submitted next week. We hope to be there before the end of September to get our little girl.

   Thank you for taking the time to read our story.