Its Over for now

Well we have not updated the blog because we were trying to make things happen with the government, and the SDA. It was not a good week. After everything went south with Julia we put in a petition for a 3rd referral based upon the fact that the first 2 were for children that did not want to be adopted. It seemed very reasonable to us, and the short story for now is that we met with the deputy director at the SDA and she turned us down flat! We were well prepared and thought it should be fine but in fact she just told us " You only get 2 referrals and it does not matter if the information we supplied was wrong, or for that matter anything else. You are done...go home"

Paula and I were devastated as we met 2 girls Albina and Nadia , that wanted so much to come home with us. We even had video of them telling the director. We had hit a dead end...lots of time , money, and heart went into this endeavor and it seemed so unfair. We are back in Cleveland as of yesterday with just our suitcases, and very sad hearts. We left Albina and Nadia in Melitopal without a family and waiting for us to take them home with us.

When I get back into the swing , and have had time to reflect I will be writing an in depth article about the adoption process in Ukraine. If you were successful adopting there our blessings go out to you. You were one of the lucky ones. We found out lots of useful information for those of you who are in the process, and those considering Ukraine. Please be on the lookout for my follow-up.

In short lets just say for now that the Ukraine adoption process is wrought with corruption, payola, and built as an official told me to "milk foreigners like yourself for the benefit of Ukrainians"

Our hearts are broken, and our children remain in Ukraine.

Michael