Ukraine Adoption Facilitator Warning!!

Hi Everybody,

We have been home for 2 1/2 months now and the girls are doing very well. I am closing in on finishing my book about our experience and thought I should share something with any family about to embark on the Ukraine adoption process. 

I won't go into detail here but if you contact me  I will be happy to tell you what happened to us. Additionally it will be in my book "76 Days on Mars" " A Ukraine Adoption Tale"

Konstatin Yakubenko - Please  do not hire this man as your facilitator. He is dishonest and misleading.( Documented by over 15 families I have talked to) He works both alone and through the International Family Services. He cost us 2 failed adoptions, and over $40,000. We contacted IFS and they said basically "Sorry, but even though Konstantin blew it that they would not refund one penny of our money and we would need to travel to Texas to file a compliant. 

IFS has a contract that allows for no legal action on your part even if they mishandle your adoption... so beware of both Konstatin Yakubenko and International Family Services

Redman Ukraine Adoption update

Hi all - Just wanted to give you a quick update -



Life in Cleveland with Julia and Nadya is interesting to say the least. Julia has adjusted very well and Nadya is having some issues. We found that she had been kidnapped by her mothers boyfriend just 2 years ago. We are working through it. They started full time school last week and seem to be doing fine despite the fact that they cannot speak English. They have lessons everyday and we have a tutor 3 times a week to help them out.




Our daughter Grace is having challenges as well. Being de-throned has not been easy for her but I think she sees the big picture and enjoys having sisters to play with.

Paula and I are well. Still reeling from all our journey and having an instant big family. All in all it is good and we feel God's presence helping us through.

I am still working on my book although with the economy and work progress has slowed a bit. I still plan to have it done by early summer. I have really enjoyed the writing and hope it will be helpful to families that are contemplating adoption in Ukraine.

More to come
Michael

Home at Last

For all of you who have been praying for us over the past months  - thank you ! We are home , the girls are doing fine, Grace is getting used to the idea of having sisters who get attention and I am writing my book.

Life is good except for the economy:)

Over the next couple of months I will be writing a book about this experience that we hope will inspire others to adopt in Ukraine, and enlighten them to the process. It will be accompanied by a DVD of our multiple trips. The working title is "76 days on Mars"

I would also like to include a few experiences of other families that may have worked through some of the hard issues in Ukraine, and humorous happenings on your journeys. If you know of families that may like to submit a story please have them contact me through this blog.

All the best,

 Michael Redman

Ukraine adoption Passports 1-27-09

I have been waiting for this day for 5 months. We got our passports today from Zaporizhzhia. Amazing what $300 in the pocket of the passport manager will do! Passports in 4 days...

Went to the train station here in Melitopal and bought tickets for the train tomorrow night to Kiev... Then medical, embassy and hopefully home Saturday ;-)

On another note I would like to ask everybody that reads this blog to pass along any experience you have had with the agency  "International Family Services". Looks like we will be suing them to get back some of the $40K + we spent on the first attempt to adopt here. It was due to their poor handling of the details of our interface with the SDA that we came home empty handed and had to start all over with other people. I do not want to say too much here , I am sure you can understand.

Thank you all for the support  and prayers you have so freely given to our family

All the best,

Michael

Orphanage Party !!!

Today was one of the most memorable in Ukraine. With the help of a translator we went to the orphanage and had a going away party for the girls. They were so proud...

Valery and I had a great lunch and he told me stories of his family, how god saved his life twice, and he made me promise to bring Paul and girls and spend time with he and his wife in Crimea this summer.

I was asked to give a speech to the kids, and as I stood there looking at 94 children without parents, or a home it was all I could do to open my mouth. The words that finally came were probably more for me than them...very emotional and a bit embarrassing.

I got alot of hugs afterward. I only wish Paula had been there to witness the feeling in the room.

After the kids ate oranges, little cakes, etc  we corralled them to have some races for cash... wow, I have never seen kids run so fast! A great day to be sure...

Tomorrow we hope to get the passports from Zaporizhzhia.

Cheers,

 Michael

More Ukraine adoption Paperwork!

Sorry that I have not updated the blog lately. There is a small mountain of paperwork that is required after court in preparation for the US Embassy. We made 5 count em... 5 trips to Zaporizhzhia this week so no time to blog! I will outline the process in detail once I get back to my book. 

I was thinking of calling it "75 day on Mars"  an Ukraine adoption survivors guide. Paula's idea :)

If everything goes as planned ( and it rarely does) we will be collecting the girls from the orphanage Wed and heading to Kiev to process out of the country.

Today I am off to the orphanage to throw a little going away party for the girls. I asked the director what we should have for the children and he came back with a list that took us the entire day to fill. It included everything from 600 oranges, to 100 small cakes, lemons, and even 70 bottles of Head and Shoulders shampoo. It was my pleasure to do this for him -  he is a great man and loves his children, He said he bought them all new clothes to take to the USA and very much wants to visit us. Valery is 68 and has been the director for 50 years.

I'll let you know how the day goes - should be alot of fun.

Also, if there are any of you who have Ukraine adoption questions that I might answer to make your journey here easier please let me know.

Michael

Redman Adoption Court Hearing

It’s official folks... Paula has given birth to two 11 year old girls and we have named them Julia and Nayda. The Redman clan is now 5 strong!





We went to court yesterday and the hearing was very short, only 25 minutes. It was the next 7 hours of waiting that killed us… I won’t go into all the details here as I am saving them for my book, but it was easier than we thought, there were more officials than we thought, more time than we thought…more, more, more.

There is still quite a bit of work to do like getting the birth certificates, passports, medical, and US embassy stuff, not to mention throwing a going away party for the girls at the orphanage, and bunch of other things… but for the most part we are wrapping up this part of the journey.

God has truly been watching over us, and we thank him for taking care of us and blessing us with 2 awesome children.

Michael

Redman Adoption January 15th 2009

Very Cold today here in Ukraine -  We visited Nadya  in the hospital and she seems to be doing ok but we have heard that diagnosis is not a fine art here so we are going to try to track down the doctor today.

Had a funny experience yesterday at the orphanage.

As you know Valery the director is a nice man and always trying to entertain us when we visit. I brought him some great classical music from home ( he was a trumpet player in his past life) and he was delighted. So you may know what happens next - out comes the cognac! 

He cajoled Paula into a small one and then we sat and talked with our hands ( he only knows "OK" in english). Then another and another...we were trying to be good guests. 

I told him "This is very tasty, where does it come from"  Valery stands, slowly walks to his desk and rattles a box under his desk..clink, clink. I open the box and it is a bunch of bottles of homeopathic hawthorne berry tincture ? 

Valery takes a bottle and empties into the cognac bottle? 

We have been drinking his medicine!! He tells us through Vitaly " I had a heart condition and my friend a doctor told me to drink this instead on cognac... it is very pure alchol, and good for your heart -140 proof" Paula liked this alot and asked for more.

Back to Ukraine January 13th, 2009

My trip this time to Melitopal was uneventful as Delta only cancelled 2 flights and lost my luggage . We are getting used to the "It's Ukraine" philosophy. Another 42 hr trip which I survived although quite tired. 

Paula was still asleep when I got in at 5.30am Tuesday morning. I was not able to sleep on the plane, or the train so I was wiped out. I laid down for a couple of hours and then Vitaly called to tell us that he had met with the judge and the fee would be $2,200 to get the court date. The good news was it will be this Friday at 10am and he said ( we will have to wait and see) that he will wave the mandatory 10 day waiting period which may speed up the exit process a bit.

Yesterday after I was functional again we took a trip to the orphanage and saw Julia. We took a new translator (Sveta) with us to talk about girls stuff, and met with her care giver. The care giver answered a few questions and then could not wait to get out of there.

Valery in his friendly fashion roped us into a few more shots of Cognac and promised to go with us to Zaporizhzhia to help expedite the passports.

We then asked if Julia would go and find Nadya, and to our amazement she told us that Nadya was in the Hospital! Sometimes here you do not get information unless you ask a direct question. Well, as it turns out Nadya has a bad throat infection and will be in the local hospital for 6 days. We have tried to see the doctor but he is not around very much. We will try again today. We will also take her some food as the doctor told her she must eat alot to get better and she says " the food is awful so she cannot eat anymore" 

This morning Paula is out at the market, and getting the girls something to keep them busy,I am working and  hope to get my luggage back with my long underwear, and hat, and then out the orphanage.

And YES it is very cold here!

Ukraine adoption last trip in January 2009

Paula, Julia, and Nadya headed back to Ukraine yesterday after a very nice holiday. The girls were upset and never wanted to go back but we must now continue the process which we are hopeful will go this way:

1. I travel to Ukraine Sunday

2. Vitaly meets the judge in Melitopal Monday to set the court date for Tuesday or Wednesday ( there will be a side story in the book that explains why things may fall apart with the judge)

3.The judge will approve the adoption of both girls

4.Paula will come home and relieve June who is 80 and been a real trouper taking care of our 8 yr old Grace. If you do this you will need some papers for one parent to complete this process.

5. Vitaly and I will travel to Zaporishia and everywhere in the region to collect the rest of the papers and passports for the girls

6. Travel to Kiev for an appointment with the US embassy.

7 Get the Visa, etc from the embassy

8. Bring the girls home

9. Try to forget the bad parts of our 4 month journey to Ukraine.

Well, thats the plan  - stay tuned and we'll see how it actually turns out:)MR

2009 in Ukraine

Ok - We are still at it. Paula leaves tomorrow for Ukraine & Melitopal to take the girls back after the holidays. We have had a wonderful time with some ups and downs , language problems and misunderstandings...but all in all a grand time. 

Julia and Nadya want to be American Girls ( so what's new) it is amazing to watch.

I will follow Paula on Sunday and hopefully we can have court quickly. Please stay tuned as I am sure there will be some additional strange things that happen from this point on.

Also, as many of you know I am writing a book about Ukraine adoption and would like to include some (Short, very short) stories of success, failure, trials and tribulations, and introspect of your journey if you are willing to share them with me. 

Please email them to me @   mike@mymusicsource.com

Talk to you soon

Michael