Ukraine Adoption - New Book

'Ukraine Adoption' 

The story of how the Redman family navigated the murky waters of the Ukraine Adoption system , and successfully adopted Nadya and Julia. Available now on Amazon, CreateSpace, and many other outlets. This book is a must read for any family considering adopting from the Ukraine.

Michael will personally be answering  questions you may have about the adoption process as well.

Ukraine Adoption Book

Well after over a year I am about a week away from publishing my book "76 Days on Mars - A Ukraine Adoption Tale". It's been a long time coming but will hopefully help many more children get adopted, and make the entire process understandable and simpler for families wishing to adopt.

Her is a little excerpt . I will try to add several more in the coming weeks -

After settling in, we ventured out to find water and food figuring that we would just eat something in the apartment and not try to figure out the restaurant system yet. We found a small local market and had to put all our valuables into a locker upon entering. We wandered the aisles looking at lots of food we didn’t recognize so decided to keep it simple. We bought yogurt, cheese, crackers, sardines, and water (which, by the way, is mostly carbonated, mineral water that tastes very strange to foreigners, so we recommend buying the “Bon Aqua” brand. The un-carbonated version has a light blue cap, I think.)

The weather in Kiev is pleasant in September with sunny skies and temperature reaching into the seventies, so we took endless walks through the beautiful parks and did some general exploring.

September 6th

Kiev, Ukraine

BLOG Entry – Well, today we took it easy and just walked, talked and shopped. The weather has been really beautiful. Hopefully, it will hold for another couple of days.

Also, went to McDonald’s instead of Starbucks (my hang at home ... no Starbucks here) at about 7 a.m. They have terrific coffee and it's cheap! Made cup-by-cup, fresh ground - sounds just like the way they make their food - huh?

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

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

Good news - at least a little from Ukraine

Paula and I leave in a couple of days to start the process again and yesterday we received news that the Director was able to finally get the passports for the girls to visit here over the holidays. We still have a long road before they can have a new home but this was a bright spot for us. Originally we were told that it could probably happen in 10 days  - that was 6 weeks ago....so it is a good day. 

For those of you who are interested I have started writing a book about this experience and a survival guide that will be done in the spring I hope:)MR

Julia Sept 22,2008

Hi Everybody  - Here is Julia!

11 yrs old, very sweet, quiet and small.

 I have been having trouble pasting from word into this blog, even using a txt file. 

Still trying and will update this later IF i can figure it out.

We are still in Melitopal and will be here for sometime... don't know how long. Its and adventure we will not want to repeat! Details to follow...

God Bless 

Michael

Redman Adoption Kiev Day 3 - "The SDA"

We came into a small nice office typical of any, and were asked to take a seat on a couch. We were introduced to our SDA interviewer and shook hands ( oop’s we heard that women in Ukraine do not like to do that). Paula and I had spent considerable time working on answers to specific questions (“Why do you want to adopt in Ukraine, etc”), but when it “Would you Tell me a little bit about your family.” Funny thing was we never thought of that question! Paula made a simple response - there are 4 of us with son Tyler, and Daughter Grace…”

Next the psychologist put one photo on the table - Konstantin looked, and talked with the interviewer, turned to us and said “This is a girl of 10 years, healthy, etc” . She looked very unhappy. We then were presented with 3 other photos. It is a little intense and intimidating because the interviewer turned to us after the 3rd photo and said “ This is the perfect child for you”. What do you say to that?

We asked for one more girl that was closer to Graces age …She pulls out another photo “ She has slight mental problems.” I took this as a clear sign that we were done - PICK a girl now!. We took her word on the perfect girl for us and left the next day to see her! Her name is Emma and she is located in Donetsk. She is 11 yrs old, tall, slender, smart, kind, and musical according to her profile. Stay tuned for more and please feel welcome to ask questions.

This is a very exciting time …Michael

Redman Adoption - Kiev Day 1

Ok - Folks today we meet with our facilitator (Konstantin for future reference) He is meeting us at our apartment. Nice place! Kind of reminds me of a low end Jetsons pad with a TV that we can't understand.

Our trip was long but fine... did not sleep last night...and according to my computer it is 2.30am in Chagrin Falls. I took a long walk this morning in the city center met a couple of kids who spoke english and they said that "Americans are good people but US and Ukrainian politicians are making it difficult to remember that we are brothers and sisters....God created all of us." He has a point doesn't he?

Today after we meet with Konstantin we are going to try to find a tour service and explore the city.. and find something to eat. This has been a challenge as most Ukranians eat meat,cookies and lots of coffee!  

Also, it is supposed to be very hot the next couple of days (90).  Unfortunately I packed fall clothes, so this should be interesting. Tonight of tomorrow we should have a better picture of the events that will be coming our way and the process we will undertake so stay tuned...Here are a few more picks for last night in Kiev. Including the entrance to our apartment.