James & Sara Y.
Ukraine 2014
We first met Anya in December of 2012, when we participated in an international hosting program. The goal of the program is to bring orphaned children from Eastern Europe, and now Asia, to live with Christian families for 4-6 weeks during the winter and summer. The hosting program introduces children to loving families for the first time in their lives. Many children, around 80%, that are available for adoption are later adopted by their host family or by another family they met during hosting. Most of these children are older or are part of a sibling group. When we met Anya, she had just turned 15, she had lived in the orphanage for 9 years and no one had ever asked her if she wanted to be adopted. She told us that she had dreamed of living in a family and being adopted for a very long time. We could not believe that no one ever gave this amazing girl a chance. Without the hosting agency, we wouldn't have met Anya, and she wouldn't have been given her dream of being adopted. In Ukraine, once kids reach the age of 16, they “age out” and are turned out of the orphanage; some go to trade schools that offer limited opportunities and do not provide the care that the orphanage did and essentially, these kids are on their own. Only 20% of the kids that age out survive without being victim to crime, spending time in prison, becoming victims of human trafficking or prostitution, and 15% commit suicide. For the ones that do make it, there are very few jobs, and they are on their own, with no family, no one to love them, and no one to support them through the early years of adulthood.
There was something about Anya's picture that stood out to me. I knew that if we hosted, this was the girl God was telling me to pick.
We knew from the beginning that Anya fit right in with our family but we waited a couple of weeks to make sure, and then we asked special permission from the hosting program to ask Anya if she wanted to be adopted into our family. We received permission to ask Anya if she wanted to be adopted while we were on our way to spend the day with the host chaperone, Lyudmila, who happened to be Anya’s orphanage director. Lyudmila was very supportive of us adopting Anya, and Anya was very excited that we asked her to be part of our family. We are a very active family and did a lot of activities with Anya while she was here.
It was so hard to say goodbye. We started the paperwork for her adoption as soon as she left. We tried to complete the paperwork as quickly as possible. We could not wait to have her back in our home; she was part of our family. It seemed like the quicker we tried to make things go, the longer the process took. There were multiple delays that slowed things down and when summer came around, we hosted Anya again so that we could spend more time with her while waiting for her to come home. Our time in the summer was short, but we had a lot of fun!
We had so much fun with Anya, and again, it was hard to say goodbye, but we knew we would see her again soon. We continued working on paperwork, completing our part as quickly as possible. There is a lot of waiting for approvals, and then everything has to be perfect, so any mistakes cause delays. We ran into a few delays from mistakes and just because things were “taking longer”. After much waiting, at the beginning of November we finally received a travel date. Our SDA appointment to get the referral for Anya’s file was scheduled on December 2nd. It was hard to leave our children behind, even though they were in good care with family and a close friend, but we were very excited to see Anya.
We arrived in Kiev, Ukraine just as protesting had begun for political issues. The people of Ukraine desperately wanted an agreement signed with the European Union, and when the President refused to sign, protesting began. The country was still much under the Soviet mindset of Russia, and needed to become more like the rest of Europe to have a true Democracy and freedom. Our adoption was not affected by the protestors and we received Anya’s file and the “okay” to go “meet” our daughter. We officially met Anya on December 4th. Anya’s older brother Igor did not want to be adopted and wrote a letter saying it was okay for them to be separated and that he supported Anya being adopted. We got to stay at the orphanage and enjoyed meeting all of the wonderful children. The caregivers all really do care for the children and the director is amazing, she really does love all of those children.
We enjoyed our time at the orphanage. Anya showed us around town, we went to the outdoor market, to different clothing and shoe stores, and to the grocery store. We ate most of our meals at the orphanage. We spent a lot of time with some of the many kids in the orphanage and gave them socks, toys, candy, and small crafts. The kids are so generous; many of them gave us small gifts in return. We spent about 5 days at the orphanage before it was time to return home. We were told that with the holidays, court would be delayed and most likely be at the end of January. Again we had to say goodbye and wait, but we knew it wouldn’t be as long this time.
We were told a week or two after returning home that our court date was January 11th, so we booked flights and started preparing for our return. Our kids missed us, but had fun while we were gone. They were sad for us to leave again, but were so excited to have Anya as their big sister that they didn’t mind us going. There were some problems with our paper work that required extra work for our facilitator and she needed more time to fix the problem and complete the paper work, so our court date got pushed back to January 20th. Again we had to wait, but luckily it wasn’t too much longer. Anya was going to be our daughter very soon!!
Anya officially became our daughter on January 20, 2014. We celebrated with a sardine sandwich!! That night we played in the snow with all of her friends, and went sledding; Ukrainian style! After court there was a 10 day waiting period before we could do any more paper work. We decided to come home during that wait time so we completed all of the paperwork that I needed to sign in country so that Jim could complete the last trip by himself.
There was something about Anya's picture that stood out to me. I knew that if we hosted, this was the girl God was telling me to pick.
We knew from the beginning that Anya fit right in with our family but we waited a couple of weeks to make sure, and then we asked special permission from the hosting program to ask Anya if she wanted to be adopted into our family. We received permission to ask Anya if she wanted to be adopted while we were on our way to spend the day with the host chaperone, Lyudmila, who happened to be Anya’s orphanage director. Lyudmila was very supportive of us adopting Anya, and Anya was very excited that we asked her to be part of our family. We are a very active family and did a lot of activities with Anya while she was here.
It was so hard to say goodbye. We started the paperwork for her adoption as soon as she left. We tried to complete the paperwork as quickly as possible. We could not wait to have her back in our home; she was part of our family. It seemed like the quicker we tried to make things go, the longer the process took. There were multiple delays that slowed things down and when summer came around, we hosted Anya again so that we could spend more time with her while waiting for her to come home. Our time in the summer was short, but we had a lot of fun!
We had so much fun with Anya, and again, it was hard to say goodbye, but we knew we would see her again soon. We continued working on paperwork, completing our part as quickly as possible. There is a lot of waiting for approvals, and then everything has to be perfect, so any mistakes cause delays. We ran into a few delays from mistakes and just because things were “taking longer”. After much waiting, at the beginning of November we finally received a travel date. Our SDA appointment to get the referral for Anya’s file was scheduled on December 2nd. It was hard to leave our children behind, even though they were in good care with family and a close friend, but we were very excited to see Anya.
We arrived in Kiev, Ukraine just as protesting had begun for political issues. The people of Ukraine desperately wanted an agreement signed with the European Union, and when the President refused to sign, protesting began. The country was still much under the Soviet mindset of Russia, and needed to become more like the rest of Europe to have a true Democracy and freedom. Our adoption was not affected by the protestors and we received Anya’s file and the “okay” to go “meet” our daughter. We officially met Anya on December 4th. Anya’s older brother Igor did not want to be adopted and wrote a letter saying it was okay for them to be separated and that he supported Anya being adopted. We got to stay at the orphanage and enjoyed meeting all of the wonderful children. The caregivers all really do care for the children and the director is amazing, she really does love all of those children.
We enjoyed our time at the orphanage. Anya showed us around town, we went to the outdoor market, to different clothing and shoe stores, and to the grocery store. We ate most of our meals at the orphanage. We spent a lot of time with some of the many kids in the orphanage and gave them socks, toys, candy, and small crafts. The kids are so generous; many of them gave us small gifts in return. We spent about 5 days at the orphanage before it was time to return home. We were told that with the holidays, court would be delayed and most likely be at the end of January. Again we had to say goodbye and wait, but we knew it wouldn’t be as long this time.
We were told a week or two after returning home that our court date was January 11th, so we booked flights and started preparing for our return. Our kids missed us, but had fun while we were gone. They were sad for us to leave again, but were so excited to have Anya as their big sister that they didn’t mind us going. There were some problems with our paper work that required extra work for our facilitator and she needed more time to fix the problem and complete the paper work, so our court date got pushed back to January 20th. Again we had to wait, but luckily it wasn’t too much longer. Anya was going to be our daughter very soon!!
Anya officially became our daughter on January 20, 2014. We celebrated with a sardine sandwich!! That night we played in the snow with all of her friends, and went sledding; Ukrainian style! After court there was a 10 day waiting period before we could do any more paper work. We decided to come home during that wait time so we completed all of the paperwork that I needed to sign in country so that Jim could complete the last trip by himself.
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