As a PAP (acronym for prospective adoptive parents) I spend a lot of time reading adoption blogs of people who already completed their adoption, are in Ukraine now or still in the paperwork stage. It helps me to find a lot of valuable information, get answers to many questions and prepare for our own upcoming trip to Ukraine. Some blogs are quite entertaining as their authors have natural writing talent, some just describe the facts, I love to read them all. But there is one blog, which just took my heart.
Jim and Dana Hale are in Odessa now adopting their two beautiful teenage daughters. Somehow they were able to capture the essense of Odessa and its people in their blog - not only it reads like a book, but it's also written from the bottom of their hearts. They talk about my hometown with such love, you would never guess they weren't born there :) Thank you very much from the native "odessit" for letting the world know about Odessa - The Pearl Of The Black Sea.
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Victoria's cheerleading costume matches Alex's soccer warm-up
At the wedding, July 2007
12/31/2006
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Hi there. Our names are Oleg and Nataliya, we were born in Odessa, Ukraine and immigrated to upstate NY in 1996. We are high school sweethearts and have been married for 21 years. We have 2 wonderful bio kids - 20-year old son Alex and a 6-year old daughter Victoria. We started our international adoption journey in September 2006, and in January 2008 we finally brought home our 10 (now 11)-year daughter Rachel from our hometown Odessa in Ukraine.
About Me
Our e-mail address
- adoptinodessa@ yahoo.com
Our Facilitator in Ukraine
For those of you just starting your adoption journey, here is the contact info for our great facilitator:
Sergey Kazimirskiy: info@adoption.net.ua
Sergey Kazimirskiy: info@adoption.net.ua
Alex
Rachel
Victoria
Alex and Victoria
Victoria's cheerleading costume matches Alex's soccer warm-up
Oleg and Nataliya
At the wedding, July 2007
Russian New Year's Eve party
12/31/2006
Blogroll
- American Girls in Moscow
- Always wanted 4
- One Mother's Day
- Jim and Dana (home July 2007)
- Sean and Tracey (home October 2007)
- Leslie and Robert (home December 2007)
- Theresa and Mark (home December 2007)
- Jennifer and Zack (home December 2007)
- Joy and Ken (home December 2007)
- Mike and Tara (home December 2007)
- Mark and Courtney (home December 2007)
- Kelly and Andrew (home January 2008
- Tami and Meshack (home January 2008)
- Melissa and Steve (home January 2008)
- Kathy and Matt (home February 2008)
- Kelly and Steve (home March 2008)
- Ruslan and Inna (in Ukraine now)
- Christine and John (waiting for submission)
- Chris and Virginia (waiting for appointment date)
- Bill and Stefanie (waiting for submission)
- Ashley and JC (working on dossier)
- Debbie and Garth (starting paperwork)
4 comments:
We've been here for three weeks and don't want to go home! I've never hung out in a more soulful city.
Dana and I pray that Raisa's adoption will proceed quickly!!!
Keep the faith
very cool natalyia, thanks for keeping your "sisters" updated!
I agree that the Hale's have done an excellent job in communicating the people and feel of Odessa. He is an excellent journalist. Nataliya, email me at our gmail account and we can stay in touch that way. Patience. In His timing.
Sean.
I visited Ukraine in 2000. I loved Kyiv and enjoyed visiting friend in some tiny little villages, but Odessa simply stole my heart. I'd move back there in an instant. I wish they'd open an international school there...
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