Day 6 of Being Thankful

   Today I am thankful for my daughter Olya.  We adopted Olya from Ukraine in 2009..

Olya with her bio relatives

Olya with a friend at her home in Ukraine

 She was ten and a half years old when we adopted her.  My friend Maggie had found her for me in Ukraine,  She knew I wanted to adopt another girl in the 10-11 year old age range. Olivia was driving me crazy, she always wanted to be doing something. She really wanted a sibling!  I told Dan that we needed to adopt another girl close to Olivia's age so she would have a sibling to grow up with. Dan was fine with it, I think he was excited to go back to Ukraine!   Maggie works for Frontier Horizons, a hosting organization that brings orphans to the U.S. and other countries for a cultural experience. Maggie visits orphanages and selects children for hosting. They try to select children who are available for adoption but that isn't always the case.   It really is a pre-adoption trip but can't be labeled as such. I wanted to adopt Olya from the moment I saw her photo.  We hosted her in Dec of 2008.  We all loved her immediately, especially Olivia. Olivia kept sayin to me, "She's  a good one, Mom."  We had hosted another girl the summer before but we never planned to adopt her. She had some serious fetal alcohol effects. Olivia really wanted a female sibling close to her age. Olya told us that she didn't want to be adopted because she planned to live with her older sister.  I was heartbroken but there wasn't anything we could do about it.  She went back to Ukraine after three weeks when the hosting was over. Freda, a woman I had met during hosting was  hosting Olya's friend Tanya.  She had an adoption appointment in Ukraine a few weeks later. After Olya went back to Ukraine, she decided she wanted to be adopted. She asked the orphanage director to call me.  The director called Maggie and Maggie called me.  I was hesitant because I didn't want to go to Ukraine and have Olya change her mind. It costs a lot of money to adopt from Ukraine, total cost is between $20,000 and $30,000.  When Freda was at the orphanage, we spoke to Olya.  Olivia was still very fluent in Russian and Olya told her to tell us that she wanted us to come to adopt her.  I told Olivia to tell her that if we came all that way, she had to come with us, no changing her mind.  In Ukraine, children age 8 and older have to consent to the adoption  She said she was certain.  I had already been working on the adoption dossier so we made plans to go to Ukraine. Olya seemed thrilled to see us when we went to adopt her.  I could only take off from work for two weeks so Dan stayed for the rest of the time. I flew home with Olivia and Dan stayed in Ukraine.  During the time in Ukraine, Dan went to visit Olivia's great-aunt and great-uncle.  He had Easter dinner with them and Olya and out adoption facilitator and our taxi driver.  They told Dan that they tried to stop our adoption of Olivia when they found out about it. By the time they went to the judge, the adoption had been finalized but Dan and Olivia were still in Ukraine. Dan told them that he was glad that he beat them with the time period! Dan enjoyed seeing Olivia's relatives because it was the first time he had seen anyone who resembled Olivia. Of course, he forgot to take any photos for me to see! When we hosted Olya, we were told that her birthdate is 02/06/98.  What we didn't know was that Ukraine puts the day first, then the month.  We thought Olya's birthday was Feb. 6th.  When we went to the adoption appointment at the Ukrainian Adoption Authority, named the SDA, we were told her birthday was June 2nd.  Our mouths both dropped and Dan and I just looked at each other stunned.  The adoption board asked the translator what was wrong with us and we said, we were fine, just thought her birthday was in Feb.  June 2nd is Amy's birthday so that was just shocking to us.  Amy's birthday is June 2nd, Dan and Olivia arrived in America on June 2nd and now we were being told that Olya's birthday was June 2nd.  Lots of coincidences, I guess.

Kiev is the capital of Ukraine.  Olya is from eastern Ukraine, about two hours east of Kiev. She was born in a small village, in Petrov., Ukraine. Half of Ukraine speaks Ukrainian, the other half speaks Russian. Olivia spoke Russian but understood Ukrainian, Olya spoke Ukrainian.

2009 Olya's orphanage in Novomirgorad, Ukraine.

Olya transitioned into our family so easily. She loved being with Olivia, they were together non-stop. Olya loved the Disney Channel, I think she learned a great deal of English watching the Disney Shows.  She was the easiest of all my children.  Olya did what she was told, cleaned up after herself and listened to us.  It's good we didn't adopt her first because we might have ended up adopting 2 or 3 more children.  Olya easily entertained herself. She loves art and has spent many hours drawing and painting. She loved to do anything Olivia was doing.

Olya, grade 4

Olya and Olivia at the beach

July 4th

Olya and Olivia Camping

2016 Olya in her dorm room 

 Olya is made from the best recipe for a daughter,  She is smart, highly motivated to succeed, and kind.  She is nice and she is helpful.  She has a part-time job and has saved quite a nice amount of money. She rarely argues and that alone is wonderful. Olya is pretty and athletic.  She has great friends who are all attending college. She is such a sweet and special person and daughter.   Thank you Ukraine!