The process of adoption is strenuous. Oftentimes, prospective parents spend well over nine months expecting or hoping for a child. Towers and bundles of papers must be signed, sealed, and reviewed. Fees accumulate. Hopes diminish. Expectations fail. But one country, the Ukraine, utilizes a state-run adoption agency to assist people yearning to become mothers and fathers. The federal Ukraine adoption agency — The National Adoption Center — grants potential parents access to state-run orphanages in the hopes that a mutually beneficial parent-child connection is made.
Adoption in the Ukraine still harbors snares and difficulties, and restrictions certainly apply to hopeful parents. The first hurdle to adoption in the Ukraine is that foreigners must provide their own interpreters. This may seem like an insignificant detail, but a reputable and competent interpreter is wholly necessary for the adoption process. Later on, the adoption agency in the Ukraine will allow prospective parents to conduct medical examinations on potential children (this is very important, since the child must have a clean bill of health to get an immigrant visa to the United States). Therefore, it is of the utmost importance that translators understand medical terminology.
After securing an interpreter, the next step in the adoption process is gaining an invitation to the country. Adopting parents must register with the National Center for Adoption and receive a letter of invitation to visit the Ukraine in order to adopt a Ukrainian child. In the forms, the Ukrainian officials simply want to know that the adopting parents have sufficient income to support the child, as well as a clean criminal record. Officials also require all Ukraine adoptions to register with the Ukrainian consulate or embassy within one month of being transported out of the country.
Other restrictions placed on prospective parents for Ukraine adoptions include: That the adopting parent must be 18 years or older, that the difference in age between adopting parent and child must be 15 years (unless a relative is adopting), and that the adopting parent must be present for a court hearing to determine the future of the child. During this hearing, the judge is given sole authority over deciding whether or not Ukraine approves the adoption. Usually, the adjudication is delivered the same day as the hearing, but adopting parents must wait an additional month — to allow for appeals — before receiving custody of the child.
Ukraine adoptions are singular events; meaning that prospective parents ordinarily are only allowed to adopt one child at a time — exceptions are made for sibling groups. The Ukraine does, however, allow single prospective parents the option to adopt, meaning that there are no marriage requirements.
The typical fees for adoptions in the Ukraine range anywhere from $2,000 to $15,000 — translator included. An adopting parent is, of course, not guaranteed a child, but many Americans are finding adoptions in the Ukraine as an effective alternative. The fact that the National Adoption Agency in the Ukraine is state-run appeals to many hopeful couples who have heard horror stories of parents being fleeced of both money and child. The U.S. Embassy in Kiev still cautions American citizens, but the fact that adopting parents can provide both their own interpreter and medical doctor assuages many fears of misconduct. In the end, Ukraine adoptions afford an excellent opportunity for American couples or single Americans seeking to make a Ukrainian orphan an American bundle of joy.
By Jean-Pierre Lacrampe