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My Second Adoption Story

As soon as I returned home, I was greeted with statements (BILLS) from the attorney that I used. The statement that I got the day that I got home, stated that I owed her $4400. When I questioned my bill, and asked what it was for, she calmly said "Pay it or I will take you to court" I told her that I would not pay one cent until she provided me with receipts for her fees.

Within a few months, I received a court subpoena were she was suing me for $8800.00.

Even with all this going on in my life, and adjusting with my new bundles of joy, I still could not stop thinking about that little girl Zoya.

It was only a few weeks after we returned home when my mother and I was talking about her. We were afraid that Zoya would never get adopted. And the thought of never knowing what happened to Zoya was unbearable.

So I called my friend Julia in Simferopol and asked to check on her status. To find out was she available for adoption. A couple of days later I called Julia back and found out that she was not quite ready, but would be ready soon. This was legal according to the Ukrainian law, because I had met Zoya in person.

Mom and I talked a lot that evening about what we should do about Zoya. We both loved her so much, but we never thought that Ukraine would allow me (A single mother of four now) to adopt another child. Especially so soon after the first two.

The next day I called Julia and we three way called to Ekaterina. We asked her what she thought about me returning to Ukraine to adopt Zoya. She said that there was no way for her to know if the adoption center would approve me for another one and she could not guarantee that Zoya would still be available by the time I got back to adopt her.

I started the paper work for Zoya that day. Well since originally I only wanted one child (A girl) I only asked to be approved for two. I figured that was being safe. Little did I know that I would get there and fall deeply in love with THREE kids. But I knew that if I returned and Zoya was *not* available, I would find another child to adopt.

I literally had to start completely over. I had to do all the INS paper work again, new home study, new medical checks, etc.. EVERYTHING from scratch.

Six months later I boarded another Delta plane heading to Kiev, Ukraine. But this time, I was doing my adoption 100% "Independently".. What this meant was I did all my own paperwork in America, and then hired a facilitator in Ukraine to translate, act as my interpeter, and bring me to all the places that I had to go to complete the adoption.

After arriving at the airport for this adoption, I could tell that everything was going so much smoother. First of all, it was much cheaper up to this point, and everything was going really well..

The facilitator brought me to the Tourist Hotel in Kyiv, and brought all my bags to my room, and told me to get some rest and he would be back in a couple of hours. When he returned, he brought us to a few places showed us around and explained were we could eat and get things that we might need. Then he left.

The next morning at 9am sharp, he was at our door to bring us to the adoption center. We walked into the adoption center and the ladies that worked there had a total different attitude towards us. They welcomed us in, gave us tea and cake, and was hugging us, saying that they were so happy that we returned to Ukraine. It was a hundred degree turn around compared to the first experience we had at the adoption center.

We were at the center for about one hour, when they gave me my paper work and told me I could continue on to Simferopol'. That evening we boarded another 17.5 hour train to Simferopol'.

This train ride was the same. HORRIBLE. Again it stunk. But the nice part was, our facilitator took the time to get on the train and show us around. He showed us the restaurant car, and told us that we could get food and drinks there. I was pleasantly surprised since the first time we were thrown on the train and were not shown anything.