I decided that I was going to adopt a little girl the second my youngest biological boy was born. I told my doctor and my ex-husband that I wanted a tubal ligation, that I was going to adopt myself a daughter once James was 5 years old. Even though the doctors and my husband were not thrilled with this decision, I got my wish and I could not have any more biological babies. My mother was adopted, and when I found her birth mother we discovered that we were Ukrainian. So when James turned five, I was on my computer and searching for information on Ukrainian adoptions.

I started off with a agency out of South Carolina. But after three months of nothing happening with my adoption, I decided to switch to a Florida attorney who told me she could get the adoption done faster, and cheaper. I retained this attorney on December 19, 1997. Within a few days I received my I-171 (Immigration approval to adopt) and was scheduled to leave for Ukraine on January 17, 1998.

One week before my departure date, I received a call from my attorney. She said that my dossier was translated, but the adoption center in Kyiv, Ukraine was asking for it to be retranslated because of some errors. That I would not be able to leave for Ukraine until February 14, 1998.

On February 14, 1998 I boarded a flight headed to Ukraine. We arrived in Kyiv and were greeted by the facilitator that was hired by my attorney. She was very nice, and everything seemed to be going well until she explained that I would have to pay for a taxi to carry all the luggage that we brought. Most of it being donations to the orphanage. That was fine with me, So I paid out $50 for this taxi.

Once we arrived at the host families house, I was told that I had to pay the driver $100 for his service. I explained to the facilitator that I had already paid the attorney for all these services, that I should not have to pay for them again. She could get payment from the attorney. Well little did I know, NOTHING was paid for in Ukraine besides two facilitators.

The next morning we went to the adoption center. The ladies there were not so friendly at first, and they apparently had problems with the attorney that we were represented by. They spoke in Ukrainian so I had no idea what they were saying. After about 3 hours, the facilitator came over to me and said "Let's go". Once we got in the car I asked her what had happened. She explained that the attorney had made promises to the adoption center, and until those promises were fulfilled I could not adopt my little girl.

We went back to the apartment and the facilitator called the attorney in Florida and they spoke about the problems. Suddenly we were back in the car and heading towards the adoption center. We spoke to the ladies at the adoption center again, and they said to come back the following day. The next day we ran all over Kyiv getting more documents translated (Another expense out of my pocket) and then back to the adoption center. It was right at 5pm and they closed at 6pm.

We sat in the hallway while the facilitator went in and out of different offices. Then at 5:45pm she came out and told me to come in the office. A lady named Oksana showed me pictures of children available in Simferopol', Ukraine. For about ten minutes we went through this photo album of children in all the regions in Ukraine, and then finally she said "forget it, just go to Simferopol' and see the children." So we were off to Simferopol'.

We boarded a train heading to Simferopol' on a 17.5 hour ride at 7pm that evening. The train was nasty. Very dirty, smelled, and the bathrooms should have been condemned. We arrived at the train station in Simferopol' Ukraine at 12:30pm the following day. I was greeted by a facilitator and a US attorney that said she was affiliated with the attorney that I hired. She was very short with words and explanations on how things were going to happen. I was shooting off questions, and asking were we were going to be staying. She very rudely and inveigh said "There is no Holiday Inn here." At this point I was very upset, because I had paid the attorney for supposedly "all" my expenses in Ukraine and I had already in two days spent over $700 in "extra" expenses.

We arrived at an apartment building that looked like it should have been closed down many years ago. There was trash in the corners of the building, laundry hanging from windows and balcony's, and it was painted all different colors.