Last weekend myself, Andrew, my Mom and sister, Marli attended a Ukrainian Angels Reunion and we met some of the Ukrainian Delegation members from Ukraine at one of the families homes near Baltimore, Maryland. I knew that Cathy Harris was going to be there and I knew since it was fairly close to us that I wanted to attend. I wanted to meet Cathy Harris in person to thank her for all of her help with adopting our son Andrew. She is a genuinely nice person who is very much down-to-earth. It was a pleasure to meet her and to introduce her to Andrew. She introduced me to Julia who also helped coordinate our paperwork with Valentina. Julia is also very sweet and friendly as well. They were both pleased to meet and talk to Andrew.
I remember when Robert and I were thinking of switching from an adoption agency to adopting Independently with the help and guidance from Ukrainian Angels that is runned by Cathy Harris. We couldn't believe how much different in cost is was from adopting Independently opposed to adopting through an agency. When we found Ukrainian Angels on the internet it was almost like it was too good to be true, but you know what...it was even better than that. You not only saved thousands of dollars adopting independently, but Cathy Harris connects you with all of her families that have adopted through her before.....and you can ask a question to the group and many families answer back their experiences. We were so well prepared through gaining so much wisdom before we traveled......that now looking back on it, I'm so thankful that we made the switch and adopted Independently with the help and guidance of Ukrainain Angels.
We also met up with the women from the Ukrainian Delegation for Adoptions at the gathering. They had a translator with them so it was so nice to be able to speak to them and introduce them to Andrew. I found out through them that the rumor that I thought was true was in deed false. I heard on a forum that Ukraine was banning Americans from adopting from their country until all of the American families that have adopted from Ukraine are 100% compliant with sending in their annual reports on their adopted children. WHOOO WHOOO!!! Just the news I was hoping to hear. When the women from the Ukrainian Delegation asked me if I would ever adopt from Ukraine again, I said confidently,"Absolutely". They were very pleased with that answer as they are here in the states to travel around to meet with different adoption agencies to let them know that Ukraine is open again for adoptions.
When I was speaking with these ladies from the delegation, the translator was translating what I was telling them. As they were translating and talking in Russian/Ukrainian Andrew was intently listening to them and watching them carefully. One of the ladies noticed Andrew and watched him closely and said to me, "Look, he recognizes and possibly understands what we are saying". I'm sure he did recognize the language since it has only been a year since we adopted him. He has picked up and has been talking in English since a month after we met him and has been adding to his vocabulary day by day that I forget sometimes that he understood Russian a year ago. Boy how time flies.
It was a real pleasure to attend this reunion and to be able to finally meet Cathy Harris, Julia and the ladies from the Ukrainian Delegation. We all had a nice time and I'm so glad we got this chance to meet them as well as some of the other families from Ukrainian Angels.
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