Thinking about my boys!

Today I was thinking about our time in Ukraine and my mind started thinking about the wonderful boys who touched my life. For those of you who don't know me well, in Jan 05 we traveled to Ukraine to adopt a child. The system was really changing at the time and we went through a lot of heartache. We spent 2 1/2 weeks there and came home without a child. It was the hardest thing I have ever done. For those of you who are infertile I know you understand. Mike and I have gone through 7 miscarriages, 2 surgeries, and lots of fertility treatment all of which were very hard but none affected me the way our trip to Ukraine did. For those of you not familiar with the how adoptions work in Ukraine here is how it works. You actually go to the adoption center on your appt date and go through hundreds of files of children and pick out your child. Sounds easy enough until you are sitting in the seat in front of the pyscologist and he tells you (through translation) that there are no healthy children under 5. That was what we were told as we looked through book after book. We were finally given a file of a little girl Olena. She was turning two. We were told she had a cleft palete and needed some therapy on her shoulder. We decided to go see her 4 hours away. When they brought her into us she was absolutely beautiful but appeared the size of a 3-6 month old. We were on the floor playing with her when we decided to take a look at her shoulder. As we pulled down her outfit we were presented with the most devastating sight. Olena had spinal bifida which they denied (because they didn't know what it was) we were also then told she only had one kidney. It was the hardest thing we ever did but had to turn down our referral. We spent the next two weeks in Kiev waiting to see another child which never worked out. This brings us back to the boys. We were able to spend many days at the children's hospital in Kiev with these orphan boys. When the police find a child on the streets they bring them to the hospital where they sometimes stay for up to a year. They stay in the room in the above photo and never come out. They eventually are sent to shelters or orphanages. I feel in love with these boys and would have done anything to bring them home with me. Not a day goes by that I don't think about and pray for them. In the picture above from left to right: Valladi, Mike, Andre, and Kosta. Valladi was left because his mom had too many kids to take care of, Andre and his brother were abandoned and he has a heart condition (his brother is in a shelter) and Kosta's mother left him under a bridge. I pray that one day they are able to be adopted and find a forever home. I know that they will always have a place in my heart.