March 10, 2002
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Dear Friends and Family,

We are happy to announce that we have decided to build our family through adoption, and we plan to travel to Ukraine to adopt in early June, 2002.  Since many of you are unaware of our plans, we thought we should announce that fact that we are expectant parents, and that life as we know it is about to be irrevocably altered!  We wanted to take a few moments to explain our decision and answer some of your questions.

Why Ukraine?
We chose to pursue adoption in Ukraine because of its unique
independent adoption process.  Rather than having an adoption agency pre-select children and send a video referral for our acceptance, we will visit the orphanages and find our children ourselves.  This means that we can interact with the children, observe them with other children, and study their attachment to their primary caretaker.  Although the entire adoption process is very expensive, adopting independently is less expensive than adopting through an agency.

What is Ukraine like?
Ukraine, formerly part of the Soviet Union, is a highly literate, but very poor counry, and there is a stigma for unmarried pregnant women, so man women see orphanages as a way to find families for children they are not able to care for.  The orphanages are located across the country--anywhere from a two-hour car ride to a 17-hour train ride from Kiev. 
Ukraine borders the Black Sea on the south, Belarus on the north, Poland, Slovakia, Hungary, Romania, and Moldova on the west, and Russia on the East.  Ukrainian and Russian are the most common languages.  The history of Ukraine is a troubled one:  Stalin starved millions of Ukrainians to death, the Germans decimated Ukraine on their WWII march to Stalingrad, Russia, and the Chernobyl nuclear power plant exploded in 1986.  Traveling to Ukraine (not the Ukraine--so we've been told) has been described as "indoor camping."  Most toilets are a hole in the ground, sans toilet; many towns have hot water in the morning and at night only; many towns do not have hot water at all; and elevators rarely work. Ukrainian water is not safe for Westerners to drink, and most restaurants serve Coke, but not Diet Coke (very bad news, indeed).

What are the orphanages like?
Conditions in the orphanags vary significantly from region to region, and most children are undernourished and suffer from developmental delays (doctors estimate that children lose one month developmentally for every three to four institutionalized months); but most children catch up quickly with a lot of love, attention, and healthy food.

How do you find your children?
After visiting the National Adoption Center (NAC) in Kiev, the capital of Ukraine, we will receive permission to visit an orphanage to search for our children.  We will most likely adopt two boys between the ags of 2-4, but since there is no pre-selection of children in Ukraine, our children's ages could range from 2-6.  Many famlies go to Ukraine intending to adopt children of a certain sex or age and then fall in love with someone else!  There are usually more boys available than girls, but we will not know exactly who is available until we arrive at the NAC.

How long will you be gone?
The entire trip can last from two to five weeks, with three weeks being average, depending upon how quickly we find our children, glitches in the Ukrainian system, the judge's decision to waive the 30-day waiting period (please start praying now!), the length of the trip to Warsaw (to gain permission from the U.S. Embassy to bring our children into the States), and the flight home.

What will you do to help the children adjust to life in America?
Post-institutionalized children will need quiet and routine at first, so they can adjust to their new surroundings and learn to trust their new parents.  Our children will have instant playmates in our two nieces, Taylor and Jessica, two nephews, Nicholas and Joshua, and two German Shepherds, Sasha and Marta.  We will stock up on books and toys that promote motor skill development, and then we'll lie low for a while so the kids' heads don't explode from sensory overload!  No trips to Woodfield or Great America for a while!

What will you tell your children about their personal histories?
Our children wil have varying knolwledge of their pasts depending on the information available at the orphanage (which varies case by case) and their ages.  Although the will always know of their Ukrainian adoption and background, we will not stress it.  Since we want their life stories to be a natural part of our family,we will purchase decorative Ukraininan items to display in our home, and we will create Lifebooks that document each child's  Ukrainian background, orphanage life, and transition into our family.  We will answer their adoption questions honestly as they arise throughout the years.  As their questions arise, we will be careful to use particular terminolgy in dsicussing their adoptions such as:  they were "placed for" adoption, not because they were bad or difficult, but because some people are too sick, poor, or young to be good parents; being an adopted child is not better or worse than being a biological child--it's just different.

We will tell them that they were waiting in the orphanage for us, and we were waiting for God to show us where to find them.  We want them to be proud of ther Ukrainian heritage and the fact that we traveled halfway around the world to find them.  We will never introduce our children as "adopted" children or divulge this personal information to their teachers or others unless we feel it is necessary--after all, it is their story.

A final word:
Although adoption was not our first choice, we don't view it as second best, and we have faith in the path that God has shown us.  Truly, we are providing a family for children who need one, but they will also provide a family for us.  We would like to thank all of you for your support and warm wishes as we continue our journey to build a family.

Much Love,
John and Debra Hanlon
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