For about the past decade Ukraine has been struggling to establish ethical international adoption procedures. While not a signatory to the Hague Convention on Intercountry Adoption, they are doing a lot of things right. They have established a single government agency to regulate all international adoptions, the State Department of Adoption (SDA), and are continually refining the adoption process for the best interests of the children in Ukraine. This ongoing process can make paperwork gathering frustrating and repetitive, but that is preferable to seeing countries that don't care about the legality and quality of adoptions.
Once your documents are complete it normally takes 2 to 6 months to submit them to the SDA. Once accepted families are usually approved in a month with travel about 2 months after that. Once in Ukraine you then select your child or a sibling group presented to you by a state Psychologist. You then travel to your child(ren)'s orphanage and spend a week to 10 days with them to encourage bonding, and to be sure it is the right match for your family. During that time you may hire a private physician to complete an independent medical examination. Your adoption is then completed before a judge, and you return to the United States with your child(ren).
Children become available for international adoption at 14 months of age, but families should be prepared to consider children up to 6 years of age or that are part of a sibling group. More boys are available than girls, and families focused on adopting a girl should strongly consider a sibling group of both boys and girls. You must be married and at least one spouse must be under 50 at time of adoption.
The Children of Ukraine tend to be fair, although some children with Asian and Middle Eastern/Mediterranean features are available. The care the children receive in the orphanages is relatively good, but perhaps a quarter of the children will be impacted by prenatal exposure to alcohol. Many of the children referred to the SDA by the orphanages will have some special needs such as a cleft palate.
Ukraine has consistently placed over 1,000 children a year through international adoption to different receiving countries. While the paperwork process can be challenging, Ukraine has one of the most ethical of adoption processes in the region.
