Short Pause in Kaz

Home for 1 Year!
December 5 marked the one year anniversary of Rosa's arrival in the U.S. So much has happened in a year. I guess what's most remarkable is the strides Rosa has made in school. She seems to be now caught up with her class in math and spelling. We continue to work with her on her reading, and she is getting a little bit of personal speech instruction at school each week.

Here is a recent picture I took of the kids while my oldest son Brian was opening a birthday gift. We have some great kids and we are so happy we were able to complete our family through international adoption.

Now that we've reached this milesone, I think we'll conclude the periodic entries that we've been making to this blog. We will still leave this blog up because we have been told by fellow adoptive families that this site has been both influential in helping prospective adoptive families decide to adopt, or helpful in knowing what to expect when adopting in Uralsk, Kazakhstan.

Our adoption experiences in Ukraine and Kazakhstan have not only been life changing, but values changing.

We'll never forget the memory of a young toddler boy who cried as we visited Megan in her orphanage one morning, because Megan's "mama and papa were visiting her but my mama and papa are not visiting me." Or the image of a group of street kids in Kiev surviving on their own who we saw sitting together and talking under a bridge one day and as I looked at them, I saw the images of my two young sons at home in the U.S.

We will never forget the older children in Uralsk, who have little hope of being adopted and face a future without the skills they need to survive. Statistics are that many of these children, after leaving the orphanage system, will be involved in crime, drugs, and prostituion. Some will even commit suicide.

Be mindful of these children and do something to help them. Ideally, these children need a home, but if you're unable to provide a home for a child, there are wonderful organizations that you can donate to that provide some help to the orphanages where these children live. One organization that is doing great work in Ukraine is Life2Orphans (www.life2orphans.com). For very little money, you can sponsor an orphan, correspond with the orphan, and be a positive influence in his or her life. Project Empty Orphanage (www.emptyorphanage.org) helps adoptable orphans in Ukraine get their paperwork ready so that they can be adopted. The World Partners Adoption Agency (www.worldpartnersadoption.org/project.html) provides sponsorship money for orphans as well as money for projects at the Zhas Dauren orphanage (where Rosa is from). These are just a few of many wonderful organizations.

If we can answer any questions for you on international adoption, please contact us at: jo_ann_gashler@hotmail.com