The Keenes' Blog

Meet Kolya, 13. Can you guess? Kolya is into soccer, too. J He’s also fluent in Italian having been to Italy several times on hosting trips. His Italian host family has been promising him adoption for several years now and we were afraid he would not want to come to US, but he said he would not leave his brother and sister. You see the Italians only want the youngest. And since Ukraine does not allow separation of sibling now the Italians told the kids they will wait till Kolya is 16 (and Raya and Yaroslav are 18 and 19 and have aged out of the orphanage system) before they adopt him. I know its hard to adopt. I am also starting to realize its hard to add three teens. I don’t blame the Italians, we just want what’s best for all three children and not short change the oldest two.

When we were preparing a package to send to the kids a week ago and asked Kolya what he would like to receive from us as a present or if there was something that he needed he said oh nothing, really, I’m ok. Well, I am sure he can use a lot of things but he was too shy to admit / ask. Kolya has been fascinated with the idea of coming to US and said he cannot wait for the summer to come. We cannot wait too, buddy!

Are you starting to get a feeling of why we couldn’t say No to the kids when they said they would like to be hosted by us and they are open to adoption? J