Ukraine adoptions put on pause due to ongoing conflict
Posted March 31, 2022 5:50 pm.
Last Updated April 2, 2022 1:23 pm.
It’s now been five weeks since Russia began its war on Ukraine, destroying cities, killing civilians, and displacing millions.
Just a few weeks before the war began, Manitoba mother Trish Braun was in Odesa, Ukraine with her three Ukrainian children, Daniel, Lewis, and Paige. She and her husband Mike adopted them from an orphanage.
“It just turned out that the final stages of the second adoption were finalized in February of this year. Not super timing, but pretty good timing considering how quickly we got out of the country,” explained Braun.
“You feel this gratitude, but you feel guilt as well. Why did we get to be the ones to be able to come home when so many others couldn’t?”
It’s the second time they’ve adopted children from Ukraine, having adopted another three siblings from the same orphanage back in 2019.
With what is unfolding in that country, she says she is very fortunate to have gotten out of Ukraine with her kids.
“Gratitude is hardly big enough of a word. I mean to finalize it legally, get all the paperwork done, get the documents finished, courts finished and to come home with the children when we did, I couldn’t have asked for more.”
Braun was one of the lucky ones. Many families in Canada who were in the process of adopting Ukrainian children have been put on hold.
Alysha Buck from Winnipeg-based UAS Eastern European Adoption Inc. says they were in the process of helping three Manitoba families adopt children from Ukraine before everything was put on hold.
“For the families specifically, it’s scary, it’s sad, it’s very hard. There are a lot of emotions right now,” Buck explained.
Buck hopes the war ends soon so they can continue adoption proceedings. Saying, “it’s hard to say how quickly we will be able to pick up and continue on with the adoptions that are on hold right now, but it will take however long it takes.”
Before the war, Ukraine had over 100,000 children in more than 750 orphanages across the country. That number is surely going to rise.
Braun says it’s important for people to think about adoption going forward.
“Ukraine might be closed right now, but the needs are going to be greater than what they were before if that is even imaginable, once this war ends.”
