About Me

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Kevin and I have been married for 19 years. We have two heart grown children from the United States,adopted at birth, Garrett 16 and Morgan 14, one heart grown child from Ukraine in 2008, Justin age 13. We also have two dogs, Mattie and Halley, adopted from the local animal shelter. Adoption is close to our family's heart.

Sunday, November 16, 2008

Some Good Reasons to Consider Older Child Adoption in Ukraine

After being asked many times why we would adopt from Ukraine, I came across these statistics on hoffmanclan.blogspot.com. There are so many beautiful kids here in Ukraine desiring a family.

*There are are over 100,000 children in Ukraine's orphanages.
*There are more than 450 orphanages in Ukraine.
*90% are orphaned due to their parents' alcoholism, imprisonment, or abandonment.
*10% are orphans because of the death of their parents.
*After "aging out" of the orphanage system at age 16,* 10% of orphans commit suicide before *the age of 18.
*60% of the girls end up in prostitution.
*70% of the boys end up in crime.
*Only 27% are able to find work.
*The older a child gets, his or her chances for adoption drastically decrease.
(Statistics from Ukraine Orphan Outreach)
*When children age out of the orphanage at the age of 16, most are completely on their own, with no family or support of any kind and lacking the education necessary to provide for themselves.

We have been so touched by Orphans of Ukraine, a video Leslie Landrum made of the time she spent in Ukraine. Please watch it to see the precious faces of the chidren.

(I took this post from HoffmanClan.blogspot.com)

1 comment:

Debora Hoffmann said...

I think it's so important to let people know what faces the children in Ukraine. I can't imagine aging out of the orphanage and the fear that must be present at that time. I am so eager to adopt some children and to see how God wants to use us to love the orphans we can't adopt ourselves. Praising God that He brought Justin into your family!

It was nice of you to say where you got the stats about the orphans of Ukraine. :-) By the way, my blog address has 2 n's in Hoffmann: http://hoffmannclan.blogspot.com.

I'm eager to see you come home soon so you are all together!!

The Gift of Adoption

The Gift of Adoption

A very inspiring video! Please scroll to the bottom of our blog and turn off the music before you push play on the video. This way you will avoid having sound on both features.