The Story BEFORE the Story

Just a little background knowledge on our situation. While we firmly believe that our children's past is theirs' to share, and we do leave that up to them to share when they meet someone new; we feel it important to note that these 4 boys are not strangers. They have a relationship that pre-dates our adoption. And they have a connection that they want and need to preserve. They have very few positive memories of Ukraine. Their grandmother and their brothers are about the only positive memories they have before being adopted. So it is important to us that we preserve those positive relationships.


Our boys (M & N) were with their biological parents and the two Italian brothers until M was three and N was five. The two brothers now in Italy were six and seven when they were removed from their biological family. There are 5 boys all together:

The boys' grandmother has legal custody of the oldest brother, R, who is nearing sixteen.
O and I are now in Italy with their adoptive family.
O is now fourteen and I is now thirteen.
Our sons are now twelve (N) and eleven (M).


Both of our boys, especially N, have many memories of their brothers. And many of them are of O taking care of them. When we met O during our adoption, I thought he was the most stoic looking child I'd ever seen. It has been so wonderful to see him being a kid. And during our adoption N and I could have been twins they looked so similarly. They look different now, but it is interesting in watching a video the P's sent us, that N and I have MANY similar mannerisms.

It's also noteworthy how BIG all of these boys are. We know that their biological father was a very big man. O at age 14 was already over 6 feet tall. And his 3 younger brothers appear to be following his growth pattern.


There are many other things we could share, but we don't believe it's relevant at this time. We also choose to respect the boys' privacy of their first life. But we felt it important to draw the lines so that folks understand that this trip is just a continuation of an already existing relationship. One that we are so excited to be a part of. Who knew that when we set out to adopt that we'd gain a whole new branch on the family tree. One that extends all the way to Ukraine AND Italy.