Andriy was born in 2003 in Makeyevka, Ukraine.. Andriy explained he lived with his grandma for a few years, but has been in the orphanage since. He has never met his mother, and because she is an alcoholic, her rights were long revoked and she has never been involved in her children’s lives. Andriy’s father was killed when Andriy was young, and only has a few faint memories of him. Andriy has a brother that is approximately 13 that has lived with a foster family for several years. Andriy also has a little 3 year old sister named Katya, who was orphaned at birth, but lives at another orphange. Andriy talked about his sister with such joy, but he has only seen her once in his lifetime, when they were admitted at the same hospital, apparently a nurse made the connection and took him down to see his little sister for the first time.
Andriy came to the US with lots of anxiety, little self-worth, impaired vision and a host of other issues (cursing being one of the minor ones, lol). Andriy is considered legally blind when he doesn’t wear his glasses, and needs special glasses with a 10.5 prescription. Despite of the challenges Andriy has faced in his short life, this kiddo lit up our whole world and had an amazing attitude about life. Andriy had never before had his own toys, a birthday party (he didn't know when his own birthday), let alone glasses that were the right prescription. With God's help, he left our home with many toys, a birthday bash and a cool pair of glasses that enabled him to see the world in 20-20! The hosting experience was more wonderful than we ever hoped for! A few weeks into his visit, we knew we couldn't say goodbye to Andriy because the thought of him growing up without the care and love of a family broke our hearts.
We have decided to adopt Andriy and make him part of our forever family! A few days after committing to adopt Andriy, we received an email stating that Andriy actually has a three year old sister named Katya! Much to our surprise, God has led us to adopt both Andriy and Katya. I say that we are surprised, because Roman and I had previously considered international adoption, but for financial and personal reasons, we had decided domestic infant adoption was the best route for us. Clearly, God had his own plan. Unfortunately, we can no longer move forward with our domestic adoption and have lost the $18,000 we have already paid towards our domestic adoption. In addition, the cost of the international adoption is going to be somewhere between $34,000-$42,000. Those numbers put a pit in our stomach, but we believe if God guides, He also provides! Whenever we feel anxiety over that exorbitant expense, we think of Andriy and what a blessing he has been in our life and we find a way to rationalize it.
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| Katya, Age 3 |
Many people have approached us to ask how they can help or contribute to the adoption. I have set up a fundraiser to help fund a portion of our adoption expenses. Please note Pure Charity sends all proceeds directly to our agency and can provide contributors with a tax-deductible receipt. Thank you in advance for your prayers and support! Most of all, thank you for helping us bring Andriy and Katya home to their forever family! Please join us for yet another roller-coaster ride through the journey of international adoption!
www.purecharity.com/kravchukadoption
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