Celebrate Adoption-Waiting Child Victoria

Victoria


Victoria is an HIV positive child, born in 2003.  An adoption facilitator from the Ukraine shared this information with the folks at Positively Orphaned.

A couple of months ago I e-mailed a picture of one girl, she is HIV positive. Her name is Victoria, date of birth 2003. I am e-mailing this picture again. This child is placed currently at the specialized House for Babies with special needs. Next September she will be moved to the other orphanage as a child older then 9. Today I talked to her doctor and she is really concerned about the girl. Here is her story.

Victoria was born in 2003 to an HIV positive birthmother. At birth she was diagnosed as HIV positive of IV clinical stage. She has been taking anti HIV virus therapy since birth. At the moment she has zero HIV viral load. Until the age of seven, Victoria lived with the mother and thus she has all skills of everyday life as any home child does.

At the age of seven after the mother’s death, Victoria was placed at the specialized orphanage for children of special needs. No one among close persons of the mother’s community or any one of the relatives expressed the desire to adopt her or take her into their custody.

That was obviously a hard time for Victoria. The period of adjusting to the orphanage conditions took a long time. Currently she feels comfortable at the orphanage, psychologically steady and has made a lot of friends among the children of the orphanage and school.

She is attending second grade classes. Her teachers characterize her as a very diligent, attentive, hard working, and very creative girl. From what the caregivers have said, she is a child with a big heart, caring and affectionate. Victoria is very tactful and polite with the teachers and caregivers and friendly with the children. She likes playing outside, watching TV, and doing handicrafts. She can spend hours embroidering or painting. This girl is very homey. She really needs a family.

Moving to the other orphanage would be a great stress for her and no doubt it is a risk for her health condition. She really needs a family. She is available to be adopted internationally.

I hope she will find her family and in my turn I promise to do my best to serve and to promote this adoption as quick as it possible.

For me as an adoptive mom, there are a couple of things that strike me about this post.  First, she is a child who is struggling to adjust to orphanage life.  My Conleigh was this girl.  She lived in a private foster care placement in Haiti for many months before coming to live in the orphanage full time.  (It was actually through this foster care connection that we found her but that's another story.  For those people who say that random postings online cannot find children forever families, it was a random posting online that led us to Conleigh.  A family in Haiti was caring for her in a private foster care setting and was advocating for her online.  I have never met the people nor did I know anyone who was connected to them.  It was a chance posting where I read the post and now that little girl is in our house.)  Like Victoria, it was hard for Conleigh to get used to all the noise, all the kids, all the chaos that orphanage life means.  The other part that strikes me is the report that she has life skills and was relinquished to orphanage care through the death of her mother.  While I personally know nothing of the situation, this sounds like signs that she was positively attached to her mother and children who were previously attached to a parent are much more likely to not have major attachment issues as they are able to transfer that attachment rather than learn how to attach and love.  That doesn't mean older child adoption is easy because it's not.  But that comment sounded very positive to me.