The war in Ukraine has derailed one American family's adoption plan

https://www.npr.org/2022/03/09/ [login to see] /the-war-in-ukraine-has-derailed-one-american-familys-adoption-plan
Tracy Bell has waited two years to adopt two Ukrainian boys but due to a bureaucratic and legal system upended by the war, she may have to wait much longer.

Tracy first met the boys, Vanya and Serogzha, now 17 and 14, in New York during a sponsored trip to the U.S. The youngest was sick to his stomach, unable to keep anything down on the long car ride to her farm in Maine.

"And his older brother was wiping his face for him and trying to help him feel better," Tracy said. "And when I saw that love and compassion and connection between those two boys, I think that's when I adopted them in my heart."

Since then, the boys have twice traveled back and forth from their orphanage to Maine for extended visits with Tracy, her husband Nat, and their two biological sons about the same age.

Last year, the couple began the process of adopting the boys. And in late January, as Russian troops gathered n the border, they made the difficult decision to travel to Ukraine for a required appointment with the State Department of Adoption.