Riding the Rainbow Part - whatever number we're on now...

The events of February 2011 were shared privately among a the subscribers to the blog I set up to help families adopting from Yolochka. Over the past year, the blog had turned into a collaborative effort with each family added as authors once they were in Ukraine. I would add new families as they made commitments to children at Yolochka.

Since there were a few families in process, no one was willing to talk publicly about what happened at that time. There are so many things that could go wrong. The time was not right.

It's important to understand that one facilitation team is responsible for providing the majority of photos and basic information about available children to Reece's Rainbow. They break the laws of their country to do it. (I'm not going to debate the merits of photo listings here. Just important to know that it's unlawful according to Ukrainian law.) According to the director of RR, the organization receives no referral fees from this team.

The notably threatening and intimidating facilitator belongs to this particular team. Or the team belongs to him. I don't know. I do know that his behavior has put Reece's Rainbow into a huge bind. If RR were to stop referring families to this team, they may lose access to additional information on available children. Their Ukrainian photo listings may cease. So far, to my knowledge, Reece's Rainbow has yet to apologize to any family abused by this team. In fact, they continue to refer families to this team.

Based on the multiple reports of threats and intimidation by the notable facilitator, one family decided in the midst of their process to make the switch to a new facilitator. Another family, prior to making a commitment to a child, also made the decision to use their own facilitator.

Their stories next time...