When we adopted from Ukraine, we did so completely without the use of an agency or any other for-profit group. Unlike other countries, Ukraine does not want people to make money off of their children. When you adopt from Ukraine using a for-profit group, it can cost as much as $20,000 or more. If you adopt from Ukraine independently, it will cut the costs to about $10-$12,000 for one child. There is nothing different about adopting using an agency or independently. You must complete the same amount of paperwork and do all the same running around town getting birth certificates, marriage licenses, fingerprints for INS, etc. The only real difference is that you are not putting your money into someone else's pocket.

    Fortunately, just before we paid out a large fee to an agency to begin the adoption process, we were blessed to run across Cathy Harris' website. Cathy is not an attorney, agency, or any sort of facilitator. She is simply an adoptive mother whose heart goes out to those families who do not wish to pay the exorbitant agency fees, who might prefer more control in the process, or simply those with an adventurous spirit. Cathy Harris helps those families fulfill their dreams of adopting a wonderful child from Ukraine by offering personal information free-of-charge about her own adoption experiences. Although Cathy does not provide legal counsel, through her personal experience, she has assisted over two hundred families complete successful independent adoptions from Ukraine in the last two years.

    Cathy was such a blessing and help during our independent adoption, we created this page dedicated just to her. If you are planning to adopt from Ukraine, we encourage you to contact Cathy via her website.

    There are many untrue rumors going on about Cathy Harris. Several email lists (we won't mention their names here) have claimed that Cathy has quit helping families adopt independently from Ukraine. This is false! We have heard numerous outright lies warning families to stay away from Cathy because of this or that. This false information and slander is spread by the same for-profit groups and agencies that charge people like you and me thousands of dollars to give you the same information found on this website. They do not like people like Cathy Harris or sites like this because we take away their business by giving away the information for free. So many families have spoken with us and become outraged when they discovered how much extra they had paid to line the pockets of these for-profit groups.

    Cathy is still assisting families find their forever children. In fact, to help Cathy out, over 60 of her adoptive families have teamed together to form "Families Helping Families!" Basically what we do is help Cathy out by answering the paperwork questions that we are familiar with. This leaves Cathy more free time to schedule facilitators, help with the major questions and spend time with her own family.

Cathy Harris'
Website