OAK RIDGE, Tenn. — Jennifer and Andy Allen's front porch in Oak Ridge is decorated with yellow and blue flowers — a symbol of support for Ukraine amid the ongoing conflict, and one of hope for the two orphans they hope to adopt.
But the war has put their months-long efforts to bring those kids home to East Tennessee into limbo. They said their adoption agency's point person on the ground in Kyiv was shot and killed last week, underscoring the war's human toll.
"It just kind of stopped," Jennifer Allen said of the adoption process. "Here we are planning for a future with our children and now we have nothing we can plan."
The couple keep a three-inch binder full of documents they need for the adoption journey and just received confirmation they cleared another hurdle days after the war began.
Jennifer Allen said they're working with their adoption agency to press on and try to keep the adoption process on track amid the chaos.
"There is no court, there is no place to go, we don't even know exactly where the kids are," said Steve Eimers who went through the adoption process more than a decade ago. His children — Max, Misha and Vitali — have since grown up.
UNICEF estimates 500,000 children are among the refugees fleeing the ongoing invasion by the Russian regime, but Eimers worries about the ones he knows left behind.
"Putin is making more orphans, he’s killing the parents of young children, he’s killing children and it’s just stunning to watch the depravity," Eimers said. "They're not sparing anyone and it's awful."
Eimers said he has been in contact with some of the kids he met over the years, but hasn't heard from all of them. Several are trying to make their way across the country to safety as refugees.
The orphanages he has visited are mostly in the hard-hit Kharkiv region. He's tried to reach out to them to see how to help.
The Allen's have begun lobbying congressmen and senators to try to enlist their assistance in the effort. They'd also like the country to open its borders to refugees looking to flee.