Larissa Koedyker
Ukraine Program Coordinator for Adoption Associates, Inc.
Larissa comes to AAI with a wealth of experiences, both personally and professionally, making her an excellent coordinator for AAI’s Ukraine program. Larissa is proud to serve adoptive families in helping to coordinate their Ukrainian adoption.
Larissa was born and raised in Dnepropetrovsk, Ukraine. Early in her educational career, she became interested in English language and literature and earned a master’s degree in both subjects from Dnepropetrovsk State University. She went on to work in international business as a translator while living in Ukraine.
Meanwhile, in her personal life, Larissa was raising a daughter and caring for her mother. Through a unique sequence of events, Larissa also began caring for a young girl who had been abandoned by her birth parents. Larissa took this young child into her home, never contemplating that perhaps she could become more than just a temporary ‘foster’ mother to this young child. Larissa went on to meet and marry her husband, a U.S. citizen, in April of 2005. Only after her move to the United States and subsequent marriage did Larissa begin to consider that perhaps she and her husband could now adopt the young child that she had assumed responsibility for, who had remained in the Ukraine with Larissa’s mother. As a U.S. citizen, her husband could apply for the child’s adoption so that she could eventually enter the United States to live with them. Larissa immediately set to work on what would become a long and exhausting adoption process. Proudly though Larissa and her husband were finally able to adopt Krystyna, now eight years old, and bring her to the U.S. as their daughter in September of 2007.
As you can guess, Larissa became very familiar with the process of adoption from Ukraine from the perspective of an adoptive parent. She truly understands the joys, anxieties, and frustrations of the adoption process. Professionally speaking, Larissa is uniquely talented with regard to knowing and communicating within the framework of cultural nuances and attitudes. Anyone who meets Larissa will immediately recognize her balanced, intuitive approach when it comes to communicating cross-culturally, exchanging information, and advocating for adoptive families. In Ukraine, she has been able to meet and interact with various adoption officials, and has had opportunities to visit several Ukrainian orphanages.
Larissa’s greatest joys in her work at AAI are in seeing children’s dreams of having a family come true, as well as in witnessing the love that new parents develop for their adopted children. She looks forward to sharing the lifelong joy of welcoming a child from Ukraine into your home and family!
