Hiawatha family finalizes adoption of 3 Ukrainian children

CEDAR RAPIDS — After speaking their truth for more than three tumultuous years, Jenna and Scott Breckenridge finally heard it echoed back to them at the Linn County Juvenile Justice Center.

“It’s my honor to this year, domestically, tell you officially in the state of Iowa that you are the parents of these three boys,” said Judge Nicholas Scott, the final authority on the matter.

The Friday hearing finalizing their adoption was perhaps faster than usual. Twins Ilya and Bogdan, 17, had to sign consent forms confirming their adoption was being made without coercion or undue influence. They signed the papers before the judge could even finish giving the short instructions for them to make their final decisions.

After 39 months waiting through preposterous hurdles, they refused to waste another minute.

“I know you’re going to have great lives here and do great things,” he told the three Ukrainian-born twins and their brother, Mkolya, 12.

Now Americans, their new birth certificates will reflect what they’ve known in their hearts since they laid eyes on Jenna and Scott: the Breckenridge last name. And with that weight off their shoulders, the parents were able to say something else for the first time.

“Finally, it’s done,” Scott said to family gathered after the hearing.

The court hearing was, in some ways, a formality that could never change the family’s bond. But the recognition afforded by the finalization has given Ilya, Bogdan and Mkolya the legitimacy of their family name. Now, they can say and use their given names on forms, at school and anywhere they go.

“I feel like things are different just for the simple fact that now it’s done, done,” Jenna said. “It’s such a lingering process — I swear I aged 10 years in two years.”

The boys’ new last name on fresh American birth certificates will be accompanied by new middle names, too.

Bogdan Tripp is named after the social worker who did the family’s home studies, touching their lives. Ilya Becker Mills’ middle name honors two family friends who have supported the family through thick and thin in the adoption world, one of whom advocated for Mkolya. Mkolya Ranson is named after another close family friend in the adoption world who hosted a Ukrainian boy from the twins’ orphanage during the same timeline.

The journey to this point

Before they hosted the twins, Jenna and Scott never had actually talked about adopting. But once Ilya and Bogdan walked through the airport terminal doors, it was a done deal, as far as they were concerned.

The boys had been passed over several times during selections for host trips to the United States in their time at the Ukrainian orphanage. By the second day of their visit to Iowa, the twins were calling the Breckenridges “mom” and “dad.”

Every quality about Jenna and Scott is what makes them parents, Bogdan said.

“When I came here, I knew they would be my parents,” he said.

Through Ukrainian bureaucracy riddled with corruption, chasing paper trails and nearly missing critical deadlines after rejected applications, Scott and Jenna gripped onto hope, prayers and a tenacious persistence through what appeared to be insurmountable hurdles to adopt the boys.

Last year, Jenna spent several months living in Ukraine to work through the country’s legal processes, during which time she met Mkolya and finished the process for his adoption, too. She contended with suspicion from a judge who thought she wanted to adopt Mkolya to harvest his organs for her other children, but the authenticity of their bond was undeniable.

“She couldn’t believe we wanted to adopt him because of his special needs,” Jenna previously told The Gazette. “They shun these kids in this country.”

Those special needs were a simple cleft palate and developmental delay. Mkolya, then 11, had spent almost his entire life in an orphanage after his biological mother left him at the hospital as a baby.

A new direction

If they hadn’t been adopted by parents fighting to bring them home, Bogdan and Ilya said they would be on the front lines of Ukraine’s fight against the Russian invasion — and possibly dead by now.

After aging out of their Mariupol orphanage system, they lived in a hostel for months as they awaited the legal adoption process. With few career prospects to bide their time, they almost joined the military.

Mariupol fell to Russian control in May.

Asked about his future plans, of which he has many, Bogdan chose to focus on the gravity of the moment Friday at court.

“I don’t care what’s happening tomorrow,” he said. “What’s happening today is what I care about.”

Poster children for the process

The Breckenridges are a prime example of how difficult international adoptions can be. After sacrificing time, finances, mental and emotional energy, they hope others can learn from their experience.

Of all the stressful experiences, their worst pain was being separated from the twins for nearly two years — perhaps the true mark of a parent.

“Don’t be scared — dive in,” Scott said. “You’re always going to have excuses, a reason to say no. We had a million reasons we could’ve said no.”

“I’m not saying it’s easy,” said Jenna, now a de facto adoption advocate. “But it’s worth it.”

The parents continue to fight to adopt Artem, a fourth Ukrainian teenager. After Russia seized control of his city, the 15-year-old escaped to Italy, where he lives with other orphans. His adoption remains in limbo, as most adoptions are not being processed by Ukraine’s Ministry of Social Policy while the country remains under martial law.

But for three Ukrainian-American boys, Friday was the close of one chapter and the start of another.

Comments: (319) 398-8340; elijah.decious@thegazette.com