A couple from San Antonio, Texas, who decided to adopt a 4-year-old boy with cerebral palsy from Eastern Ukraine flew to meet him and found themselves in the middle of a brewing war zone. With the boy sick, flights getting canceled, and American citizens urged to evacuate, they almost didn’t make it out in time.
However, weeks on, parents Kelci and Theron Jagge and their adopted son, Ruslan, are back in the United States with a gripping story to tell.
“My husband and I had never talked about adopting before,” Kelci told The Epoch Times, “so once I saw [Ruslan’s] picture and started researching more into the situation of special needs orphans in Ukraine, we started donating ... but it just didn’t feel like enough.
“It’s very rare for special needs children to be adopted in Ukraine, unless an American family adopts them. For a lot of those kids, if they get sent to an institution, they will die.”
Initially agreeing that they would adopt when their finances improved, Kelci and Theron, who have a biological daughter and son aged 11 and 3, were soon burdened by a need to help. They decided, “There’s no better time than now,” and started Ruslan’s adoption process in February 2021.
“Before our first trip in November we knew that things were getting worse over there,” Kelci said, “but we considered Ruslan to be our son already; if our son is in a war zone, we’re gonna do whatever we have to do to get him out.”
In mid-December, the couple flew to Kramatorsk, Ukraine, to meet Ruslan in his orphanage for the very first time after just seeing a picture of him over a year ago.
Recalling the moment, Kelci said that, while at the orphanage, as the director was briefing them about Ruslan’s special needs, they heard a stroller rolling into the doorway.
“I started crying the second I heard the stroller ... it was a surreal experience to finally see him with our own eyes,” Kelci said.
Ruslan was “really sedated,” said Kelci, and soon fell ill with pneumonia. With political tensions brewing, leaving Ukraine became a matter of urgency.
The family attended court on Feb. 3, and the judge approved a waiver of the standard 30-day wait owing to Ruslan’s health condition.
On Feb. 8, the paperwork was finalized, and Kelci and Theron got Ruslan out of the orphanage. Amid a rumored airstrike, the family headed to Kyiv to work with another nonprofit, Exodus, to get Ruslan’s visa for travel.
Kelci recalled: “Our driver was racing down roads to try to get us to the embassy in time ... it was five o'clock, people were going home, but one lady and a couple of guards stayed behind.
“At around 5.20 p.m., they called us up to the window and said, ‘Here’s his visa ... it’s a miracle that you got this today.’ We didn’t know at the time, but the next day the embassy was evacuated.”
The family also felt it was miraculous, as Ruslan got the last visa from the embassy in Kyiv. They were then all prepared to leave for the United States the very next morning. Kelci along with Theron and Ruslan arrived at the airport early, checked in for the flight, and passed through security.
However, panic intensified when passport control claimed Kelci and Theron’s court waiver was invalid and that they couldn’t leave the country for the next 30 days. They then went back to their apartment on the advice of the U.S. Embassy, and their facilitation team in Ukraine then hired a lawyer.
Kelci said they were told that there was a 50 percent chance that things would work in their favor.
“We were just praying that the Lord would make a way for us to get out,” said Kelci. “I was really thankful to have my husband there, and our nurse; both of them were much emotionally stronger than I was, and the Lord was there and helped us through.”
“There was a very, very likely chance that our nurse was not going to go with us,” added Theron. “She didn’t get her [renewal] passport until a week before the trip. This is the ninth child she had brought out of Ukraine, so she knew all the ins and outs ... while we’re frantically packing, I was just praying at the same time, ‘God, show us a path, give us a path, help us out of here.”
In the nick of time—with Ruslan’s condition getting worse and them running out of medication—the Jagges’ denial was rescinded, and kind passengers allowed the couple and their sick child to jump the queue for their Feb. 16 flight home.
Landing in the United States, said Kelci, was a “kiss the ground” moment.
The couple rushed Ruslan to the emergency room where he was admitted to intensive care.
“They’ve been treating him for a couple of parasites that cause pneumonia,” said Kelci, speaking to The Epoch Times at the end of February. “They’ve run every test on him; he’s had seizures in the past, so they wanted to check seizure activity, and obviously he was malnourished so they made sure he didn’t have re-feeding syndrome.”
“It’s been challenging,” she conceded, claiming Ruslan may have hospital trauma from his time in Ukraine. “We just try to hold him and comfort him. We’re just trying to learn what makes him comfortable; he’s getting used to us, and so we’re learning together. But any time I see him smile, that is just the best part.”
Kelci and Theron don’t pretend to understand how Ruslan feels but have learned to recognize when he’s in real pain. Seeing him smile, said Theron, is like a “glimpse into the future.” The couple have been told by doctors that Ruslan should make some progress regardless of his condition and, for this, the parents are hopeful.
Ruslan has since been downgraded from the ICU. Kelci, an interior designer, and Theron, a service manager for a truck company, made plans to take him home within days, provided his condition remains stable.
On Feb. 27, the Jagges woke up to devastating news. The head of their Ukrainian facilitation team, Serge Zevlever, a U.S. citizen with dual citizenship, lost his life fighting for Ukraine.
“We would not have gotten out of Ukraine without him; he hired the lawyer for us, went with her to battle with the border guards, and then went with us to the airport to make sure we made our flight in time,” Kelci said. “He was a huge part of the adoption community and helped hundreds of orphans in Ukraine find families.”
In the wake of their profound loss, Kelci, who shares the same birthday as her adopted son, hopes that Ruslan grows up safe in the United States knowing how much he is loved. “Before and after” photos of other adopted children give her hope that the 4-year-old may one day move his body, and communicate, in ways she never dreamed of.
“Just looking back now I see so many miracles, things that shouldn’t have happened; God opened the door for us to get out,” she said.
Both Kelci and Theron hope their story encourages others to open their hearts and homes to adoption. They are both united in raising their three kids with love, as their faith prescribes.
“We’re definitely here to help guide them and build them up through our faith,” said Theron. “It’s not always easy, and we definitely run into it on a daily basis, but being a parent with all of its challenges is still one of the most rewarding things in the world ... they’re such a blessing, and every day is a new adventure with them.”
He added: “There’s real possibility that we could see [Ruslan] flourish in our home with a family that loves him, but also in the care of people that know how to help him grow. We’re really excited to see what that could look like.”
