Fundraiser To Benefit Newtown Family's Efforts To Adopt Ukrainian Children

NEWTOWN, PA — A fundraiser benefiting a Newtown family's efforts to adopt three children from Ukraine, is set for Saturday, May 9, in Newtown.

"Newtown Gives Back" is hosting a meet and greet fundraiser from 5 to 7 p.m. at Countryside Gallery, 2 South State Street. The event will include light food and wine, as well as artwork and handcrafted jewelry by Ukrainian artist Basia Andrusko.

The fundraiser will benefit the Knight family and their efforts to adopt three children - a 16 year old girl, a 15-year-old boy and an eight year 0ld girl - whose parents died in 2020 before the start of the war. The mother was Jean Knight's niece.

Jean Knight, his wife and his sister-in-law were working on an international adoption when the war started. After the war began, the agencies the family was working with stopped Ukrainian adoptions and the family had to turn to other ways to bring the children to safety.

Knight said he and his wife used savings to bring the children and their grandfather - their caregiver - to Poland. He said the children later came to the United States in 2022 while their grandfather returned to Ukraine. Shortly after that the Knight family obtained full custody through the Bucks County court system.

“Right now we are facing a different challenge,” Knight wrote. “Because of the way that my sister-in-law facilitated the immigration, the kids are not technically legal residents in this country. To remedy that, we want to do more than just become their custodians. We want to adopt them and get them full legal status.”

Knight said the family is now in need of financial help to cover legal and related expenses of an adoption. “This involves a home study, a family lawyer and an immigration lawyer for everything to come together and to give these kids a proper life and a proper future,” he said.