Rio Rancho family marks 25 years since adopting four Ukrainian children

The Fourth of July has carried a second meaning for Lori and Joe Rajunas ever since July 4, 2001, when the Rio Rancho couple brought Dasha, Olya, Alex and Eric home from Ukraine. Twenty-five years later, their family story has become a book, “His Plan Was Bigger,” published Jan. 13, 2026, with the first photo of the family together on the cover.

For Sandoval County readers, the Rajunas family’s story reaches beyond one household. Lori Rajunas said she and Joe were first drawn to adoption after watching local “Wednesday’s Child” segments in the late 1990s that featured children who needed families. Joe Rajunas said the process took the family to Kyiv, where they looked through three-ring binders filled with photos of children before making their decision.

The adoption was independent, a route Ukraine no longer allows. Lori Rajunas said all four children had, to some degree, a disability when they joined the family, and none of them spoke English when they arrived in New Mexico. The book revisits those early years, including daycare, first meals at an American restaurant and the small, ordinary moments that shaped life as a family of six.

Over time, those details became part of a larger record of how the Rajunas family grew together. Dasha, Olya, Alex and Eric each spoke positively about the book and about their parents, and Lori Rajunas said she hopes the story will inspire even one other person to adopt. She is offering signed copies directly by email at hisplanwasbigger@gmail.com.

The family’s story also lands in a different adoption landscape than the one that existed in 2001. U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services says adoption by a U.S. citizen does not by itself give a child U.S. citizenship or immediate eligibility to immigrate. The agency also says Ukraine announced on June 11, 2022, that hosting programs could resume in limited circumstances, while Ukraine’s Ministry of Social Policy has said adoption in the country remains impossible for cases not already far along.

That shift gives the Rajunas family’s 25-year anniversary a sharper local edge in Rio Rancho. Their homegrown story now sits at the intersection of international adoption, disability, Ukrainian identity and a war that has changed what family reunification looks like for children and parents still hoping to build those bonds.