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The international adoption community is as small as it is vast sometimes. That is, when you are part of it -- as our family is -- you wind up knowing lots of other people who are, too.
So it was painful to learn that another avenue for families who want to adopt internationally is now closed -- perhaps only temporarily. Russia, which has been a large and stable program has halted foreign adoptions, as of last week.
Among the articles written about the situation was one in Christian Science Monitor, which shows how one family caught in the bureaucratic bind is trying to cope and raises the disturbing possibility that the change in adoption rules is at least partly motivated by politics.
At present, all the foreign-based adoption agencies that had been doing business in Russia have lost their accreditation. The program is officially being revamped; no timetable is given. Last year, 3,700 Russian orphans were adopted in the United States.
Before this development, Russia was the third most frequent choice of U.S. families adopting children internationally -- right behind China, which is tightening its requirements, and Guatemala, which is also undergoing an overhaul. That leaves many families trapped in a process that looked so hopeful just a year ago, but now is a nightmare. Some have referrals for children they cannot bring home; others have been elbow-deep in paperwork for months only to have the door slammed in their faces.
The Monitor article speculates that while the Russians are publicly pointing to cases of abuse by adoptive parents, that anti-American sentiment -- independent of the adoption issue -- is really behind the new clampdown. I find that apalling, but I remind myself that I'm the one who always has counseled potential adoptive families that we have to play by the rules of the foreign governments. We are, in fact, asking them for a favor.
I can only imagine the pain of the families part way through their adoptions. When we adopted our Little Chairman, there was a sudden delay that threw me into a panic. It turned out to be only a two-month hiccup before the adoption process got back on track. I hope these families are that lucky.
Meanwhile more than a quarter of a million Russian children wait in orphanages, and domestic adoptions -- which have improved in Russia recently -- still can't hope to absorb them.
Among Chairman's pals are many children adopted from Russia, including a little boy abandoned by an alcoholic mother on the streets. He came to his new family a bundle of raw emotion and pain a few years ago. Now with proper therapy, hard work, persistence and bucket loads of unconditional love, he is emerging as a joyful and charming child. I can't even bear to think what the outcome would have been for him, if the Central Florida couple who love him so desperately had been denied the chance to bring him home.
It makes me think of a bumper sticker I saw recently: "When the power of love transcends the love of power, we will be at peace."
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