Return to Russia???

Yikes, folks.  There are obviously untruths told somewhere along this line, but this week a Tennessee single adoptive mother returned her legally adopted seven year old Russian son, on a plane by his lonesome, to Russia.

http://www.foxnews.com/world/2010/04/09/russia-urges-adoption-freeze-american-returns-boy/?test=latestnews

The Russian education ministry immediately suspended the license of the adoption group involved- the World Association for Children and Parents.  They also are recommending that the U.S. & Russia come to an international accord before any new U.S./Russia adoptions are allowed.  Apparently the U.S. has refused such negotiations in the past, but there have been other incidents recently of adoption failures even more grotesque that have ended in the fatality and brutal killing of the adopted children.

Is Russia party to the Hague convention?  I'm going to take a moment to look this up...

http://adoption.state.gov/country/russia.html

The answer is no, they are not party to the Hague Convention.  I know this is not an all-encompassing saving grace, but I now have better mental evidence for its usefulness (which I did not doubt, I am just still educating myself as to all of this).

Russia also adopted-out to U.S. families 1,586 children in 2009.  According to the article, there are more than 740,000 children without parental custody in Russia, according to the United Nations Children's Fund, UNICEF.

We need to pray for God's hand of protection on these children!  Also for Him to move in a mighty way to expedite all of those who are waiting for their chance to have a mommy & a daddy to love them and show them Christ-like love and the earthly example of the heavenly miracle of God adopting us into His family, eternally, and just as we are.

Those who wait...

Since I have only recently started re-educating myself as to the Bulgarian adoption process, I am relying on other blogs for my news. I also recently found such a wealth of blogs regarding their own personal trek through the process that I am feeling behind and confused. I have a lot of reading to do!


According to Almost Home, the Ministry of Justice in Bulgaria, the MoJ, is agreeing to strive to share more information regarding children already on their registry of adoptable Special Needs and older children, and also to add many more children to the registry starting this year, 2010. I could summarize, but Almost Home has already done so here:

http://thehowe5.blogspot.com/2010/04/while-we-wait.html

I do not know if this is “good” news or distressing, but AGCI told us that we could apply once our new baby is 9 months old which will be in February 2011, which seems to be about when hope can be applied to referrals increasing. I know that the process is taking years; I just don’t want to think about the length so very much. I hope that the MoJ’s endeavors will (eventually) expedite current waiting families and increase the number of waiting children who are adopted into a forever home. Maybe the Bulgaria to US international adoption statistics will finally gain more than a “modest uptick”…

http://adoption.state.gov/country/bulgaria.html#statistics