International updates

[scarlett09]

I'm so sorry.

[MrsSz]

While I haven't been a member long and nothing anyone can say could help, I do have just a quick word of hope. My childhood best friend was adopted a few days after she was born. Her adoptive parents are the most amazing people in the world. This past summer while vacationing as a group, her dad and I had a long talk. They had been trying to get pregnant for 7 years and it just didn't happen for them. They looked into adoption and tried that for 2 with nothing. They decided that they would spoil the neighbors kids and their nieces. About six months after that a coworker was talking to her sister and she was told her 15 year old niece was pregnant. After discussing it at length, the teenage girl made the most courageous decision to give her daughter up for adoption. Because this girl's aunt worked with my friend's Mom she knew how much she wanted a baby and how wonderful a mother she would be. From the most unlikely of places amazing things can happen. Don't loose faith and hope because somewhere out there is someone waiting just for you. I don't know if I saw this on here of if it was a discussion at work, but http://blog.facebook.com/blog.php?post=399186952130 have a look at this for what it's worth. My heart goes out to you and yours.. <3

[hanginginthere]

I am so sorry that this is happening to so many people who would make wonderful parents. We adopted out of Utah. Our agency told us the failure rate was more like 10% in Utah. We adopted at birth. Rights were signed 24 hours after birth and irrevocable. Had our birth mother changed her mind and parented we would NOT have lost our money- it would have been put into our next placement. We were careful to only get shown to birth moms who had informed the birth father and had gotten him to sign to avoid any issues. We said any race, but did ask for a girl. If anyone would like the name of the agency just message me and I would be happy to share it with you. The agency was non-profit so it was possible during the lean residency years for us....Our adoption is semi-open so letters and photos through the agency at her request....she did not want open adoption....

[GrayMatterWife]

Oh, yeah. This type of reasoning should definitely help with the whole "human rights violator" image. Using needy children as footballs in retaliation for a trade bill insult--super-classy.

http://news.yahoo.com/ban-americans-...170241459.html

[DCJenn]

Yep- Same BS, different year. The Russians do this it seems every year. Sucks for those in the middle of the process.

J.

[GrayMatterWife]

Disgusting. Really.

[Thirteen]

Ugh, he disgusts me.

[Meenah]

This is just awful.

[SuzySunshine]

My heart is just breaking for those families that were already in the throws of this. I was reading an article this past weekend of a family who have a little boy that I think is 5 or 6 and they've been working for years to adopt his biological brother. I can't even imagine and I'm sure there are thousands just like them. So very very sad.

[MrsK]

One of my former law partners adopted two daughters from Russia. He didn't have any difficulty adopting the first but ran into all kinds of trouble when he adopted the second. His wife had previously been married in Brazil and her husband deserted her so a Brazillan court granted her a divorce. This was not a problem when they adopted thir first daughter. A couple years later, when they went to Russia to get their second daughter, the Russian officials decided that her Brazillian divorce was invalid and therefore her American marriage to her second husband was invalid too. They would not allow her to adopt the little girl unless she and her second husband were validly married. She had to legally divorce her second husband, hire a PI to find her first husband in Brazil, obtain signed divorce papers from the first husband, and then remarry her second husband. All the while, they were afraid that the first adoption would be anulled. It was an awful ordeal.

[ladymoreta]

Just heartbroken for everyone involved.

[MrsSz]

The assholes who comment,"just adopt from another country" or even better,"adopt American, there are tons of kids here who need homes" should be punched in the throat. The gross ignorance of such an immensely complex (legally, financially and emotionally) issue should keep the hell quiet.

Agreed. I wish I could STFU all of them!!

[DCJenn]

The worst are the families in the middle. I was surprised that Putin signed it, even with his buddy in charge of "Children's Rights" or whatever the hell it's called.

I can tell you that in 2005 when we took Nikolai, the director told us that there would be a replacement in his crib by the end of the day. As bad as our foster care system is, it's loads better than Russian orphanages. Nikolai was in a GREAT orphanage with caring loving staff and we still had to give him synthroid because of his malnutrition when we got home.

It sucks. I can see it quietly being repealed though- those orphanage directors can't handle any more kids and even if the 14000 waiting Russian families all adopted two kids, it would barely make a dent in the number of kids languishing.

J.

[Ethan1989]

The issue of Ukraine and Russia will continue until settlement