Russian President Putin has just signed into law a ban on Americans adopting Russian orphans.
It is really unfathomable why this has happened. I don't believe it is simply a matter of wanting to end adoptions by Americans, but it related to a much bigger political issue intricately tied to the cooling relationship between the U.S. and Russia. However, how can a person not help but judge Russian leaders' views of their own orphans when they choose to use adoptions as a manipulative political tool?
American adoptions o f Russian children, however, have never truly been a major force for addressing the Russian orphan crisis (we adopted 930 children in 2011, a dramatic drop from the all-time-high in 2004 of almost 6,000 adoptions). By most counts, there are hundreds of thousands if not millions of true orphans in Russia.
I recently read a blog that claimed the drop in international adoptions and the difficulty that families must go through to adopt is a wake-up call from God intended to help us realize that we need to help orphans much more. This doesn't make sense to me since, in the past 8 years, American interest in adoption and orphan care, and our collective response to the orphan crisis, have increased dramatically.
Adoption, whether it be intercountry adoption or local adoption (Russians adopting Russian children) is not likely going to be the main answer to the orphan crisis. If anything, current difficulties with adoption could serve as a call for people to broaden their understanding of how best to address the orphan crisis and to address the orphan crisis more holistically.
I'm realizing this more with the closing of Russian adoptions. How do we truly help the orphans in Russia? Even when Americans were adopting 6,000 kids a year, was that really the answer? We need to think outside the adoption box. We need to pray and support people in Russia who are caring for biological families there to keep them in tact wherever possible. We need to consider how to best influence cultural issues that see aged-out orphans as 2nd-class citizens. We need to speak out against the lack of nurturing care in institutions, and we need to support those in-country who can influence change in orphan institutions. The absence of nurture and kindness in orphanages in Russia is widespread and devastating to the children.
Perhaps an unusual bit of encouragement that I see in all of this is that the Russian adoption ban is making national headline news in the US, and many people have been following the story with keen interest. Last week, when the lower house approved the law, I was skeptical it would advance any further. After all, this was not the first time the Russian lower house had passed a ban - it happened several years ago when we were waiting for our boys' adoptions to be completed. I remember scouring the internet years ago for bits of news from Russia. I learned about the Duma and Putin's views and how the legislative process work over there I was worried and scared and prayed sincerely for resolution. And I wasn't able to explain this to anyone. It was so far from people's frame of reference that it would take hours to explain. But now that the ban in in force, maybe more people will become aware of and better understand the magnitude of what is going on over there.
In consideration of that, please pray for the families who are in mid-process with adopting their children. The news reports 52 children who are in-process of being adopted, but I suspect the number is larger in reality. After we met our sons and returned home to wait for the call to return, we saw these boys as our sons. We bought clothes for them, set up their rooms, talked about activities to do with them, and had their names and faces in our prayers and daydreams. They were our sons, and yet they were not with us. Please join me in praying for the families who are now stuck, and for their children, that they will somehow be reunited
It is really unfathomable why this has happened. I don't believe it is simply a matter of wanting to end adoptions by Americans, but it related to a much bigger political issue intricately tied to the cooling relationship between the U.S. and Russia. However, how can a person not help but judge Russian leaders' views of their own orphans when they choose to use adoptions as a manipulative political tool?
American adoptions o f Russian children, however, have never truly been a major force for addressing the Russian orphan crisis (we adopted 930 children in 2011, a dramatic drop from the all-time-high in 2004 of almost 6,000 adoptions). By most counts, there are hundreds of thousands if not millions of true orphans in Russia.
I recently read a blog that claimed the drop in international adoptions and the difficulty that families must go through to adopt is a wake-up call from God intended to help us realize that we need to help orphans much more. This doesn't make sense to me since, in the past 8 years, American interest in adoption and orphan care, and our collective response to the orphan crisis, have increased dramatically.
Adoption, whether it be intercountry adoption or local adoption (Russians adopting Russian children) is not likely going to be the main answer to the orphan crisis. If anything, current difficulties with adoption could serve as a call for people to broaden their understanding of how best to address the orphan crisis and to address the orphan crisis more holistically.
I'm realizing this more with the closing of Russian adoptions. How do we truly help the orphans in Russia? Even when Americans were adopting 6,000 kids a year, was that really the answer? We need to think outside the adoption box. We need to pray and support people in Russia who are caring for biological families there to keep them in tact wherever possible. We need to consider how to best influence cultural issues that see aged-out orphans as 2nd-class citizens. We need to speak out against the lack of nurturing care in institutions, and we need to support those in-country who can influence change in orphan institutions. The absence of nurture and kindness in orphanages in Russia is widespread and devastating to the children.
Perhaps an unusual bit of encouragement that I see in all of this is that the Russian adoption ban is making national headline news in the US, and many people have been following the story with keen interest. Last week, when the lower house approved the law, I was skeptical it would advance any further. After all, this was not the first time the Russian lower house had passed a ban - it happened several years ago when we were waiting for our boys' adoptions to be completed. I remember scouring the internet years ago for bits of news from Russia. I learned about the Duma and Putin's views and how the legislative process work over there I was worried and scared and prayed sincerely for resolution. And I wasn't able to explain this to anyone. It was so far from people's frame of reference that it would take hours to explain. But now that the ban in in force, maybe more people will become aware of and better understand the magnitude of what is going on over there.
In consideration of that, please pray for the families who are in mid-process with adopting their children. The news reports 52 children who are in-process of being adopted, but I suspect the number is larger in reality. After we met our sons and returned home to wait for the call to return, we saw these boys as our sons. We bought clothes for them, set up their rooms, talked about activities to do with them, and had their names and faces in our prayers and daydreams. They were our sons, and yet they were not with us. Please join me in praying for the families who are now stuck, and for their children, that they will somehow be reunited
1 comment:
I once heard it said that caring for the poor is like rocket science! If it were only as simple as providing for their physical need, but the reality is it goes much deeper and solutions are difficult! I would say orphan care, community development that prevents orphans, and adoption is the same way!!
My husband and I are just torn up about what these 52+ families are going through. I cannot even imagine the mourning they are in!! It has to be some of the deepest known!!
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