On December 28th, Americans were shocked at the horrific news of president Vladamir Putin of Russia signing a bill to ban Americans from adopting from his country. This came as a stunner to me and doesn't even feel real. The optimist in me keeps telling myself that this will just go away and this unthinkable political statement will be quickly overturned. The reality, however, is that it just may not.
President Obama signed a bill called the Magnitsky Act which punishes Russian citizens who have been seen as violating human rights laws, and prevents them from coming to the U.S. owning land or assets in the U.S. and some other things. In retaliation and having nothing to do with this bill, Russia set into motion an amendment to an already existing law in their country, issuing a complete ban on Americans to adopt Russian orphans.
This political move by Putin baffles most and has outraged the world. In addition to outrage is total pain and fear of approximately 46 families who are nearing the completion of their adoptions of children they have already committed to and met. Children who have been rocked by their new parents, given photos of and promised that they would be back to take them home. I can't even comprehend what this all means and fathom what kind of heartbreak these families are experiencing right now. In addition, there are about 200 families who are in the early process of adopting and have already committed to children in Russia. My heart breaks for them and I find myself trying to escape this reality by pretending like it's not really happening.
It has been our hearts desire to adopt a baby boy from a Russian orphanage. Our upcoming move to Maryland had postponed the process, as we were advised not to move while in the adoption process as it could set us back or even cause us to lose our adoption. So in the mean time, we have been fundraising so that we are better prepared financially for when we started the process in February. Our hearts screamed at us to start the process at the moment we got the promoting to adopt back in June, but circumstances including our move and also a hefty price tag of around $40,000 for the adoption process put a damper on our hopes for instant gratification. Looking back now and considering these terrible turn of events, we realize that we could have been one of those families being denied their child if we had started before we were ready. I'm not sure what to think about this. I can't feel fortunate because I am sick for those who were not fortunate. I can't be happy as I think about what this means for so many children who were teased with the dream of a family and escaping the nightmare they are currently living. Really all I feel is disgust.
So what does this all mean for our family? Will we still be fundraising? Will we still be adopting? I would like to assure all of you that this isn't stopping us. Our goal of rescuing an orphan was set for Russia, but if we can't save one from Russia, we will save an orphan somewhere else in the world. There are millions of orphans in the world living in conditions you and I as Americans couldn't even fathom. From severely malnourished children in Uganda and Ethiopia to babies abandoned in India, there are so many developing nations who have orphan epidemics. What we truly are praying for is that Russia will overturn this law and once again open up their country to Americans adopting their orphans.
We are moving to Maryland in February and have raised to date nearly $7,000. We are working on knocking down our debt and are seeing the passage of this new law as well as a few other events as signs that we need to hold off a bit and take our time to make sure all of our ducks are in a row. The closer we get to our goal of $40,000, and the longer we have to pay off our personal debt, the quicker and smoother our process of adoption will be when it comes. When we started thinking about adoption and the amount of money we needed to come up with, we felt an overwhelming burden of stress immediately strap on to our shoulders. We have experienced many hurdles in the past 7 months and so many ups and downs. We never realized that there would be so much emotional turmoil that would accompany this process. We are learning though. We are growing, and despite any low moments or any bigger set backs like this bill being passed, we are certain that the Lord is driving this bus and will lead us to our final destination. Perhaps we will take a detour or two, but we will arrive. I promise you. You will see a success story posted on this site. You will watch us travel to a country and meet our child. You will watch us bring him or her home and receive the family that God had planned all along.
Please pray for the orphans in Russia and all over the world. We cannot save all of them. We really can't even put a dent in the problem. But we can help where we can. If it means just saving one life. One precious life, isn't it worth it? I look at each of my three children and think about how much they are worth to me and what I would do for each of them. Would I travel across the world three times for them? Would I pay $40,000 for one of them? Absolutely! Would I want them to be malnourished and living without a mommy or daddy? Would I want them to live in a crib all day? Never in a million years. So if I know that there is a child right now living in the world somewhere in these conditions and all I have to do is come up with this money and make this very scary and unpredictable step of adopting to stop it from happening to him, will I? Yes. Absolutely.
Please continue to pray for our family and our journey. Please continue to support us in any way that you can. Please help raise awareness about the injustice that is being done by President Putin and pray for a speedy resolve.
Thanks for sharing this great article with us.
ReplyDeletehttp://desertsafariidubai.com/
While there's no doubt the ban is political, it is also about a lot more than politics:
ReplyDelete- 19 dead Russian-born kids. If "only" 19 American kids had been killed by their Russian adoptive parents, don't you think a law banning Russians from adopting would be passed to be 100% certain there would be no 20th dead US kid?
- the US violated the adoption treaty first, by failing to allow Russian officials consular acces to an abused Russian born boy in fl (maxim Babayev). If our govt cannot be bothered to hold up its ends of a treaty all of two months after in came into force, why should Russia's?
- Russia's children's ombudsman has been threatening to end adoptions permanently since at least 2010; he reiterated this in July 2012 when in the states and denied access (yet again) to the ghastly ranch for kids (where're American forever mommies and daddies exile their Russian kiddos.
- Americans aren't entitled to adopt Russian kids - it's a privelege that can be revoked at any time for any (or no) reason. Russia's a sovereign state).
I really do hope the ban gets lifted - and soon. But to a large extent our govt brought this upon itself.
I just wanted to say hi & you're not alone. We too were/are hoping to adopt from Russia. We too are using this change in plans to shore up our finances for the process. We too will not give up our plans to adopt regardless of what Russia does. I look forward to reading future posts. Especially the part where you bring your child home. :)
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