Locals “Heartbroken” as Russians Halt Adoptions in Crimea UPDATED
“NATO is condemning a visit to Crimea today by Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Though that’s happening nearly six thousand miles away it’s already stopped a Tallahassee based medical mission to help orphans there and brought all adoptions to a halt.
Margaret Bass just got back from Ukraine last month. She has helped more than a dozen orphans there get adopted and find homes in the United States.
She says the Russian takeover of Crimea has now closed the door for all adoptions to the U.S.
“The children know that their families are coming for them, they’re waiting for them,” Bass said. “There were families in process of adoption of children in Crimea, there were families actually in country that were adopting their children that were not able to finish their adoptions,” Bass said. “It’s heartbreaking.”
Bass works as an international adoptions consultant at An Open Door Adoption Agency in Thomasville.
CEO Walter Gilbert says families in our area who have adoptions pending at other orphanages in the Ukraine are rushing to get there and try to get their prospective children out before Russia has a chance to takeover any other regions of the country.
“They’re getting on the first plane over there, as soon as the central authority will allow them in the country to go and get their children, they’re going,” Gilbert said.
Tallahassee attorney Joyce Dove has been visiting orphanages in Crimea for 18 years, has facilitated nearly 200 adoptions and has helped to coordinate medical missions for the past nine years.
Their surgical team had to cancel its trip in March and 60 surgeries scheduled for orphans there.
“We were going to leave on Wednesday when the Russians invaded on Sunday, we had all our surgeries lined up, we were carrying about half a ton of medical supplies … and for everyone’s safety … we cancelled,” Dove said.
Dove says the surgeries for children with congenital defects can mean the difference between adoption or life in an institution.
“What do you bring most?”
“Mostly hope over there, hope for the kids to have another chance at life,” Dove said.
Rotary clubs in Tallahassee help to pay for the medical missions, they are led by a Tallahassee doctor and often include medical students from FSU.
Neither Dove nor Bass is confident they’ll be able to return to Crimea anytime soon, but both vow to keep traveling to orphanages in other parts of the Ukraine.”
Locals “Heartbroken” as Russians Halt Adoptions in Crimea[WCTV 5/9/14 by Julie Montanaro]
REFORM Puzzle Piece
Update: DOS has issued an alert on May 16,2014
“Alert: Update on New Adoption Referrals for Ukraine
The U.S. Embassy in Kyiv has received new information from the Department of Families and Children that the Ukrainian Government is considering a resolution to temporarily suspend adoption referrals to Donetsk and Lugansk regions for the duration of the ongoing anti-terrorist operation. Cases already in process in Ukraine should not be impacted by this proposed temporary suspension of new referrals. The Embassy is monitoring the situation closely and will continue to provide updates.
The U.S. Embassy remains open and is providing full consular services including issuance of immigrant visas to adopted children. Consular officers at the U.S. Embassy are actively engaged and in direct communication with those adoptive parents who may be affected by the current situation.
U.S. families in Ukraine completing an intercountry adoption are encouraged to communicate directly with the U.S. Embassy in Kyiv at KyivAdoptions@state.gov. Additional questions regarding intercountry adoption may also be directed to the Office of Children’s Issues at AskCI@state.gov. For more information regarding the current situation in Ukraine and the latest travel warning please visit the Bureau of Consular Affairs’ website at travel.state.gov.”
Update 2: DOS issues UAA Notice for Ukraine
See http://adoption.state.gov/country_information/country_specific_alerts_notices.php?alert_notice_type=notices&alert_notice_file=ukraine_12 and pasted Below:
“Notice: New UAA Country Specific Guidance for Ukraine
The Department of State recently provided new country specific guidance for intercountry adoptions from Ukraine. This guidance reflects that as of July 14, 2014, the Intercountry Adoption Universal Accreditation Act of 2012 (UAA) affects the provision of adoption services in non-Convention adoption cases, including those from Ukraine. The published guidance explains the impact of the UAA on adoption cases in Ukraine, taking into account the role of Ukrainian public authorities in the intercountry adoption process. More information is available on the UAA Country Specific Guidancepage and the country information sheet for Ukraine.”
You know, it seems to me that it USED to be standard adoption ethics that you NEVER told kids that you were going to adopt them until AFTER you got all your legal approvals in place. There seemed to be universal agreement that it was cruel to get kids’ hopes up only to have them dashed if the application to adopt was denied. This was presented as SOP by Helen Doss in ‘The Family Nobody Wanted’– published in the 1950s!
But today’s Adoption Gospel participants merrily ignore this wisdom to promise kids that they’re “coming back for them” and will be their “forever family”. Given that countries are continually closing, why would caring PAPs toy with children’s hearts in this way?
Apparently the people running Russian and Ukrainian orphanages haven’t read that book because they almost universally introduce the PAPs to the kids as “your mama and papa” at the very first meeting and those kids who are old enough to understand, latch onto the idea very quickly.
It’s wrong, cruel and flat-out irresponsible to introduce oneself (or to allow oneself to be introduced to) a kid as “mama” and “papa” before it is a legal fact — adoptions fall through all the time. Why on earth would you get a kid’s hopes up like that?!?
Honey, PAPs walking into an orphanage in these countries are usually totally befuddled by the language barrier and have exactly no say in how the social worker or orphanage director announces them to the child. I agree that it is very unwise, to put it mildly, but it is nonetheless how things are done in that part of the world. Perhaps you could undertake a charitable project to distribute copies of Ms. Doss’s excellent book to all of the directors of Eastern European orphanages.
PAPs have options that include a translator, including:
1) tell the translator that is accompanying them to their first meeting with the orphanage director/kid how they would like to be introduced to the kid
2) hire a translator to accompany them to the orphanage to make their wishes known (and, frankly, so they can chat with their soon-to-be-kid)
3) spend $5 on WordLens (or some other app) that will autotranslate a sentence in English to whatever language the kid/orphanage director speaks without using any data.
Haha! Way to put them in their place! Adoptive parents do NOT go into a foreign country and tell the authorities how to do their jobs or what to say to the children. They show up and do whatever they are told to do for fear the authorities won’t approve their adoptions. And even if the authorities DIDN’T introduce these foreign “visitors” as Mama & Papa, these kids aren’t dumb. They already know when they’re ushered into a room away from the other orphans to “visit” a couple of strangers who can’t speak their language, these people are going to be their mama & papa. You’d have about as much luck keeping this information from the children as you would holding back the tide. Can’t. be. done.
Re: “…They already know when they’re ushered into a room away from the other orphans to “visit” a couple of strangers who can’t speak their language, these people are going to be their mama & papa…”
Whatever the kids suspect, whatever the orphanage staff have told them, the PAPs don’t have to make things worse by promising the kids “We’re coming back for you.”
Ethical orphanage directors and personnel wouldn’t tell kids that this was a done deal, anyway. Books written BEFORE the evangelical adoption boom started make it clear that promising kids anything before the paperwork clears was NOT considered right or fair.
FWIW, my understanding is that requiring the PAPs to make multiple visits in-country before being allowed to take custody is a recent innovation in the world of international adoption. Just a few years ago, “one and done” was the standard. Someone– I think it was Rally?– stated that the multiple visits requirement was instituted by sending countries hoping to extort more economic benefit from the deep pockets of crowdfunded PAPs.
There’s no reason that I know of to think that these multiple visits serve the interests of the children themselves. You aren’t going to screen out abusers, because PAPs are– as you pointed out– going to be on their best behavior while under the eyes of social workers and orphanage staff, lest the adoption be denied.
So it’s not worth trying? PAPs shouldn’t make sane, seemingly-reasonable requests of orphanage directors? The world would really, truly stop spinning on it’s axis of PAPs requested to be introduced as “Bob and Sandy”??
It’s better for a child to have people visit for weeks and then suddenly *surprise* find out that they will be walking out the door tonight now that the signatures are in place? It seems better for long-term stability and attachment if a child thinks that every nice couple they meet forever afterward could be waiting to swoop in and take them home?
Because it’s better to waltz in to a first meeting, introduce yourself as mommy and daddy and decide not to adopt the kid?
In Russia (pre-shutdown), Ukraine, Bulgaria, etc. PAPs are required to meet with the kid X times before being permitted to sign an intent to adopt them letter.
In Ukraine, Latvia, etc. kids aged 8 and over must consent to the adoption, and are required to write a letter saying they wish to be adopted by the Smiths/Joneses/etc.
The humane thing for a PAP would be to introduce themselves as a POTENTIAL adoptive family, not an insta-we-are-your-forever-family well before court.
It is the GROWNUPS responsibility not to break the heart of a kid in an orphanage, who has already been abandonned at least once.
It’s gotta be heartbreaking for the kid who was told that their new mommy and daddy would love them forever and will pick them up and take them to America (or England or wherever) in a few months… who never show up again. Like the Russia/Cambodia/Nepal/Vietnam adoption shutdowns.