Adopting from Russia

Here is the article form Adoptive Families that I was telling you to read.

Adopting from Russia
What's it like to adopt from Russia, and what changes may lie ahead? AF spoke with experts in the field. BY EVE GILMAN

Since Russia formalized an international adoption program in 1991, more than 50,000 children have found families in the U.S. The program ran smoothly through 2004, when Americans adopted an all-time high of 5,862 children from Russia. Although Russia remains one of the most viable programs, numbers have declined in recent years, to just 1,857 adoption in 2008.

The process calls for a high degree of motivation on the parents' part. Families must travel to Russia at least twice (it's becoming more common for parents to travel three times), and paperwork requirements can vary on a case-by-case basis. "Adopting from Russia is not like adopting from China, where you send in your dossier and that's it." says Kim Bernstein, manager of the Russia program for Wide Horizons for Children , in Waltham, Massachusetts. "In most regions of Russia, you continually update your paperwork until your child comes home." Judy Strigger, director of international adoption for The Cradle, in Evanston, Illinois, adds, "The program is very stable from an overall perspective, but in the day-to-day minutia, it's highly variable."

Russia's Orphans
Nearly 750,000 children in Russia are classified as orphans, though, as Berstein points out, "the vast majority still have legal connections to their birth families." And more of the children who are legally freed for adoption are staying in Russia as a direct result of the government's efforts to encourage domestic adoption, including a public relations campaign to debunk adoption myths and financial subsidies to Russian adoptive and foster families. The efforts have been successful on a large scale. "Last year, for the first time, more children were adopted by Russian citizens than by families in other countries," notes Tome DiFilipo, president and CEO of the Joint Council on International Children's Services (JCICS). "I think that's a good thing for children."

Age and Health of Children
No one would dispute the idea that children finding homes in their country of birth is positive, but it changes the face of intercountry adoptions. "For families here, the big deal is that the number of kids available for adoption is decreasing. And the youngest, healthiest kids are being adopted in Russia," says Strigger.

"In the last year, we have seen a dramatic change in the health of the children who are available for adoption in Russia," adds Bernstein. "I don't think it would be an overstatement to say that nearly all of the kids have at least moderate health risks, beyond the standard delay in growth and development that we used to see."

Agencies are also seeing a change in the age and gender of children available for adoption. The agencies AF spoke with allow parents only to request a child younger than 18 months. Agencies are also less willing to permit families to specify gender. "We tell families that, the more preferences you have, the longer you'll wait," says Alla Goncharova, Russia program director for Adoption Associates, in Jenison, Michigan. Boys age three and older are most in need of adoption.

Parent Requirements
Married couples and single women can adopt from Russia. Russian law doesn't specifically prohibit single men, but few, if any, regions will approve them to adopt. Most agencies set eligibility limits regarding parents' ages based on the preferences of adoption officials in the regions they work in.

Social workers commonly indicate that a family "can parent a child with minor, correctable problems" in the homestudy. But Goncharova points out that a child may have undetected psychological or health complications. "We have to make sure the family can handle unpredictable problems" she says. When medical information is available, Stigger says that is must be taken with a grain of salt. "Some of what we worry about, like alcohol exposure, might not be on record because a mother's alcoholism isn't always known," she says. Medical terms are also used differently in the U.S. and Russia-or even in different regions of Russia.

Such concerns have led adoption professionals to call for a more careful approach to homestudies. The change is already underway. "JCICS is working with the U.S. government to develop specific homestudy language to indicate that parents are appropriately educated and prepared for any physical or mental health issues the child may have," says DiFilipo.

As part of the homestudy, adoption agencies must also verify the parents' fitness to raise a child. "Russia has gotten much more restrictive on health and mental history and criminal records," says Bernstein. She advises people with questions about their backgrounds to discuss the specifics with an agency. For years, adoption professionals have speculated that Russia will begin mandating psychological testing for prospective parents. Though several regions and adoption agencies require such testing, it's not yet stipulated by Russian law. Talk about closer scrutiny of parents was renewed in late 2008, after Miles Harrison, a father who caused the death of the toddler he'd recently adopted from Russia, was acquitted of charges. At the time this issue went to press, no one could predict what stricter guidelines might entail.

The Adoption Process
After turning in a dossier, families receive an "invitation to travel" and meet a child. If a married couple is adopting, both parents must make the trip. Russian law prohibits parents from receiving any identifying information about the child they are referred, so many parent travel "blind".

At the orphanage, parents are allowed to take photos and videos of the child, and ask questions. "We encourage our families to hire bilingual pediatricians in Russia to assist with a medical evaluation," says Goncharova.

Families generally wait two to five months to make a second trip, for their court date. It's hardly an idle wait, as most parents must gather additional information to present to the judge. The paperwork can be extensive, ranging from updating their homestudy based on the child's medical condition to submitting new documents.

Both parents must travel to appear in court and officially gain parental rights to the child. Russian law prescribes a 10-day waiting period after the court date before the new family can leave the country. Historically, nearly all judges waived this waiting period, but this is now very rare. The agencies AF spoke with noted that most of their families chose to fly home and make a third trip, due to the high expense of staying in Russia for those 10 days. (Moscow is currently one of the most expensive cities in world to visit, and families should figure $10,000 to $25,000 in travel expenses into a total adoption budget of about $40,000 to $55,000.) Only one parent needs to return for the third trip.

Every family must conclude their adoption journey in Moscow, to obtain the child's visa. U.S. Consular Affairs previously issued visas in two business days, but in March, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services took over the procedure. At press time, it was unclear whether the timeline for the final step would lengthen.

The Russian adoption process depends heavily on the region the child is coming from. Some regions have been known to provide photos or brief medical backgrounds before the family's first trip. Some ask for excessive paperwork updates before the court date, others require one parent to remain in country for the 10-day waiting period. These variations, says DiFilipo, highlight why "it's critical that prospective parents utilize a service provider who is very familiar with the laws and procedures of the regions they work in."

Focus on Post-Adoption
Children adopted from Russia retain their birth country citizenship until age 18, and must be registered in the U.S. with the Russian embassy. Russia requires post-placement reports from adoptive families for three years after the child comes home.

In general, Russia has been looking more closely at post-placement. In the past decade, at least 15 Russian adoptees have died in the care of their new families in the U.S., and each case received media attention throughout Russia. Concharova notes a pattern-all of these tragic deaths took place less than a year after the child came home-that seems to call for better support for families through the transition, in addition to tighter screening of the parents' mental health.

Differences in Russian and American culture also cause friction. Stigger says that the not-guilty verdict in the Harrison case was confusing to Russians because their legal system doesn't allow for acquittal when something has clearly gone wrong. Attitudes toward child care also differ. "In Russia, it is normal for a new mother to take at least one year of leave, and the law provides for that. But in the U.S., most women take just two to three months. It's difficult for Russian to understand this," says Goncharova.

Aside from the expected tightening of parent and agency requirements, experts don't see dramatic changes on the horizon. DiFilipo says, "Our assessment is that Russia will continue to be a viable option-not for parents, but for children to find homes through international adoption." EVE GILMAN is the editor of Adoptive Families.

For more international updates visit adoptivefamilies.com/internationaladoption.