I heard the story on NPR going to work the other morning. Russia has effectively halted adoption of children by foreigners by implementing a new registration policy for adoption agencies. We were already familiar with the real reason which is a growing nationalism that breeds resentment in this area. Though I'm beginning to understand what it's like to be ashamed of your country, it's impossible to imagine what the Russians have been through. But this is a bad sign because it places political and cultural idealism over compassion for human beings in need.
We got a little taste of this during the last trip in 2003 when our facilitator, Tatiana, got into an altercation with one of the caretakers at the orphanage. I remember the caretaker said, "You're taking away all our best children". Tatiana was very upset about this attitude because she knew that foreign adoption was the best (possibly only) option for these kids - especially the older ones.
According to the story the situation is now even worse with nearly 800,000 orphans overloading the system. They brought home the point that these children are not orphaned in the classic sense. Most of their birth parents are still alive. It's often the deadly embrace of poverty and alcohol that eventually puts them there as it did for Alyona and Serozha (Jack).
The thought of so many kids suddenly having far fewer options is heart breaking. To this day I think about the kids standing despondently in the doorway while we dressed our children for their trip to the US. What will happen to them?
