Russia halts all adoptions to United States

This story just broke in the Los Angeles Times:

Russia halts all adoptions to U.S.

By Megan K. Stack

Russia froze all adoptions to the United States on Thursday, satisfying simmering national outrage over a towheaded 7-year-old's rejection by his adoptive Tennessee mother who put him back on a plane to Moscow.

A U.S. delegation is due in Moscow in coming days to discuss the crisis with Russian officials. Russia is pressing the United States to sign an agreement that would lay out new conditions for the screening of would-be parents, and would also bind adoptive parents to a strict set of agreements on the treatment of the children.
Russia last week suspended the work of World Assn. for Children and Parents, the adoption agency that paired the child with the Tennessee family.
But ever since the child turned up waiflike in the Moscow airport with nothing to explain himself but a letter from his adoptive mother calling him "mentally unstable," anger has boiled steadily in Russia.
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev told ABC News that rejecting the child was "a monstrous deed . . . not only immoral but also against the law."
The boy is now in a Moscow hospital, where doctors have reportedly found nothing aberrant in his condition. Just six months after adopting him, Torry Hansen wrote that he was violent, unstable and "psychopathic," and that she felt misled by the Russian orphanage workers who vouched for his mental health.
Since his return, the boy known as Artyom has become something of a cause celebre in Moscow, with multiple Russian families stepping forward and offering to adopt him.
But many more children continue to languish. Russia is home to more than 1 million "orphans," many of whom have a surviving parent who has been deemed unfit.
Last year, 1,586 Russian children were adopted by American parents, topped only by adoptions in China and Ethiopia, according to State Department figures.
But the adoption of children by American parents is deeply sensitive in Russia, provoking a touchy mix of protectiveness, wounded nationalism and distrust of the West. To many Russians, the country's inability to care for its children is yet another mark of shameful post-Soviet decay.
Cases of adopted children being harmed, or even killed, in the United States are reported in the state media with grisly detail and an overtone of outrage.
More than a dozen adopted Russian children have been killed by their adopted U.S. parents since 1996. With each death, public outrage has swelled among Russians.
Earlier this week, the speaker of Russia's upper house of parliament called for a moratorium on all adoptions to foreigners.
"A special agreement should be signed guaranteeing that the state maintains proper control of adopted children," Sergei Mironov told reporters.

Night Sweats

For the last three months I have been having nightly episodes of waking up drenched in sweat. The night sweats don't follow nightmares or anxious dreams. I always try to listen to what my body is telling me. I visited the doctor yesterday, and he was perplexed. He ran a panel of tests, all which came back normal. It's always nice to hear from the doctor that there is no sign of a malignancy, or problem with kidneys or liver.

We think it has to do with my birth control pill. I'm not on the pill for the usual reason. Becoming pregnant for me is virtually impossible. I take the pill to slow down the growth of my endometriosis, and to keep from having the excruciatingly painful monthly cramps. Since I've gone back on the pill, I've gained a bunch of weight in my belly and breasts. And the night sweats started.

I feel like if you start ignoring your body, it speaks up even louder, until you have no choice but to listen. I know there is more involved here than just the pill. Just trying to figure out what it is.

Ethopian Adoption Changes, Part Deux

I keep expecting to get an email from our adoption agency telling us that the "two trip" change was just a mistake, and it's back to one trip. But it seems this change is permanent. As soon as I got the confirmation email, I started looking up on Orbitz how much a round-trip ticket to Addis costs. It's between $1000-$2000 per person, with many layovers in places like Toronto and Frankfurt. If we take Delta (where we have oodles of miles saved up from living in Atlanta) then we stop in The Netherlands on the trip back. Alex and I are thinking of maybe sticking around Amsterdam a few days and seeing the sights. Make lemons out of lemonade and all that.

The tough part will be meeting our child, and then having to say goodbye for a few months. I can't imagine how that is going to feel. I know adoptive parents doing international adoption in other countries have to go through that process. I wonder how they manage. I guess I'll learn...

NEW RULES FOR ETHIOPIAN ADOPTION

I wasn't sure I was allowed to write about this, but I looked online and several other blogs mention the change. My adoption agency contacted me today, and families who get their dossiers to Ethiopia after May 1 (and we fall into this category) will need to make TWO trips to Ethiopia. The Ethiopian courts have ruled that prospective adoptive parents must now attend in person the Federal Court Hearing.

There are so many ramifications from this change. I fear that many families who would have choosen Ethiopian adoption will now decide to adopt elsewhere because of the expense and hassle of two trips to Africa. There are SO many orphans in need in Ethiopia, and this could be tragic news. Because of this, I am even more steadfast in my decision to adopt our child from Ethiopia.

I will write more when I receive more information.