Thanks for the cards and calls of support. Unfortunately, we do not have any breaking news to share. But, there are some positive developments in the works. Yesterday, we learned Russian officials mailed out several release letters for American families waiting to complete adoption proceedings. We also have confirmation that some of these letters were for children in the Rostov region. With any luck, we'll get a call sometime soon with a court date.
In the meantime, we've been interacting with other families still waiting to travel back. One of those families is from Wisconsin and we've been working with them to see what can be done through diplomatic channels to bring these delays to an end. Today, I met with Senator Richard Lugar's staff to further enlist his help. They have offered their support and we hope to have updates soon regarding what that means for us and for hundreds of other American couples and Russian children in the same predicament.
Following is a letter we hand delivered today for our new friends from Wisconsin. I thought they did a nice job telling the broader story of what's currently going on. So, their letter follows. Thanks for keeping Bo and Ellie in your thoughts and prayers.
Dear
Chairman and U.S. Senator Richard G. Lugar:
We appear to be caught in the middle of a political situation that is affecting thousands of other American families like ours and more importantly, affecting innocent children. The issue is related to adoptions of Russian children by US. Citizens.
Our adoption agency has informed us that there have been unprecedented delays that appear to be affecting primarily U.S. citizens. Many of us have met our children and filed the appropriate paperwork and have been waiting for court dates with no progress and with no information on when this will be resolved. Many others have had delays meeting their children.
There were some recent changes in the adoption process in Russia. At the end of the year, Russian President Putin signed into law changes to give Russian citizens a greater chance to adopt children domestically. This change was to lengthen the time Russian children are on a registry (from six months in total to eight months) before they can be released for foreign adoption. However, foreigners who had already made their first visit to meet their child were told that they would be grandfathered and not affected by this change. Despite this, we are not getting our court dates.
In the meantime, these children are in orphanages waiting for all of us to come get them. Many of these children are older and must be confused and saddened as to why their families have not returned for them. In addition, the number of children going into orphanages has not slowed down while the number of children being adopted and moved out of these orphanages has. The slow down and growing number of institutionalized children cannot be healthy. It seems to be a win/win to ease this situation by letting these children go to loving families.
We are requesting your help in raising awareness of this issue and in communicating to the Russian government through your diplomatic channels. We also just learned that President Bush is scheduled to meet with President Putin in late February. We know that there are many issues of extreme gravity on his agenda to discuss with President Putin, but we urge you to ask President Bush to bring up – however briefly – the issue of intercountry adoption between Russia and the United States. Our request is very basic – please request that President Putin reaffirm his support of the Hague Convention on Adoption and instruct the accountable individuals to conduct adoptions in accordance with the laws of the Russian Federation. We are not asking for special privileges and agree that the first opportunity to adopt should be given to Russian citizens. But the actions of the Russian government so far this year has already sentenced thousands of children to a longer time without a family.
Sincerely....
