Economic/History Lesson 101

We've been patiently waiting for our rough draft of our home study... patiently waiting...patiently waiting... Jenna, our social worker, had told us she usually tries to get out the rough draft within 2 weeks of of home visit. It has been 3 weeks. I think the hold up may be with our background checks. We sent the information she requested the first week of January, but she had not received it at the time of our home visit, so she wasn't able to get that in the works until we gave it to her again when she was up here. Waiting oh so patiently...(if it's in print that's how I feel, right?!)

The plight of the Russian orphan is almost unbelievable to me. Russia is not a 3rd world country, but the care of the children read something like a 1900 horror novel. Abortion is the birth control of choice in Russia. Birth control is available, but expensive. Abortions are free; in fact, Russia's abortion rate is 70% higher than the US. (Can you imagine what our abortion rates would sky rocket to if it becomes part of the nationalized health care???) Unfortunately, human life and family is not a high priority in Russia. For those who do carry their pregnancy to full term, many then have to give up their child because there is not enough food to care for him. From what I've been told, that is the majority reason why children are in the orphanages. I can only imagine the emotions of having to give up your child because you cannot care adequately for him and hoping and praying that he will be adopted into a loving and caring family. It so reminds me of the stories of the Jewish families who would beg German families to take their children so that they would not have to endure a concentration camp--what an ultimate sacrifice.

Because of Russia's low birth rate, they are facing a population crisis. Putin decided in 2006 to give incentives to women to have another child--$9200 (that would be equal to about $36000 in the US). That didn't do a lot, so in 2007 or so, he started giving incentives to families who would adopt. This money could only be used for education or housing. I read in a recent article written by a journalist in Russia, that the already over run orphanages were experiencing a new problem because a large number of Russian families would come in and adopt, and after they got their bigger house/apartment or find out that they do not qualify for a bigger house, and end up returning the child back to the orphanage! The child was just a pawn! Does that just do something to your insides like it does me?

There are approximately 750,000 orphans in Russia. Because of the strict laws and paperwork Russia has enacted in the last few years, financial incentives for Russian families, and an increase in nationalism in Russia, fewer and fewer intercountry adoptions are happening.
The US accounts for about 40% of the intercountry adoptions and Europe about 60%, but even those statistics leave an unbelievable amount of children in the orphanages. You can tell from the graph the number of plummeting adoptions from Russia.

Please join us in prayer as we ask God to bless the birth mother of our little boy. We probably will not be able to find out the circumstances of why her child is in the orphanage, but she did choose life when the alternative would have so much easier. For that alone, we are grateful and desire a 100 fold blessing on her life.