December 01, 2005
Give me an F
The F is for frustrated, fearful, fed up. Too many families left Ukraine in November with no children. Imagine that! They were told that there were no available healthy children out of the tens of thousands who live in orphanages. If you look at some blogs of families there now, you will see a lot of very sweet, young children playing in orphanages. Can they really all be unavailable??
Here is what I think the Ukraine system needs: Investigators to review all files of "unavailable" orphans and aggressively seek out their biological parents and determine which children are truly abandoned. Get the family members to sign off their parental rights if they know they will never, ever be back for their children. It's a sad reality, but so is leaving a child in a place with no parents, no special attention, no real love, no family bonds, no room or toys of their own, no hope for the future. Put them in the available category. Give them homes! Americans keep trying to do just that.
Is there more to this story? Do the regions in Ukraine not want us to adopt their children? Maybe some feel that way and they're known for being very difficult to deal with, but certainly not all of them.
In the fall, the adoption center decided to stop accepting new dossiers from U.S. families until they receive the 500-plus annual adoption reports from families that already adopted. Last week, they decided to accept dossiers in limited circumstances, like for children over 10, special needs kids and siblings of previously adopted children. This is a good sign. But it's not enough. What's the point of going there if they tell you there are no mostly healthy young children available?
The adoption community and the US Embassy are watching the system closely, hoping the new process that the president declared a few months ago will actually make things much better. Is it in place yet? Does anyone know for sure?
Americans may feel powerless, but we always feel that our voices can be heard. Can they hear us in Ukraine? Are they listening?
For the children's sake, let's hope so.
Posted by Laura at December 1, 2005 02:20 PM
Posted to Tara's Story
It sure is heartbreaking to think of the way some of those kids are growing up. Sure they have food, shelter. But no real life of their own, no adults that are consistently there, providing unconditional love and acceptance. What kind of psyche does that create? Maladjusted people..with fragmented pasts, adults and friends who came and went. No one who really nurtured them, got them ready for life. Ukraine can step up and get people in place to set up adoptions. There must be some qualified people who can straighten out this system because its surely gone awry. Step up for the kids, they have basic human rights. Some of these are the rights of each child to a dignified, and productive existence.
Posted by: karen wiz at December 3, 2005 09:30 PM