January 4, 2007
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Miscellanea..
Today Kirstin leaves for a quick trip to Honduras, checking in with the church down there that her own parish helps. She has been instrumental in getting both a milk-distribution program going (IIRC) and a school uniform program as well (by law children must wear uniforms to school, but many families are too poor to afford them), and wants to see how they are faring. She should be home on Sunday, I believe. Please pray for travel mercies for her!
Yesterday Charles emailed that they were underway once again, that Cyprus was a “fun port”, and that the next port isn’t too far away so he should be able to call again before too long. I don’t recall if this will be the final stop before they head back across the Atlantic to Groton, or if there’s another one after this.
This is likely to have what the newspeople like to call a “chilling effect” on international adoptions from Russia; according to a Russian-born attorney now living in Florida:
The new law “About Additional Support of the Families With Children”
was passed in Russia last week. It is officially published
yesterday, December 31, 2006, and came in force today, January 1,
2007.This law stipulates that a family having a second, third, etc. child
(birth or adopted) will receive large financial support from the
Government. The amount is 250,000 rubles (About $10,000) as a one
time payment. It is a very big sum of money for Russian families
(for some low-income families it is equal to 19 years income). This
amount will be indexed proportionally to inflation and in 5 years it
will be about 350,000 rubles.This law has already made an impact on Russian society. Hundreds of
people have already announced their desire to adopt children.
According to the Russian media, last week alone most orphanages had
visitors (Russian citizens wishing to adopt), which was more than for
an entire year.Many people that had previously abandoned their children already
informed the orphanages that they want to take them back into their
custody.Although this law is not about international adoption, it can impact
international adoption. More children, especially children that are
relatively healthy, will likely be adopted by Russian families.Some women that were due to deliver babies in December are delaying
their labor by taking medications (that is of course very risky for
children). Some women took a risk to deliver their babies
unsupervised at home, to conceal the fact of childbirth and then will
claim that the child was born after January 1, 2007.It is quite probable that some people will adopt children only for
their own personal enrichment, but this is now a law and it will work
for the advantage of Russian citizens.Yes, I would agree it’s quite probable some people will adopt children for their own personal enrichment.
Lemme tell you, that is a huge sum of money for Russia….simply enormous. And a woman gets it for each child she has after the first? Well, the good news is it should lower the abortion rate significantly (currently there are more abortions than births in Russia).
Were I looking to adopt an young’un, though, and especially a relatively healthy one, I’d forget about Russia now. Wonder if we’re going to see adoption agencies dropping Russia from their lists?
Except that Alex and Charles will be on opposite sides of the world, it’s like they’ll be passing in the night….Alex sails on the Blue Ridge on January 23, while Charles is scheduled to arrive back in Connecticut shortly after that.Mercy Maud, but it’s been quiet around here the past few days. Makes for a serene life but a dull blog, I fear. BTW, for those who like pralines, I’ve posted my favorite praline recipe (including photographs!) over in the Cookbook links.
Until I can think of something to say….
Comments (4)
Very interesting article. Also brings (back) to light how awful the economy is there. Do you know of any reputable children sponsorship programs for kids over there? As I’ve shared some of the tidbits on your blog I get a question now and then, along the lines of how can I help. Let me know and I’ll be happy to spread the word.
I would hope that the people of Russia would be pleased as punch to be able to have the $ to raise children now. I would hope that they aren’t usng these poor-dear babies for $. It is a travesty if these children end up as street orphans. It sounds all warm and fuzzy but in practice I fear the worst, but maybe that thecynic in me. Thank God you have Demitre.
I would love a new baby because I think Steve and I are finally mature enough to raise a child. Isn’t it pitiful when your kids are half raised and you relise how immature we were raising them in the beginning. Heck, I was a non-Christian democrat when I had Jacob (back then the Russian thing would have sounded fabulous). When I had Maxwell I was a democratic arminian.( the world still was all fuzzy then). The world may have been fuzzy but so was my brain. It is amazing how the word of God can change things around. Now I’m a cynical reformed mostly level headed chick. haha.
Well, on the bright side, one can only hope that poor and middle class decent Russian folk will now adopt some of those orphans so that their only hope isn’t to be adopted out of country. Not that I want to ignore the downside, but silver linings and all that.
Oh, absolutely there’s a bright side. It’s dreadful to think of people feeling forced to place their child(ren) in orphanages due to an inability to properly provide for them…now they will be able to do so, which is excellent.
Make no mistake, it’s certainly better for Russian children to remain in Russian families if possible. We’re not really in favor of denuding Russia of its children.