International adoption has never been easy. It takes time, money, and commitment to bring a child from another land into a new family.
Then last year a woman from Tennessee put her adopted 7-year-old son on a one-way flight back to Russia, and a difficult process got a whole lot harder for a lot more Americans.
Russia banned adoptions to America for the better part of a year. Other nations began requiring much more careful screening and post-adoption follow-up visits for prospective families.
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If any good has come out of the Hansen scandal, it's been to improve the education and training that adoptive families undergo. Parents already go through extensive background checks - criminal and financial - home visits and counseling. Now, the scrutiny is tightening and parents can expect social workers to drop in on them and their new families for as many as five years after the adoption.
"Countries have become more stringent in their criteria" for screening potential adoptive parents, said Julie Bolles of Catholic Charities of Tennessee, which conducts home study visits for a variety of international adoption agencies. "Agencies have become more stringent about educating and preparing adoptive parents."
Talking about adoption, birthparents, abandonment, race, and China with my kids. That's not all we talk about -- but reading this blog, you'll think it's all we do!!!!!
Sunday, November 13, 2011
Adoptions More Difficult Since Artyom Sent Away
Touting improved screening and post-adoption scrutiny, which is as it should be, which is very good news:
The story is nothing new...adoptions are more difficult for many reasons which are discussed frequently by people who are knowledgeable about the subject. I don't include this TV station in that group, however, since the claim that Russia stopped adoptions for the better part of a year is patently false. Adoptions were going through all along. Russian adoption is decentralized and handled by each region; regions can shut and open according to the whims of each minister of education. This just seems like a reporter is creating a non-story to do a puff piece regarding adopted kids.
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