Adoption - Russia and Kazakhstan?
February 7, 2010 by Adoption Information and Laws
Filed under More Adoption Answers
I was wondering for those that have adopted from Russia and/or Kazakhstan more recently can answer some of my questions below.
1. How many trips did you have to make? and how long were each?
2. Did both parents have to be there for the one or both trips the entire time?
3. Did you feel the process was organized? or does that just depend on your agency that you work with?
4. Did you feel comfortable in the regions you were staying during all your trips?
5. Did any of your children have any serious medical problems that were found out after you returned home?
6. Do you know if you can adopt siblings or just more than one child at once? or do they need to be separate adoptions?
7. Post Placement - I see there are reports that are needed for the first three years… but is it true a report is needed every year until the child is 18? can you do those reports each or does a social worker need to?
Adopting From Kazakhstan
Adoption Feedback: I haven’t adopted from Russia, but I recommend this site to get good information from international adoptive parents:
Informed Adoption Advocates
There is a lot of good information there.
Adoption Feedback: “Adoption - Russia and Kazakhstan?”
how about foster care here in the US instead of tearing away a kid’s culture?
Adoption Feedback: My experience is with Russia in 2001 and 2005… but I think I’ve kept pretty up-to-date with the current process.
1. How many trips did you have to make? and how long were each?
For our first adoption, 1 trip of 11 days. For our second adoption, two trips. The first trip was 7 days, the second trip was 23 days. (Many families now are taking three short trips of, say, 7 days, 5 days and 5 days, instead of two longer trips.)
2. Did both parents have to be there for the one or both trips the entire time?
Both parents need to meet the child before court and appear in person at the court hearing. (Both of these things could be done on the second trip if necessary.) My DH left shortly after our court hearing to get home to our son and to save his time off work so he could stay home with us when we first got home.
3. Did you feel the process was organized? or does that just depend on your agency that you work with?
I felt the process was organized, but there’s a lot of “hurry up, then wait.” Both of our court dates were assigned with very short notice (I was told this is somewhat normal), which meant a lot of scrambling for visas, reservations, making arrangements at work, etc. Good communication with your agency is vital though.
4. Did you feel comfortable in the regions you were staying during all your trips?
I felt very comfortable in both regions we stayed in (Moscow and Krasnoyarsk). It really helps to learn a little bit of the language though. We found if we were willing to try, others were very willing to help.
5. Did any of your children have any serious medical problems that were found out after you returned home?
Both of my children had “moderate” health issues that were undiagnosed/unmentioned in Russia. They are not anything that would have prevented us from adopting them, but it would have been nice to know in advance, so we could have had resources/doctors lined up.
6. Do you know if you can adopt siblings or just more than one child at once? or do they need to be separate adoptions?
Sibling groups are definitely available. Some regions (but not all) also allow the adoption of unrelated children at the same time. Other regions require that unrelated children be adopted separately.
7. Post Placement - I see there are reports that are needed for the first three years… but is it true a report is needed every year until the child is 18? can you do those reports each or does a social worker need to?
The standard rule in Russia is that post-placement reports are required at 6 months, 1 year, 2 years and 3 years post-adoption. They must be completed by a licensed social worker. The court has the jurisdiction to require additional reports if they wish. (I’ve only heard of this happening a few times.) Your agency might also make additional requests. The agency we used for the first adoption wanted monthly updates for the first year. The agency we used for the second adoption wants yearly updates until the child turns 18. These agency-requested updates are something you can do yourself and are pretty informal.