Capricious Ukraine

Word is getting out that this coming Tuesday, June 2, the parliament of Ukraine, the Verkhovna Rada, will be voting on a bill to cease allowing all foreign adoptions, except from Russia. Being this far away, it is difficult to know exactly what is behind it. There is certainly an element of national pride. No government likes to see its children shipped out to foreign countries. There is also an element of pro-West vs. pro-Communist/Socialist politics in Ukraine. The fact that Russia would be the only foreign country allowed to adopt seems very suspicious. As if that weren't bad enough, if the law passes, they say it will take effect immediately, and any families currently in Ukraine to adopt that haven't had court yet will not be able to continue. Think they wouldn't do that? Last year, they suddenly passed a law forbidding unmarried people from adopting. It went into effect immediately and all affected adoptive parents were not allowed to adopt. Our facilitator at the time told me about the women he saw at the SDA crying and pleading their cases to no affect. It is saddening to imagine having established a relationship with a child then being told they could not adopt. Now, we are on the verge of an even more serious development. Personally, I see nothing good coming from this, only bad, so let us pray that it does not pass and that President Yuschenko does not sign it if it does.

Here is an article in English from the Verkhovna Rada's official website.

The Fumia's are in Odessa now to adopt Grisha, a classmate of our son, Sergey. We put several pictures of him on our blog while we were at Orphanage #4. While we were in Odessa, I made sure I gave him a hug every day and I told him it was from Ashley. If this law passes next week, they will not be able to complete their adoption. It will be devestating, as they have been waiting 2 years to do this. Of course, they are not the only ones there right now. Among others, the Hoffman's are also there adopting another classmate of Sergey's named Lena. This is potentially a very grave situation. Ashley Fumia describes it in this post.

We were also minorly affected by the capricious politics of Ukraine last year. Though, it didn't seem minor at the time. About the time we finished our dossier, Ukraine passed a new quota on foreign adoptions for the year, limiting 2008 dossiers to 1,453. We did not make that cut and thought we were shut out for 2008. As it turned out, by the time October 2008 came around, they learned that they were coming in under the quota, so we suddenly found out that we made it in. We were fortunate; we had about two weeks to prepare, but some families had as little as 3 or 4 days notice to be there for their SDA appointment.

Nothing seems to ever be certain for long in Ukraine regarding adoptions. Please pray for this situation.


Here are a few pictures I took on a foggy morning in Kiev on Wed. Feb. 11 2009.

This is the parliament building, where the Verkhovna Rada, or Supreme Council, meets. On this day, they were in session and "friendly" policemen told me were I was allowed to walk. There is an Orthodox cross with a picture of the Madonna in front of the courtyard at the main entrance.




For momths, protesters were camped out in Independence Square, or Maidan as it is known there. At night, musicians would perform in front of these huts singing politcal songs. Basically, they are saying that Yuschenko's economic policies are a failure and they are demanding change in the national government.



On this day, Khreschatyk Street was closed off and a large, organized political rally was taking place in front of the Kiev City Hall. There are three main political parties at the national level, pro-West President Victor Yuschenko's Our Ukraine party, the socialist Prime Minister Yulia Timoshenko's Bloc Yulia Timoshenko, and the communist Victor Yanukovych's Party of Regions. None of them are getting along at all, and the Verkhovna Rada is the laughingstock of Ukraine because of their impotence. It appeared that there were hundreds or thousands of people that came in busses, as they were parked along the street forming a sort of barricade. Many of their bumpers were literally touching.



There were many colorful flags on display at the rally. Of note in these pictures are the white Bloc Yulia Timoshenko flags, the red Communist flags, and the blue and yellow Ukrainian national flags.

Adoptions News in Ukraine

You may be interested in these interviews with Ludmila Volynets, the director of the SDAPRC, and her boss, Yuri Pavlenko, the Minister of Ukraine for Family, Youth and Sport. I found this article in English over at Sonia Paz Baron-Vine's blog.

Some highlights:

Pavlenko:

• The number of adopted children has finally exceeded the number of bereaved ones.


• In 2008, the number of children adopted by citizens of Ukraine climbed above 2,000; 14 of them were HIV-positive.


• 1,500 applications have lately been filed by the Ukrainians, intending to adopt.


• According to new laws that took effect Dec. 1, 2008, officials at all levels are now personally liable for every particular child’s destiny.


• The Ministry is critical of facilitators (middlemen).


• International adoption can by no means be prohibited, but they clearly give a higher priority to national adoption.


• They have no children less than three years old available for adoption.


• Foreign families adopt either children over 7 years old or severely disabled ones.

Volynets:

• The Hague Convention would be a great benefit in the matter of a full-fledged protection for children adopted by foreign families, and counteraction to corrupt facilitators.


• Her primary objective is to make changes in mass consciousness of Ukrainian society.


• 14% of Ukrainians think themselves ready to adopt orphans into their families.


• Pressure is being put on her personally by foreigners who deem the state’s adoption policy inadequate.


• Prospective adoptive parents do not very well comprehend that the SDA is not to be subject to their whims.


• The SDA’s primary objective is to find a family for the child, not a child for the family.


• The SDA is subject to law, it does no good to complain to them about the laws set by the Parliament, "we are to obey the law and not to discuss it".


• She thinks it is a mistake that Ukraine is not a signatory to the Hague Convention on adoption, but they will be soon.


• Regarding corruption complaints, as private persons, facilitators are protected better than public officials.


• There are more complaints against facilitators, than against public officers; most of the complaints are filed by foreign citizens.


• The facilitators sometimes do not inform the adoptive parents of the child’s disabilities, or vice versa.


• Ukraine needs adequate laws and time so as to establish order and eliminate the abnormal profits drawn by facilitators.


• She is certain that no corrupt practice can ever be exercised in the SDAPRC.

Adoptions News in Ukraine
Sonia Paz (Pachi) Baron-Vine

So, You Want to Adopt a Little Kid?

Recently, Ukraine released new information regarding the 2008 quota for foreign adoptions. If you will recall, back in Dec. 2007, they issued the infamous Decree #4939, which limited all foreign adoptions to 1,453 dossiers, or families. The exact number of children this represents is unknown, but probably close to that number. By March of this year, the backlog of dossiers to submit by foreigners reached this limit, and no amount of pleading by those that didn't make it in would make them budge. That's why we got stuck all year. Now, as the end of 2008 nears, they have tallied up the number of dossiers they have processed so far, and have observed that they will actually end up under the quota. Therefore, they are allowing more dossiers to be submitted at this time. The exact number they will allow is unclear, but estimates range from 200-400. It is clear, however, that they will cease accepting dossiers on Nov. 27, regardless of whether the quota is reached. Also, if the quota is reached prior to Nov. 27, all submissions will cease.

The Ukrainian government also provided statistics of how many children are available for adoption to foreigners. You must realize that not all children in orphanages are available for adoptions. In fact, I have seen estimates that only 10% are available for adoption. There are several reasons for this. First of all, Ukrainians get first dibs on the children. When a child enters an orphanage, for the first 14 months they are available to Ukrainians only. Healthy babies are the most likely to be adopted by Ukrainians. Second, many, many children are in the orphanages for economic reasons, and still have family that loves them and visits them. Third, the Ukrainian government is having some success with their foster care system recently, especially for the younger children. Fourth, siblings will rarely be adopted separately. If an older sibling refuses to be adopted, or no one has any interest in him or her, then the younger ones will very likely not be adoptable. So, just keep this is mind when you see orphanage pictures with all those cute little kiddies.

The new official statistics presented the data broken down by age and health. There are 4 age groups, and healthy or unhealthy. The original document can be found on this US Embassy page. I have made a graph so that you can see the data visually.



The first thing you will notice is that there are about 25x more older children available than younger ones. Second, they claim that there are no children under 3 yo available for foreign adoption without "serious health problems". I have often been amazed at the blogs of people who went over there and then were told that there were NO healthy children. See for example, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and here.

If you are going into your SDA appt. blind, looking for a very young child, then you can see for yourself the chances of getting a healthy child, if that is your desire. It's not impossible, just difficult. You must be prepared emotionally before you go, and both spouses need to be on the same page regarding what kinds of health problems are manageable.

Adoptions for Free

For Americans:

OK, well, you know nothing's free. But here's how you can spend as little as possible on your Ukraine adoptions: Adopt multiple kids.

Why? Because, at this time there is an $11,650 tax credit per child. This is not a tax deduction, but a tax credit. Money that is subtracted directly off the tax amount you owe. If your taxes are less than the amount, you can carry the credit forward up to five years until it's gone.

Facilitator fees for 2 children are most likely not 2 times the cost for one child, and 3 children would not be 3 times the cost. For example, with our faciliator, the fee is about 50% more for two, but the tax credit is fully double. And the fees are less for older children.

If you're using an adoption agency, then you're paying extra for... I'm not sure what. We are going independent - it is cheaper. I know that in Canada an agency is required. And maybe your state requires one.

The point I'm trying to make is that if money is an issue for you, then consider more than one child, especially older ones. That is good for you and them.

Note: I'm not a tax advisor. Please consult your tax attorney or accountant.

For more info see:
How to claim the adoption credit
Official IRS info

Easter Bunny

In this famous Dilbert comic strip, the Pointy Haired Boss is telling the employees about this new policy at the company. They will pay the engineers $10 for every bug they find and fix in their software. Now, of course, you can understand the reasoning. They want to encourage and reward the employees for fixing problems. Unfortunately, it is not very well thought out, and as the employees realized, they can just create bugs intentionally, then fix them and earn the bonuses.

This is an example of Unintended Consequences.

A couple of months ago, I posted about UNICEF regarding international adoption and the unintended consequence of dooming children to never being adopted.

Now recently, the Kiev Post brought to our attention a new proposed program of the Ukrainian government that would pay money to families when they have children. I recently posted on the population loss that Ukraine has been experiencing. On the surface, like in that Dilbert cartoon, it seems like bonus money might be a good way to encourage families to have more children, and provide the means to support them. Dig a little deeper, however, and you realize that this is probably not a good idea. Kelly Baehr explains it better than I ever could. This kind of program can actually increase homelessness and the number of social orphans.

Well, a politician can never go wrong with his constituents if he hands out money like the Easter Bunny. But I do hope they can come up with a better solution than encouraging people to "write themselves a minivan".

New Adoption Law, er, Adopted

Yesterday, President Yushchenko signed into law new restrictions on adoptive families. The new law now disallows single parents, and the age difference between the older of the two parents and the adopted child cannot exceed 45 years.

The law went into effect immediately upon signing and Oleg tells us that the SDA will enforce it vigorously. Of course. Wow even if prospective adoptive parents are in-country at this time, they are out of luck*.

Frankly, I'm not all that surprised. A few years back when we were briefly considering Holt to do an international adoption, we were made aware of more restrictions in many countries than even this new Ukrainian law. See, for example, South Korea.

There is a loophole, though, if you are a married couple affected by the new age provision, and the younger of the two parents is within the 45 year limit. The younger parent can do all of the paperwork, with the older parent merely consenting to the adoption. That has always been possible, but now would be required if you're in this situation.

I don't have any doubts that a two-parent family structure is best for kids. The breakdown of families is an American tragedy. However, I don't agree that it would be better for an orphan to be denied a family for this reason. I myself never knew my father and it was not the end of the world.

I do hope that there is one good positive side effect of the age thing, though, and that is that maybe more older kids will get adopted.

See also Kelly Baehr's post.

You can go to the U.S. State Dept. website here to see adoption requirements for many countries.

*Update: Oleg informs us that this is indeed happening. He has personally witnessed tears at the SDA from single women who had already visited their children, and now cannot adopt them. Such pathos.