The First Bump

Ben has been sick this week. High fever but no other symptoms. Viral. So we have been stuck together while we wait for the fever to break. I feel awful when he feels bad. I feel worse when he starts to feel better. He gets bored, testy, cabin fever sets in, and we wait for the all clear to get back to school. Right now it looks like tomorrow is back-to-school day.

He'll go one day this week and then be off for the President's Day long weekend. Whee.

I heard from two IRL friends this week about the current state of Russian adoptions. After as much reading as I could do while Ben pestered me, the best I could glean is that the bi-lateral agreement hammered out last summer (and signed by both countries' reps) needs to be ratified by the Russian Parliament after the presidential elections there in March. Until then, adoptions are slowing. They may even be coming to a halt in some regions.

Ah, the first bump in the road. When we were in the process for Ben there were several bumps along the way. Politics, election year campaigns, public policy, and social issues all influence the state of inter-country adoptions.

There's also the very real issue of wanting to ensure that the children adopted by US families are loved, nurtured and understood. There have been 17 cases of children adopted from Russia that have been abused/killed by their US adoptive parents. In the larger statistics this does not seem overly large for 20 years of adoptions. However, any case of child abuse is horrific. The Mom from the Dr. Phil show who appeared so she could complain about her child ended up facing charges for using Tabasco sauce as a punishment for her son who'd been adopted from Russia. Makes me want even stricter post placement requirements.

Parenting a post-institutional child is not easy. But parenting an in-utero child is not easy either. They just have some different issues.

Ok, where was I going with this post? We've hit a bump. We are going forward as planned because we are kinda pokey with paperwork and have not paid any big fees yet. By spring the agreement is expected to be ratified. We will keep plugging away and hoping for an early spring.