Wednesday, May 6, 2009

Request

This post is a break from the activities of last week, but it's something that has been pressing on me.

Steve and I are asking for prayers that the 10 day waiting period prior to finalizing the adoption be waived.

Russian law requires a 10 day waiting period before parents can legally take custody of adopted children. The option to waive the waiting period is up to the judge in each region. Until recently, the waiting period was being waived quite frequently.

Due to recent actions, which you can read about here, the waiting period is not being waived. So what does this mean?

  1. For the 10 days following the court date, adopted children must remain in the orphanage. Additionally, the orphanage retains the power to regulate how often the adoptive parents see the children, which includes the possibility of not at all.
  2. The waiting period prolongs the time before the children get access to more advanced and specialized medical care, which some children may require.

This also adds to the expense of adoption as it would require more time in country.

Americans adopting Russian children are not looked upon very kindly by Russians because of the situation mentioned in the above linked article.

We are asking you to pray that the 10 day waiting period be waived, not just in our adoptions, but for all adoptions of Russian children. Please join us in prayer, and help not only us, but other families bring their babies home sooner.

2 comments:

j steg said...

The guy I know came back to the US after the court date anticipating the 10 days, but they called him 3 days after the court date for the release, so had to go right back out there. I think the time might vary randomly. I trust God will be in control of the timing for you guys whatever it may be. I'm still praying for zero days.

Anonymous said...

I'm really proud of you guys for going through all this. It seems like a very difficult process.