Two little boys, from Russia, with love Wednesday, 11/30/05
By Nicole Young
Staff Writer
With economic turmoil throughout Asia and South America, hundreds of children are finding themselves in orphanages wishing for only one thing: parents and a place to call home. One Robertson County couple, Philip and Belinda Krigel, decided to help, so they adopted two Russian boys, Alex Brandon “Losha,” 3, a nd Spencer Anatoli “Tolik,” 2, through an international adoption agency earlier this year [More...]

UNICEF agrees with national adoption laws Thursday, December 1, 2005
Alecs Iancu
Inter-country adoptions should be used as a last solution for an orphan or an abandoned child who cannot be given a proper home otherwise and, from this point of view, Romanian laws respect the Convention for children rights and international legislation currently in effect. "Authorities must find solutions for children in their native country where their natural families are. This is why the first concern of authorities has to be the abandoned child's reintegration in its biological family," according to the regional UNICEF director, Maria Calivis. [More...]

President criticized child policy November 30, 2005
At a meeting dedicated to child protection, Victor Yushchenko criticized executive institutions for failing to implement child policy. He believes state officials particularly neglect teenage orphans and homeless children, the President's press office reported. “Unfortunately, executive bodies have done almost nothing to protect children’s rights since we first met in July,” he said. [More...]

Improve press coverage of bad adoptions November 30, 2005
By Adam Pertman
NEW YORK – Did news accounts about weapons of mass destruction help set the stage for the war in Iraq? Do television reports about earthquakes or genocide stir Americans to action? The bottom line: Are the media as influential as they sometimes appear to be? [More...]

Ukrainian orphans to perform ‘The Shoemaker’ Monday, November 28, 2005
By Andrew Giermak
Forty orphans from Berdyansk, Ukraine, ages 7 to 16, will be presenting the classic Christmas musical, “The Shoemaker,” at Wilroy Baptist Church Monday, Dec. 5 at 7 p.m. Their visit to Suffolk is one stop during an two and a half week long trip to North Carolina and Virginia sponsored by Operation Blessing International (OBI). [More...]

Free orientation on international adoptions Monday, November 28, 2005
Hand in Hand International Adoptions will conduct a free orientation on International Adoptions on Monday, December 12 from 7 to 9 p.m. at the Jorgenson Family YMCA, 10313 Aboite Center Road, Fort Wayne. [More...]

US Congress requests repeal of Romania's adoption law Tuesday, November 29, 2005
By Rupert Wolfe Murray
A statement was recently made by the Helsinki Commission, within the US Congress, that Romania should repeal its child rights legislation and allow international adoptions to resume. What is particularly interesting about this statement, and a series of others over the last few years, is that foreign governments seem confident they can change Romanian legislation whenever they object to it. What I find worrying is the thought, "maybe they can". [More...]

Adopting parents cop staff abuse November 29, 2005
Caroline Overington
AUSTRALIAN couples have been actively discouraged from adopting children from overseas by bureaucrats who have made the process unnecessarily frustrating, hostile and expensive. Liberal backbencher Bronwyn Bishop, who released a parliamentary committee report into overseas adoptions yesterday, said there was "an attitude among many workers in these welfare departments that adoption is wrong". "We need an attitude change, big-time," she said. [More...]

THE FACE OF ADOPTION Mon, Nov. 28, 2005
Couple wait, wonder if boy will join family
By MARC CABRERA
Herald Salinas Bureau
Dr. Cheryl Bigger always taught her children to look out for others, accept people for who they are and see beyond one-dimensional barriers such as race, color and nationality. It's a lesson she learned from her grandmother, who adopted her as a child and raised her as one of her own. It's a lesson she instilled in all of her children, both biological and adopted, as well as the ones she simply took in off the street or whose parents she counseled for various mental health or drug programs [More...]

Saving the children through inclusion Mon 28 Nov 2005
Lucy Cooper
ON the eve of the launch of the European Union's monitoring report on Bulgaria, Save the Children produced their own "Alternative Comprehensive Monitoring Report on Bulgaria 2005", focussing on issues of child welfare. The report highlights three key areas for attention:
* children in institutions and the development of alternatives to institutional care
* education, a key to social inclusion: the on-going educational segregation of children with disabilities and ethnic minorities
* adoption. [More...]

Bridging The Gap Nov 27, 2005
By CRISTINA LEDRA cledra@tampatrib.com
Soaking wet and shivering, Amanda, Ariana and Britney Jensen huddled together at a River Ridge swim meet, chatting and giggling until they realized one of them had just missed an event. Once each of them dropped into the pool later on, their teammates were understanding, cheering and clapping en masse for the three girls who had joined their Royal Knights family just a few years ago. [More...]

Home Sought For Orphan Brothers November 27, 2005
By PENELOPE OVERTON, Courant Staff Writer MIDDLETOWN -- At age 11, Yuri was the quiet, serious one, his younger brother's protector and the one who longed most openly for a mother and father to hug and nuzzle and claim as his own. Under Yuri's vigilant gaze, his 8-year-old brother, Leonid, was free to play the clown. Leonid ran around the house gobbling bananas and melting hearts with his wistful blue eyes, a gut-busting giggle and long eyelashes. [More...]

Brothers make their house a home 11/27/05
Couple completes family by adopting Ukranian boys
By Toya Graham The Herald
This holiday season will be extra special for Gina and Donnie Chapman. The Rock Hill couple recently returned from Ukraine with two new family members, Yuri, 12, and Tolli, 6. "We didn't realize how great having children would be," Gina Chapman, 33, said as she looked across the room at her new sons, who are brothers. "We didn't have a clue. We knew something was missing, and it was them." [More...]

2 area women tell tales of adoption 11.25.05
By Kate Harrington
There are many ways to give the gift of life. One can give blood, become an organ donor - or adopt a child. Adoption agencies across the nation are asking people to focus on that last option during the month of November. Although National Adoption Month was not officially established until 1990, the concept of celebrating adoption came about in 1976 with the creation of National Adoption Week. These days, throughout the month of November, participants strive to teach others about the many adoption options out there. According to the U.S. Department of State, about 21,616 children were adopted through international adoption in 2003, while the Department of Health and Human Services reports that about 51,000 children were adopted in from the U.S. foster care system in 2002. While these numbers are impressive, there are still 119,000 children in foster care awaiting adoption. [More...]

Kazakhstan about to ratify the Hague Convention on Intercountry Adoption 25.11.2005
ASTANA. November 25. KAZINFORM. /Nazym Shakhanova/ Kazakhstan is getting ready to ratify the Hague Convention on Intercountry Adoption, head of the civil registry offices department of the Justice Ministry legal services administration Zaida Nurabayeva told a briefing within the Astana international conference. [More...]

Summerville service celebrates adoptions Wednesday, November 23, 2005
By Keith Fraley
Special to The Post and Courier
Summerville - Families gathered in Azalea Park to celebrate a choice they'd made that changed their lives forever, some many years ago and some much more recently. Encircled by lighted candles, several speakers gave poetic accounts of their adoption experiences during Saturday night's observance of National Adoption Day. [More...]

What you didn’t know about adoption Tuesday, 22-Nov-2005
Maybe you aren’t surprised that a grump like me is irritated that every day or week or month is named after some stupid special interest. But November is Adoption Awareness Month, and that shuts me up because this is my special interest. I have two daughters adopted from China, Melanie (8) and Kristen (almost 4). November is a good time to answer two questions many wonder about but are too polite to ask, important questions if you are considering adoption. [More...]

Early neglect has a physical as well as psychological effect Tuesday, 22-Nov-2005
Child Health News
A team of researchers in the United States has found that children who suffer neglect in their early years are left with physical as well as psychological effects. The U.S. team found that the lack of a loving caregiver directly affects the body's production of hormones thought to be important for forming social bonds. Children raised in harsh orphanage environments in Russia and Romania prior to adoption by American families, were the focus of the study. The researchers observed significant long-term drops in two hormones known to be key to regulating emotion. [More...]

Christians Called to Deliver Children from Hopelessness November 22, 2005
FamilyLife Seeks 1,000 Churches for Orphan-Care Ministry
Feature by Rebecca Grace
(AgapePress) - In the small town of Brenham, Texas, it's not uncommon to see Kazakhstani children in cowboy boots, eating Blue Bell ice cream. Why? A local church began living out God's Word. How? By establishing an orphan-care ministry, as advocated by FamilyLife's Hope for Orphans. "Hope for Orphans is an educating and exhorting ministry dedicated to supporting and helping the fatherless and connecting those children with loving, Bible-believing families," as stated in His Heart, Our Hands, one of the ministry's adoption resource publications. It is headquartered in Little Rock, Arkansas, and is a three-year-old facet of FamilyLife, a division of Campus Crusade for Christ, that functions as a national marriage and family ministry under the leadership of Dennis and Barbara Rainey [More...]

'Knitting for Angels' ships blankets to children overseas Tuesday, November 22, 2005
By Debra Glidden
NAHANT - Knitting For Angels has mushroomed from a one-woman show to a group that has more than 100 members in six states. Nahant resident Susan Caccivio, who adopted two children from orphanages in Belarus and Russia, founded Knitting For Angels. "All the love and time it takes people to make a blanket or sweater or hat is something that is almost palatable; kids can feel it when hugging the blanket," Caccivio said. [More...]

Preparing for 'Lexi': Norwood family readies of their new addition Tuesday, November 22, 2005
Preparing for 'Lexi': Norwood family readies of their new addition
By Nicole Petithory / Daily News Staff
Kellie and David MacDonald, like any expectant parents, are counting down the days until the newest member of their family arrives. Aleksandra's princess-themed room awaits her, and she already has more tiny shoes than most girls her age -- Lexi turns 2 this month. "We're just so excited to finally get her," said Kellie, who runs a home day care service out of her Norwood home. "It seems like it's taken forever to get here, and now the day is getting closer...the anticipation is crazy." [More...]

Bozeman family honored at adoption ceremony Tuesday, November 22, 2005
By BETH SLOVIC, Chronicle Staff Writer
John and Reycarlo's adoptions will be finalized in Helena on Tuesday, but only in legal terms. Emotionally, the process was completed eight months ago, when the two boys arrived from the Philippines. They were welcomed into the Bozeman home of Kim and Tim Mason and the couple's three other children, Olivia, 6, Ruthie, 6, and Dauren, 7. [More...]

Adoptive parents bond over bond 11/22/2005
By: Marjorie Censer, Staff Writer
National Adoption Awareness Month celebrated at Princeton Public Library
Roughly 20 parents and children gathered at the Princeton Public Library on Saturday to celebrate National Adoption Awareness Month with a story and discussion from Mary Zisk. Ms. Zisk — author and illustrator of "The Best Single Mom in the World: How I was Adopted" — is an adoptive parent herself. Her 14-year-old daughter, Anna, sat in the audience as Ms. Zisk told those gathered how she first decided to write and illustrate the children's book. She said she felt like something was missing in her life, but she thought it was related to her career. While watching an episode of the Oprah Winfrey Show about finding fulfillment in life, Ms. Zisk said she realized she wanted to be a mother. "Oprah said, 'You have to figure out why God put you on earth,'" Ms. Zisk said. "I thought, 'To be a mother.'" [More...]

Exploring a Hormone for Caring November 22, 2005
By NICHOLAS WADE
The lack of emotional care given to infants in some Romanian and Russian orphanages has provided researchers an opportunity to study the hormonal basis of the mother-child bond. Researchers led by Seth D. Pollak of the University of Wisconsin have found that these children, even three and a half years after adoption into Wisconsin families, produce two critical hormones in a different pattern from children with traditional upbringings. [More...]

Adopt, your company is with you! Tuesday, November 22, 2005
With the rise in the incidence of adoptions, many companies are now granting adoption leave to their employees, reports Varuna Verma It didn’t take Sudha Vemuri long to realise that adopting a child was not just about bringing a baby home and loving her for life. Instead, it was a huge conditioning process. “We had to create our mental make-up as parents. We had to prepare our family and friends,” says Vemuri, assistant editor with the Delhi office of the English daily, The Hindu. [More...]

Early Neglect Can Hinder Child's Relationships
By Alan Mozes
HealthDay Reporter
MONDAY, Nov. 21 (HealthDay News) -- "Nurture" may indeed be able to create a hormonal impact on "nature." A study of adopted orphans suggests early emotional deprivation can lead to hormonal deficiencies. This, in turn, may undermine an individual's ability to form healthy relationships as he or she ages. Focusing on children raised in harsh orphanage environments in Russia and Romania prior to adoption by American families, researchers observed significant long-term drops in two hormones known to be key to regulating emotion. [More...]

U.S. congressman asks EU to stay out of Romania's adoption policies
Alecs Iancu
Romania was asked by the Helsinki Commission to reform adoption policies, which currently prevent thousands of children from finding homes with families from the U.S and Western Europe. "The current Romanian law is based on the foolish belief that a state institution or a temporary family is preferable to an adoptive family outside of the child's native country," said the Helsinki Commission's co-president, Congressman Chris Smith, who filed the project asking Romania to change the legislation. [More...]

Lena comes home Monday, November 21, 2005
By Steve Davis Staff Writer steved@nwanews.com
Editor’s Note: The Daily Record profiled the Clark family in a July 31 Accents story. At the time, Jimmie and Amanda Clark were living with their sons Dima (Dee-ma) and Leks (Lex), two boys with cerebral palsy they adopted from Ukraine three years ago. The Clarks were also raising money to adopt Lena, a Ukrainian girl with CP who was scheduled to be moved into an institution after a previous adoption fell through. [More...]

Child abuse 'monster' gets 35-70 years Friday, November 18, 2005
By David Conti
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
When Matthew Alan Mancuso applied to adopt a child from Russia, the case worker who checked his background called him a "caring, loving man" and a "highly moral individual." On Thursday, the retired engineer from Plum was called "perverse" and "dangerous" and "monster." [More...]

Adoption was big step for family Friday, November 18, 2005
By LARRY HUGHES
"Hello, Fraleighs," said the small voice on the phone. Only after she passed the phone did I realize this was 9-year-old Nadya, two weeks removed from an orphanage in Russia where she'd been placed by the government at the age of 2. Dave Fraleigh runs an apple farm that has been in the family more than 200 years. I've known them for years. "The Sopranos" filmed an episode there. Karen, his wife, teaches. They have three teens under their roof, two boys, almost 18 and almost 16, and a girl, almost 13. [More...]

U.S. Man Sentenced for Raping Adopted Russian Daughter 18.11.2005
MosNews
A U.S. national has been sentenced to 35-70 years in state prison for raping his adopted daughter over a period of five years. That’s on top of more than 15 years in federal prison that 47-year-old Matthew Alan Mancuso, of Plum, is already serving for posting sexually explicit pictures of the girl on the Internet, the Associated Press reported. Mancuso did not deny his actions but defense attorney Stanley Greenfield says he’ll appeal the conviction and sentencing in Allegheny County Court. He says it amounts to double jeopardy: a second prosecution on the same set of facts. Mancuso adopted the girl from a Russian orphanage in 1998 when she was five years old. He sexually abused her until she was taken from his home in a 2003 FBI raid. [More...]

State Duma Focus on Orphanage Problems Nov. 17, 2005
Adoption of Russia’s children by foreigners was in the limelight of the government’s hour held in the State Duma yesterday, November 16, 2005. As a result, it was decided to ban independent adoption and to hold inspection aimed at revealing bribing of officials in Russia’s guardianship bodies, when it comes to giving the go-ahead for foreign adoption [More...]

Foreign-born kids form family bonds November 17, 2005
By Jonathan Allen Fort Mill Times
FORT MILL TOWNSHIP -- About two weeks ago a group of local parents started what they hope will become a semi-annual event, when they gathered for a picnic for families with adopted children. Jacci Brown and her husband Steve and a couple of other close friends decided their kids, most of whom were adopted from orphanages overseas, needed a chance to meet other children in their same situation. [More...]

Program a Bridge of Hope for older Russian orphans Thursday, November 17, 2005
Liberty Twp. couple organizing local region of adoption agency
One of the longest-serving U.S. hosting programs for older Russian orphans is working with local volunteers to start a program in Ohio next summer. Liberty Twp. resident Ruth Clippinger and her husband, Mark, heard about Bridge of Hope this summer and researched it via its Web site, www.bridgeofhope.cc. They said they liked the program because it seemed like a “win-win thing.” [More...]

It’s like we have adopted the kids November 17, 2005
Volunteers at Hull Carers’ Centre are filling shoeboxes for the Operation Christmas Child appeal. They hope to collect more than 40 boxes of gifts to send to needy children in Eastern European countries such as Romania and Serbia. Charity workers at Hull Carers’ Centre are showing their selfless nature has no limits. [More...]

Rewarding option in adoption 11/17/05
Birth mother's decision to participate in open adoption gives family a special gift
By: Sara Norgon
Section: Student Life
Senior Tina Dahlheimer said when figuring out what to do about her unplanned pregnancy, she thought an open adoption would be the best answer. "I have absolutely no regrets," Dahlheimer said. [More...]

Molloys say givechildren a chance
Adoption Option
By Pam Fleming
STAFF WRITER
Police Chief David Molloy and wife, Lisa, love hearing the sound of little ones playing in their Novi home. The Molloys have two adopted sons — Ian, 7, who hails from Chelyabinsk, Russia, and Sean, 3, a biracial child born to a local woman. During November, which is National Adoption Awareness Month, the Molloys encourage others considering adoption to take the plunge. [More...]

Minister Wants Adoptions Restricted Thursday, November 17, 2005.
By Oksana Yablokova
Staff Writer
Education and Science Minister Andrei Fursenko on Wednesday called for a ban on adoption of Russian children by foreigners through unlicensed agencies, while a senior prosecutor said that Fursenko's ministry should be stripped of its right to supervise adoptions. "It is practically impossible to supervise what happens to a child when the adoption is organized through an individual mediator," Fursenko told the State Duma. "When the adoption is organized by a licensed agency, we can track the child's life in a new family." [More...]

Russia resists calls for foreign adoption ban Wednesday, November 16, 2005
By Ivan Rodin
MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia should resist popular pressure to stop foreigners adopting its children, a top legal official said on Wednesday, while complaining that rich Americans priced local families out of the adoption market. Russians have been up in arms about the well-publicised deaths of more than a dozen children at the hands of their new families abroad, leading to calls to curb or even ban foreign adoptions. [More...]

Wrap: Officials, lawmakers address child adoption in Russia 16/ 11/ 2005
MOSCOW, November 16 (RIA Novosti) - Russian Education and Science Minister Andrei Fursenko and Deputy Prosecutor General Vladimir Kolesnikov spoke at the lower chamber of parliament Wednesday, addressing child adoption, a very acute problem in Russia, given some 800,000 registered orphans and 1,115,000 homeless children detained by police last year. [More...]

Russian parliamentarian opposes Hague adoption convention 16/ 11/ 2005
MOSCOW, November 16 (RIA Novosti) - A member of the State Duma, Russia's lower house of parliament, said Wednesday that Russia should not ratify the Hague convention on adoptions. Following State Duma talks on foreign adoptions in Russia, Yekaterina Lakhova, a member of the State Duma committee on women's affairs, said the convention stipulated simplified inter-state adoption procedures that did not allow authorities to track adopted children and intervene if they were in trouble. [More...]

Rights Ombudsman Opposes Ban on Foreign Adoption of Russian Children 16/ 11/ 2005
MosNews
Russia’s human rights ombudsman has criticized plans to ban the foreign adoption of Russian children. Speaking at a press conference, Vladimir Lukin, quoted by Interfax news agency, called the “discussion on banning foreign adoption... populist pseudo-patriotic rubbish that is protecting someone’s interests, but not the children’s.” [More...]

Minister against more U.S. adoption agencies in Russia 16/ 11/ 2005
MOSCOW, November 16 (RIA Novosti) - Russian Education and Science Minister Andrei Fursenko told the State Duma, the lower house of parliament, Wednesday there were enough American adoption agencies working in Russia and their number should not be increased. [More...]

Russian minister urges reform of adoption agencies 16/ 11/ 2005
MOSCOW
November 16 (RIA Novosti) - The Russian Minister of Education and Science said in the lower house of parliament Wednesday that the country needed to reform its adoption agencies. "Adoption agencies must be reformed to improve work in this field. We have drawn up the relevant proposals in collaboration with the State Duma committee on women, family and children, which I hope will be considered and approved in the near future," Andrei Fursenko said. [More...]

Accredited agencies should mediate foreign adoptions - minister 16/ 11/ 2005
MOSCOW, November 16 (RIA Novosti) - The Education and Science Ministry has drafted a bill allowing foreigners to adopt Russian children only through agencies accredited in Russia. "The ministry has drafted the concept of a law to allow foreign residents to adopt Russian children only via foreign adoption organizations accredited in Russia, except in cases when adopters are relatives of the child in question," Education and Science Minister Andrei Fursenko told the State Duma, the lower chamber of parliament, Wednesday. [More...]

Adoption mediators should be held accountable - Russian official 16/ 11/ 2005
MOSCOW, November 16 (RIA Novosti) - The Russian Deputy Prosecutor General said Wednesday mediators in the child adoption process should be held accountable under the law. "There are a lot of mediators now, but there is no accountability for mediation," Vladimir Kolesnikov told the lower house of the Russian parliament. [More...]

Russian minister calls for psych exam of foreign adopters 16/ 11/ 2005
MOSCOW, November 16 (RIA Novosti) - Foreigners wanting to adopt Russian children must undergo a psychiatric examination, the Russian Minister of Education and Science said in parliament Wednesday. [More...]

A good time to consider adoption 11/16/05
By Jim FitzGerald -
I recently read an article about new parents in a rather surprising place, the publication of AARP, the American Association of Retired People (Sept/Oct 2005). The article portrayed a new trend in parenting, empty nesters opening their hearts and their homes by adopting children from China, Kazakhstan, Russia, and Columbia. The article said that older parents “tend to have more wisdom, tolerance, and realistic expectations” making them well-suited to the task. It also said that older parents tend to have more money, a useful commodity for the type of international adoptions the article described. [More...]

State Duma Meeting on question of the adoption of children by foreign citizens Nov. 14, 2005
Duma Meeting on November 16, Wednesday
Prime Minister Mikhail Fradkov will take part in a conference in Khanty-Mansiisk to discuss the development of the oil and gas resources of West Siberia. The State Duma will examine in the first reading a bill “On Personal Information” and hear reports of the Minister of Education Andrei Fursenko and the Prosecutor General Vladimir Ustinov on the question of the adoption of children by foreign citizens. [More...]

Tough to say goodbye Sunday, November 13, 2005
Ukrainian orphans go home after 2 weeks with Utah families
By Angie Welling
Deseret Morning News
Things are much quieter these days at the Murray home of Barry and Carla Olsen. It feels a little emptier, too, after the departure of the young house guests who for two weeks were part of the Olsen family. [More...]

144 kids will join families on Adoption Day November 13, 2005
By Mary K. Reinhart, Tribune
You heard it here first: Three-year-old Jimmy O’Connor does not have horns growing out of his head. Yes, he was a shaken baby. Yes, he was a foster child. And yes, he was bounced around to several foster homes, and even had an adoption fall through. But this precocious, brown-eyed preschooler is the pride and joy of Jim and Sandy O’Connor, and on Saturday he officially becomes their son. [More...]

About Lifelink Sun, Nov. 13, 2005
Lifelink International Adoption, which has an office in O'Fallon, helps couples and single people adopt children from overseas. Lifelink has ties with Bulgaria, China, Hong Kong, South Korea, Ukraine, the Philippines and other countries [More...]

Ayer family adopts child, then starts charity for orphanages 11/13/2005
By BRIDGET SCRIMENTI, Sun Staff
AYER -- Chad and Deb Mills never anticipated how much emotion they would feel when they visited Ukrainian orphanages in 2001. “We had no idea we'd be so affected by seeing all the kids,” said Chad Mills. [More...]

Woman [Peggy Sue Hilt] charged with murdering child Nov 12, 2005
A Prince William County grand jury indicted a North Carolina woman this week for allegedly beating her 2-year-old adopted daughter to death. Peggy Sue Hilt is charged with murder and is scheduled to go to trial March 1, said Prince William County Commonwealth's Attorney Paul Ebert. On July 2, Hilt was visiting Manassas with her husband, Christopher, and two adopted daughters, 2-year-old Nina and a 4-year-old girl who had been adopted from the Ukraine. The night before leaving on the trip to Virginia, Hilt allegedly got angry at Nina and "shook her, dropped her on the floor, kicked her stomach, picked her up, put her in the bed and continued to strike her," according to a police report. The child survived the four-hour car trip but fell unconscious and died shortly after arriving in Manassas. [More...]

Commission proposes tightening adoption rules 11/ 11/ 2005
MOSCOW, November 11 (RIA Novosti) - Russia's interdepartmental commission for child adoption has proposed the abolishment of the independent adoption system through which children are adopted via unaccredited organizations, Russian human rights commissioner Vladimir Lukin said Friday following a commission meeting. [More...]

Russian minister calls for crackdown on illegal adoption 11/ 11/ 2005
MOSCOW, November 11 (RIA Novosti) - Decisive action is needed to deal with the illegal adoptions, blocking efforts to reduce the number of children in institutional care in Russia, Education and Science Minister Andrei Fursenko said Friday, after a session of the interdepartmental commission for child adoption. [More...]

Couples share the wonder of adoption Thursday, Nov. 10, 2005
by Sara Schwartz
Staff Writer
A set of eyes peeks out from the side window of the door, and a pair of hands pulls back the curtain slowly at the home of Peter and Michele Zeller of Glenn Dale. When the door opens, their daughter Irina dances up the stairs in the foyer and asks, ‘‘I’m a ghost, can you see me?” [More...]

An Orphanage Is Fostering Change Thursday, November 10, 2005.
By Kevin O'Flynn
Staff Writer
Moscow's Orphanage No. 19 is atypical in that it houses very few children. A total of 130 children are under its care, but fewer than 20 live in the smart, welcoming building not far from the Baumanskaya metro station. The rest live with foster parents. The arrangement is unusual in a country that has more than 700,000 children living permanently in orphanages, more than any other country in the world. Orphanage No. 19's foster family program is the model that adoption officials hope will transform hundreds of thousands of lives [More...]

November is National Adoption Month November 8, 2005
by Josh Montez
Advocates hope the observance will raise awareness of the plight of thousands if children. November is National Adoption Month; a time when adoption advocates are asking you to remember children in need of a permanent home. Thomas Atwood with the National Coalition on Adoption says the number of children awaiting adoption is staggering. “There are 525 thousand children in foster care. About 117 thousand of them have the case status of waiting to be adopted.” [More...]

Ukranian Orphans Still Looking for Homes November 7th, 2005
Tonya Papanikolas Reporting
Thirty-one orphans from the Ukraine have been staying in Utah, as families get to know them and decide if they're interested in adoption. The children are heading back soon, but many could be coming back to live in Utah permanently. Yulia, Galeena and Elena love Russian music and dancing. They're from the Ukraine where they live in an orphanage. But for the past two and a half weeks they've been learning about US culture, including the language. [More...]

The Russian Word for Snow: A True Story of Adoption
Beyond Smilla
Reviewed by Pamela C. Patterson
In June of 1998, when my husband and I were just starting to fill out paperwork to adopt a child from Russia, there was an article on Salon by a mother who had recently brought her son home from a Moscow orphanage. The article talked about what life had been like for her son there and how he had grown and changed by leaps and bounds in the few short months since his adoption. The author's note said that she was working on a memoir of her son's adoption. [More...]

Parents give children roots and wings Monday Nov. 7, 2005
By MARVINE SUGG/Lifestyles Editor
“Parents give children roots and wings,” the Russian government official said as she handed a young Columbia couple final adoption papers for their son. Over the last three years two young Maury County couples have seen a complete reversal in their lifestyles, but it has all been worthwhile. [More...]

Above and beyond for children abroad November 6, 2005
Ten years ago, Elizabeth Bodine took a trip that would change the lives of herself and many Russian orphans.
By DAN DeWITT, Times Staff Writer
HERNANDO BEACH - Unlikely as it now seems, a decade ago Elizabeth Bodine worried about the emptiness of her life. "My parents had recently died and I kept wondering: What am I doing here? I don't have any kids. I'm flying all over the world (as an international flight attendant) having a good time. I need to make a difference," said Bodine, 56. Then she visited an orphanage 35 miles from Moscow. [More...]

Strangers no more: Ukrainian orphans jump straight into family's hearts Sunday, November 6, 2005
By Angie Welling
Deseret Morning News
MURRAY — The family motto, engraved on a painted plank of wood and hanging in Barry and Carla Olsen's living room, used to say it all: "Enter as strangers, leave as friends." But two strangers, here just two weeks and from farther away than any visitor ever, might leave as family. Brian Nicholson, Deseret Morning NewsUtah Jazz basketball star and Russian native Andrei Kirilenko poses with Oleena and other children from Ukraine prior to a preseason game. The welcome the Olsens have given the two young girls from Ukraine was being etched in pumpkin by Oleena, 13, and coming through loud and clear last Sunday in 6-year-old Yulia's giggle as the two carved and danced their way toward their first Halloween and a party with all 45 members of the Olsens' extended family. [More...]

Essays reach for hard, happy truths on adoption experience Sunday, November 6, 2005
Reviewed by Kate Washington
Adoption is becoming an ever more common way to build a family, as the editors of the new essay collection "A Love Like No Other" are at pains to point out. In their introduction to the book, Pamela Kruger and Jill Smolowe note that there are more than 1.6 million adopted children younger than 18 in the United States today but that literature on adoption is "stunningly thin on matters that touch on the actual raising" of these children. Standard parenting books, they contend, touch on adoption only in passing, with "the same jarring follow-these-10-easy-steps brightness as that applied to potty training or normalizing sleep routines." [More...]

Making a difference in a child's life November 04, 2005
The Norman Transcript
By Melissa Koontz
Transcript Features Editor
Long-time Norman residents Herb and Patricia Hamburger would say they have it made. Not because their birth children are grown and moved away and retirement almost is within reach, but because of every hug and smile they've received from the many children who have called the couple's residence "home." [More...]

Spain may adopt little Ukrainians 4 November 2005
Ukrainian government recommences adoption of Ukrainian children by citizens of Spain. As a reminder, Ukraine’s Ministry of Education and Science and the Center of Adoption terminated accepting of applications form Italy, Spain, the USA, Germany, France and Canada. Such measure was done because over six years these countries had not informed Ukraine about destiny of 1,300 adopted children. [More...]

Single women seek overseas adoptions Nov 4, 2005
A growing number of women who have left it too late to have babies, or who simply cannot find the right partner, are bringing Russian babies into New Zealand. An international adoption agency says 15 women have applied this year and the majority making the brave move are professionals in their thirties and forties, who make huge financial sacrifices to make it happen. One woman who has embraced the role as a solo mother to her two adopted children from Siberia, is Gabrielle Hastings. [More...]

‘wonderful option for building a family
By Stephanie Kandel
CUYAHOGA FALLS — Four years ago in a hotel room in Moscow, Pat Ameling tried to begin a daily ritual for American families and give her 19-month-old daughter a bath. But Dinara wasn’t so sure about it, and she broke into sobs. It was, Ameling recalls, the sound of the baby girl’s distress. Dinara had never been to Moscow. She’d never been in a hotel room or in a car or on an airplane. In fact, she’d never been away from the orphanage — or “baby house” — that had been her home in Kazakhstan and had only just met the American people who would be taking her home to live with them [More...]

Adopting two girls from Russian orphanage October 26, 2005
By Jim A. Bartd
Why would parents with five children of their own, ages 3 to 11, want to adopt two children from another country who can hardly speak our language? That's the common question James and Mary Hausladen receive when they tell people about adopting two girls from an orphanage in Russia. The Hausladens, who live in the country just across the Carver County line in McLeod County, say the number of their own children is not the reason to adopt. “We don't look at the number,” said Mary. “These are truly two kids who are looking for a home. They didn't put themselves in their situation.” [More...]

Lecturer reaches out to orphans 11.03.2005
Megan Riley
A husband. A father. A teacher.
Pete Kenny, lecturer in the Department of Communication, is a lot of things. But on top of caring for two daughters, ages two and four, preserving a six-year marriage and instructing three different classes, Kenny serves another role. He is a humanitarian. Kenny and his wife Cathy are spearheading an adoption organization, called Orphans' Rescue, to assist American families in the financial burden of adopting orphans from overseas [More...]

Soft-spoken UW freshman finds new life in America Tuesday, November 1, 2005
By DAN RALEY
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER
He's always had that soft lilt of an accent, yet Artem Wallace wasn't viewed as anything more than your average American teenager by his Washington basketball teammates. Like them, he was someone with a decent jump shot in search of playing time. [More...]