Why Russia?

A rather smart-alek answer is, “Because that's where our daughters were!”

A shorter, but equally smart-alek, answer is, “Why not?”

And, the long answer is, there are literally thousands of orphans in the vast lands of the former Soviet Union. This is due in part to the on-going economic struggles since the collapse of the Soviet Union, and partly due to the lingering mind-set that the “state” is responsible and/or better suited to care for the children—remnants of Communist propaganda.

These children are turned out of the orphanages as young as 16, but most definitely when they turn 18. Many of the children turn to crime since they are ill-prepared to earn a living, and ill-equipped to transition from institutional living. A large number of the children turn to drug and alcohol abuse—if they haven't already embraced that prior to or during their life in the orphanage—many of the girls turn to prostitution. Sadly, the suicide rate of former orphans has been quoted to be 10%.

One significant factor in our decision to adopt from Russia was a new family who came to our church in the fall of 1999. We became acquainted with them and found that they were in the process of adopting a brother and sister from Far East Russia. They were going through a small local adoption agency that was run by a couple who had served for several years as medical missionaries in Russia—they personally had an exceptional reputation and their agency had an excellent track record. SIDENOTE: Due to increased “red tape” in their particular region of Russia, sadly we were not able to use their agency to adopt our two daughters. Still, they continued to encourage and guide us when we had to change agencies.