[sofla1000]

I talked with our agency today and they are very nervous about the impact on Russian adoption laws due to the Pavlis case. The fear is Russia will really clamp down on international adoptions. Now, our package is over there currently as an "independent adoption," and our hope is that even if we had to do the entire adoption independently, we could still do so. But, as our agency expressed, it is all subject to Russian adoption laws. So, we are just keeping our fingers crossed. The first step seems to be re-accreditation, which hopefully will be in May. With any luck, the heat from the Pavlis case will dissipate and things can start going back to normal. If anyone hears or has further information about this situation, please share it.

regards all, Jackie and Joe

[marjo]

Same thing from my agency.

[votemom]

A boy from the orphanage where our referral is, died at the hands of his adoptive parents in 2000. They are now in prison, and the adoptive grandmother legally adopted his younger siblings (also adopted from this orphanage).

I recently asked a local resident how the town feels about international adoption, in light of their tragedy.

She said that the majority of the people understand that there are bad, cruel, neglective parents in every country... including Russia. The know that the majority of parents are good and loving.

They've had five years to recover from the shock. I believe it will take time for the people in this region especially to work through things -- it's going to be bad for a while, with all the news reports.

Any time a child dies, anyone even remotely connected with the family or the area or the community is going to go through anger and grief. Of course they want someone to be blamed and held accountable. This is intensified when you have two very different cultures who do not completely understand each other.

This points out, once again, the IMPORTANCE of post-placement reports being filed in a timely manner. We need to fulfill our commitments to file reports and to include lots of photos showing the well-being of our adopted children. Future adoptive families are counting on us!

[ATwinkleofHope]

We are in Russia now. Our translator brought this up when we arrived. At court they asked us several questions about the case. If we knew about? How we felt about it? And if we knew the background of the parents of our little girl and would that bring angry towards here.

-Jo

[Minusinsk]

I was asked by a Russian TV journalist -- my opinion.
Unfortuntately, I had never heard of the case and said so.
He e-mailed back that this was this was HOT news in
Russian and he was amazed I had to go look it up.

Right now they are having round-table talks. I would say
it has a BIG effect.
mk
http://www.russianfamilysearch.com

[lyndayle]

We heard from our agency today that, due to the Pavlis case, we now need to have documented psych evals before going to court in Krasnoyarsk. Don't know if this is regional or nationwide, but it sure put a crimp in our process. We thought we might get to court yet this month, but are doubtful now.