[sweettooth4lifefamil]

Can anyone tell me which are the best regions to adopt from in Russia? When a friend of mine adopted she only applied for a certain region & orphanage because she heard they were a) an orphanage that received a lot of help from agency thus enabling them to provide better care for the kids & b) because she heard the courts moved fast and with few holdups.
My agency said that we can apply for as many regions as we want and there is a "blanket policy" for a few. They encouraged me to apply to as many as possible. However, now I'm thinking that maybe we would have fewer problems, and or get a healthier baby, if we specified the region, like my friend did. Granted, that might increase our wait.
Any opinons or advice would be helpful!
Thanks!

[kretzklan]

It may be easier to find out a few regions that are notoriously slow and anti-adoption. We were in Kemerovo (which includes Novokuznetsk) and they were very good to us - healthy kids, quick process. But, that was 2005...I haven't heard anything bad about that region.
I would talk with your agency - they should know which regions are moving smoothly. Perhaps you could ask to only be registered in those regions.

[votemom]

our attempt to adopt from amur was very, very difficult. i would not recommend this region.

our adoption from samara was very smooth and fast. i would recommend this region.

[nhook]

Has anyone been to Tula, Moscow City or Moscow Region in the last year? If so, what is the paperwork like now? Medical exams?

[MominPA]

We adopted from Moscow City for both our adoptions. Our last one was in 2006 and we did not need the medical 8 physical done. That might have changed now. We also did not need to have a psych evaluation.

Paperwork was very basic and court only lasted about 20 minutes.

Both our sons orphanages were very well maintained and the childrend were well taken care of.

[DET62]

I cannot comment on what regions are good, but I had a friend come home last year from Ekaterinburg, and she said it was one of the toughest regions in Russia. I don't recall exactly why, but you might want to avoid that one.

Dee

[beckyww]

Ekat is supposed to be a paperwork/judge nightmare. That's all I've ever heard.

Our judge in St. Pete in May, 2006 was very reasonable. And our 10 days were waived.

Becky
The Woodworth Family in Beautiful San Antonio TX

[Kasey]

Kirov 2004 very fast and easy, 10 days waived
Murmansk 2006 very smooth and easy, 10 days waived

[Jpride]

We got home from Moscow City October 2007. I would say that it was a very good region. No 8 doc medical and court was fairly short with only 4 weeks between trips!!!

We loved Moscow also!!

[cmmandjam]

We did the Leiningrad region and are the proud parents of a VERY happy healthy four year old boy that we brought home in July, 2007. The people in the baby home seemed very caring and went out of their way to ask us questions about our lives. One even told me that she potty trained our son and was quite proud. The orphanage director gave us hugs when we left both times. Nothing was overly clean and the outside of the building was frightening. Everything was fairly quick and we are impressed with the overall physicall and emotional health of our child.

[pwnort64]

I think it's great that you want an easy process...who doesn't. But keep in mind that each person's adoption experience is their own.

So much has to do with the orphanage, the agency, the mood of the judge, etc. So just because someone went to region XX and had great travel date turnarounds, an easy court experience, got the 10 days waived, etc, is no guarantee that the family that appeared in court after them had the same experience. Same thing with those who may have had bad experiences...doesn't mean that the family after them didn't have smooth sailing from beginning to end. There are simply no guarantees in this thing called IA adoption!!

In Vladivostok, I spoke with several families that used the same agency as me. Overall, from the point of referral through trip #1 and #2, there were reasonble timeframes and predictable outcomes. Our coordinator was able to tell us which families were more likely to get their 10 days waived, whether we would get custody during the wait period, etc.

However, upon reviewing the traffic on the region's yahoo group, families using different agencies had extremely different experiences....months and months with no news on dates between trips and no idea whether their wait period would be waived or whether they would gain custody during the wait.

I think the most reliable information would be obtained if you could speak to other families using the same agency as you.....

[angelkisses0102]

DD came from a more difficult and 'poor' region...Tomsk in 2002...which ended up closing to US adoptions but I believe they are slowly opening back up. Our experience there was very difficult BUT...my daughter was born there and was so worth the heartache and 'difficulty'.

DS's region...Tolyatti orphanage in Samara in 2004...was so adoption friendly and easy...the orphanage well funded...amazing really especially when contrasted to DD's. However between my adoption and votemom's...Samara was basically closed for about 6 months....maybe longer. So even though we both had great and fast adoptions...the people stuck in between us probably didn't.

It 'funny' because our easy child came from difficult reagion and our child who struggled came from a super easy region.

I agree with the advice given above...talk with others who have very recently adopted thru your agency for the best input.

[MamaChinch]

For me, Kemerovo was smooth and easy. 15 months total process, 10 days waived, 25 minute court. DD is from BH #2 in Novokuznetsk, I felt the orphanage was wonderful and the children well-cared for. Of the 14 children I know from that BH, all are healthy and well-adjusted, although I know of two who turned down referrals.
I heard that Perm is a difficult region.

[another2]

I would be highly surprised if you could find anyone who would tell you Ekaterinburg is a "good" region. Even in 2001, it was hard -- one of the very first to institute the 2 trip system, much more paperwork, longer court sessions and not even a consideration of waiving the 10 days. Although our children came from one of the "better" orphanages in the region, the conditions were terrible and our children were severely malnourished and went through a lot of different types of therapy to recover from their time there.

Samara was a relatively nice region. We did get stuck in the shutdown for new regional law changes which was frustrating at the time, but that can happen anywhere. Although our court time was still long, it was detailed -- not grueling. And our children were well-fed, well-cared for, and well-loved.

I cannot say not to go to a certain region -- our two from Ekat are doing great now and are every bit as healthy and wonderful as the other two. And I am thrilled that we were able to bring two home that really would not have survived another year where they were. But I understand the desire to avoid the hardship if you can...

[NCFamily]

We adopted a son from Rostov on Don region in 2005. Found the people of the region to very great, no problems with paperwork or court. Our ten day wait was waived. Plenty to do during the off hours, good restaurants etc... Overall a very positve experience