US adoptive families heartbroken over adoption ban

"We're pretty heartbroken, honestly," said Donna Thomas in an interview with RIA Novosti on Thursday. She and her husband Robert are in the process of adopting a five-year-old child from Russia.
"To us, she's already our daughter," said Thomas.
But adoptions of Russian children by American parents have been suddenly and unexpectedly sucked into the political quicksand of a dispute between the two countries that threatens to halt Russian adoptions for all American families, including dozens, possibly hundreds, like the Thomases, who have already met the child they've been matched with and planned to bring home in the coming new year.
Word on Thursday that Russian President Vladimir Putin had announced his intent to sign legislation banning Americans from adopting Russian children rippled through the close knit US adoption community like a shockwave, leaving families with little understanding of the politics behind the dispute and little hope of resolving it anytime soon.
"I don't see how one of those members of (Russian) Parliament can look at those children and say 'this is what's best for you, you could have had a home and a family and now that's not going to happen,'" said Bill Deutsch. He and his wife, Valerie, are in the process of adopting 13-year-old Tim and 11-year-old Ana from Russia, both are HIV-positive, RIA Novosti reports.
Deutsch has followed the developments closely, and is baffled by what he and many others view as a willingness on the part of Russian politicians to use vulnerable children as pawns.
"The Russian government has been very insistent that they need to place Russian children with Russian families, and I understand that," he said. "But this little boy was literally left on the steps of the orphanage 13 years ago, and nobody's stepped up yet. The thought that somebody's going to magically come forward now, it just isn't realistic."
Most children age out of Russian orphanages when they turn 16, and many end up on the streets ill-equipped to fend for themselves or make a living, said experts on Russian adoptions.
"He (Putin) said they're working on a plan to try to encourage adoptions in Russia, and that's great, but that's not going to come up to speed in three years. That's a lot of people to find homes for," Deutsch added.
UNICEF says there are about 740,000 children without parental care in Russia, according to the Associated Press.
Figures from the US State Department show more than 60,000 Russian children adopted by American families in the last 20 years, including roughly 1,000 in 2011.
Full story