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Who Will Fill the Empty Cribs?

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But interracial adoption, though increasingly accepted, still raises concerns in some circles. UNICEF has been a vocal proponent of keeping orphaned children in their home countries (next story). And many African countries, where extended families or tribes have traditionally taken in orphaned children, tend to be extremely wary of foreigners who show up to whisk off their young.

No one suggests that international adoption will solve the world's ills. But until societies are able or willing to tend to all the victims of their own fractured families, overseas adoptions can continue to serve an important function, sparing tens of thousands of youths from potential neglect, abandonment, danger and a childhood spent between gray walls. "My heart breaks when I think of the conditions at orphanages, of the fate that waits for these babies," says Olga Dereviagina, who cares for toddlers and babies at the infectious-diseases ward of Moscow's Tushinsky hospital. "I wish foreign parents would come in now and take all our babies to some beautiful, kind place, to warm, loving homes." That's what Porras and Milian and countless couples like them wish, too.

With Mike Elkin in Madrid, Anna Nemtsova in Moscow, Alexandra Polier in Nairobi, B. J. Lee in Seoul and bureau reports

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Posted By: A Cole @ 02/18/2008 10:55:54 AM

As the mother of a son adopted from Romania, I appreciate you publishing this article. Unfortunately, as in the case of Romania, it is not true that all these countries are now better able to take care of their abandoned children. Many officials just want to claim that they are. Adoption procedures should be transparent and encourage local families to adopt, but children do not have a shelf life. It is ironic as well as tragic that more barriers to international adoption and even local adoption are being erected at a time when all current research shows the devastating effects of a lack of parental bonding at every stage of a child's development.
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Posted By: Mom2FiveRO @ 01/31/2008 10:20:37 PM

I praise you for writing about and publishing this story. It is a very grim reality for many - - both children without families, and families without children, that is is getting harder and harder to be brought together. Organizations such as UNICEF, who are supposedly FOR the children's needs, are in effect harming children if their work results in the child never ever getting his or her own FOREVER family. I am the mother of five internationally adopted children and I can share that they are loved, appreciated, and cared for as much if not moreso than their American-born peers!

Again, thank you for bringing this to the readers' attention. It is a wonderful start to opening this reality to all to see. I hope there will be further articles too, on the topic, that can ultimately HELP the children.
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Posted By: efg4 @ 01/31/2008 10:09:14 PM

It is good to see the mainstream media get the point that adoptive families have known for three or four years: UNICEF is the biggest worldwide organization lobbying to keep children in their countries of birth, at whatever cost. They say that they support international adoption, but in practice, they oppose it at every turn. Like other ideologues on the left, they treat children as members of groups rather than as the unique individuals they are, with a God-given right to a family of their won.