ALBANY – Ten-year-old Myroslava "Mira" Chumakova has lived in Ukrainian orphanages since she was a toddler, surrounded by dozens of other children, seeking new families and new homes.

That was all supposed to change for Mira, in the middle of March.

That's when Albany resident Theresa Grimes, 53, boarded a plane in Newark, New Jersey, on March 13 for the 10 hours of travel to Kiev, Ukraine. It was the fourth time that she flew to the eastern European country, but this time she planned to return home with Mira, her newly adopted daughter, to join her husband, Michael, and their eight biological sons.

But Theresa Grimes never made it to Mira on that trip. About a day after she arrived in Kiev, Grimes was contacted by a U.S. Embassy representative to tell her that the borders were closing because of the COVID-19 pandemic and that she could end up stuck in Ukraine indefinitely if she didn't leave the country immediately.

Grimes made the difficult decision to return home to Albany without Mira, who has epilepsy and cerebral palsy. Two other American families that work with the same adoption organization as Grimes and her family also had to turn around and head back to the states.

Foreign adoptions by US families drop by more than a quarter

David Crary, Ap National Writer Updated 2:40 pm CDT, Wednesday, May 6, 2020

NEW YORK (AP) — The number of foreign children adopted by U.S. parents fell by more than one-quarter last year, extending a 15-year decline, according to State Department figures released Wednesday.

Sharp drops in adoptions from China and Ethiopia more than offset increases from Ukraine, Liberia and elsewhere.

In the 2019 budget year, there were 2,971 adoptions from abroad, compared with 4,059 in 2018 and a high of 22,884 in 2004. The number has dropped every year since then, even as American families continue to account for roughly half of all international adoptions worldwide.

Democratic Republic of the Congo: Intercountry Adoptions and Exit Permits Suspended

Last Updated: May 4, 2020

This Alert Supersedes the Alert Issued on June 21, 2018

The Ministry of Justice (MOJ) of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) has confirmed to the U.S. Embassy in Kinshasa that, pursuant to a 2016 law, intercountry adoptions from the DRC continue to be suspended, effective July 15, 2016. The MOJ; the Ministry of Foreign Affairs; the Ministry of Gender, Family, and Children; and the Immigration Authority (DGM) agree that intercountry adoptions from the DRC are not legally possible at this time.

Due to the suspension of adoptions and the continued suspension of the issuance of exit permits in adoption cases, DGM will not allow adopted children to leave Congolese territory. Thus, adopted children have no legal means to exit the country.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1pof_S0oFg0&authuser=0

---------- Forwarded message ---------

From: Arun Dohle

Date: Fri 1. May 2020 at 12:06

Subject: linkedin chat with Fiom / ISS / Sandra de Vries

NOIDA: No one knows how long she lay there. A few might have spotted the pink towel by the roadside but not the tiny frame of the baby its folds hid. It was only when the baby bawled that some people crossing the traffic and noise-free Parthala roundabout on Tuesday evening stopped to check.

They called the police when they realised the baby had been abandoned there.

A girl, she is just four days old. A Dial 112 police response vehicle rescued the baby

A woman constable was part of the team that took her for a checkup to Kailash hospital. Police said they had learnt from doctors who examined the baby that she was healthy and delivery appeared to have taken place at a healthcare facility.

Phase III SHO Amit Singh said police were inquiring at nearby hospitals about deliveries over the last few days to trace the baby’s parents. “Since the child’s delivery has been an institutional delivery, it will not be difficult to know who the parents are. They will be booked under relevant sections of the IPC when traced,” Singh said.

By Roelie Post (guest blogger)

When in 2011/2012 the filming of Stolen Children – Intercountry Adoptions from India was ongoing in ACT’s office in Brussels, I got drawn into the details of the German/Indian trafficking case.

Arun was talking in German with the journalist, explaining to her the involvement of the German branch of International Social Services. Internationale Sozialdienst Deutscher Zweig, he called it.

Wait, where did I see that name before?

A quick look into my archives brought me to a Petition Kreuz 1999 handed in in 1999 at the European Parliament by a German citizen, a certain Gunther Kreutz.

New Delhi: For Georgia residents Whitney and Mike Saville, their trip to India in March was a realisation of a long-time dream of adopting a child. They came to India on March 6, after a two year wait.

The paperwork for a passport and a US visa for their adopted daughter was pending when India announced a three-week lockdown starting March 25. The Savilles were stuck in India.

The couple’s three sons, all between the ages of 4 and 7, were back home in Atlanta. Mike tried to fly back while Whitney stayed in India but the plan, early in the lockdown, went nowhere. The couple then made a video, asking for help.

“We are grateful that we have Grace (the name they have given their daughter) in our care now. We are grateful we came, we just wish the circumstances were a little bite different,” Whitney said in the video.

The Savilles weren’t alone. Foreign nationals who came to India to adopt children from countries such as the US, Italy and Malta were stranded.

Ukrainian police have raided a private reproductive clinic that has been allegedly “selling babies” to China. While the suspects are accused of “human trafficking,” surrogate motherhood is a legal gray area in Ukraine.

The scandalous case was brought to light by the country’s interior ministry late on Saturday. The police broke up a “human-trafficking” ring that was centered at a private reproductive clinic in Kiev.

Further details on the case were shared by the Deputy Interior Minister Anton Gerashenko on his Facebook page. The ring involved the head of the clinic, her son, as well as two other Ukrainian and three Chinese nationals. They were charged with human trafficking that may lead to 12 years in prison with property confiscation.

The majority of the clinic’s clients were single Chinese males of “certain orientation,” as Gerashenko put it. While the exact number of trafficked babies remains unknown, at least 140 more Chinese nationals are under investigation, the official added.

The price tag for a single baby was about $50,000. The hefty sum covered artificial insemination of a surrogate mom, legal support and organization of fictive marriages needed to facilitate smuggling children abroad. It’s unclear if the babies’ fathers were the ones who then adopted them.

SUBSCRIPTION + Sunday April 26, 2020 3:31 pm

Corruption in adoptions

The deal about the child

The case of a convicted child mediator from Sri Lanka brings international adoptions into the twilight again.

2 comments

For several weeks in early March, my 5-year-old carried a picture in the front pocket of his backpack. Every so often, he’d take it out and look at the toddler in the brown sweater and then with his finger trace the lips that matched his own. His teacher told me he talked about “baby brother” during circle time at kindergarten, unable to contain his excitement over news that I hadn’t shared widely yet in my own circle.

His backpack has been hanging by the door of our Chicago house since March 13, the last day my son and his older brother, who is 8, went to school, the last day life didn’t feel suspended. The suitcase I had packed for my trip to Morocco to meet the boy in the picture stayed on my bedroom floor for a few weeks until I finally put it in a closet, unable to deal with the reminder of what almost was.

Days before I was scheduled to travel to meet my son and start the process to bring him home, Morocco closed its borders. It is under a quarantine until at least the end of May. We had planned to travel as a family to Morocco this summer to complete the adoption. I now hope I can get to him sometime this fall, which feels optimistic, particularly with increasing rates of infection in the United States and the rush to return to an elusive normal before the virus is contained.

Our family is healthy for now, even the little one in Morocco, according to the orphanage director, who sends me pictures through WhatsApp. I am grateful for our health, and for the pictures. But a devastating uncertainty to the global pandemic has caught me by surprise, even though I am familiar with the unpredictability of international adoption. Both of my older sons were adopted from Morocco when they were infants, and I’ve often told people adopting is like being in the first trimester of pregnancy the entire time. Laws change. Countries open and close. In Morocco, I need a judge to grant custody and then the U.S. Consulate to grant the child an immigrant visa, both processes that can be delayed, or not happen at all.

“We are certainly in the midst of an unprecedented time, and the impacts to adoption – both domestic and international – are real,” said Kim Perez, president and chief executive of The Cradle, an Illinois adoption agency.