Adoption Under One Roof

There is no new news about the new Ukrainian adoption law. The law has been implemented and singles/older parents cannot adopt from Ukraine. The age difference between adoptive parents and child must be 45 years or less.

I have some vague rumors... I heard friend-of-a-friend stories about families who were in Ukraine adopting and impacted by this law. A single woman was unable to complete her adoption. An older man/wife couldn't complete their adoption. Both families had met children and were just waiting for their court date.

I really hope this rumor is false. Can you image the grief for the parents-to-be and the children? So sorry child... you can't have a family now. They are too old or single.

Another rumor is that the SDA has started notifying families impacted this law that their dossier is rejected.

And I have heard some ultra vague rumors about maybe this law will be over turned. But I really don't understand this rumor. What is the process for over turning a Ukrainian law? I know in the United States there are only 2 paths. New laws are written or the U.S. Supreme Court finds the existing law unconstitutional.

Over at Adoption_From_Ukraine there was an interesting exchange about how rare adoption is for Ukrainian citizens. Single Ukrainian men and woman can still adopt. The new law just made "foreign" single adoption illegal.

I don't disagree that adoption is fairly rare for the average Ukrainian citizen. But it does happen. And I happen to know a story about Svetlana Bondarev. She is a single woman who adopted 15 children by 2001. Six of the children were disabled.

The idea of Bondareva, a 32-year-old with a negligible income, adopting 15 children would be unthinkable in the West--and is controversial here too.  But in Ukraine and Russia, the children she chose--mostly disabled or well beyond toddler age--had little other chance to be adopted.

I have frequently wondered if Bondarev adopted from Green Forest Orphanage (GFO). I adopted my daughter Natasha from GFO in 2000. I was in Kharkiv for almost 3 weeks. I wish that I could have met her during my trip. She sounds like an amazing person.