Russia Adoption

On Wednesday, Miles Harrison was acquitted of any wrongdoing the death of his adopted Russian-born son, Chase, who died of heatstroke after being left in the car unattended in front of Mr. Harrison's workplace. In recent years, the death of Russian-born adopted children has had far reaching implications on the process of adoptions in Russia as well as Russia's willingness to continue to work with families from the U.S. who are interested in adopting one of the thousands of children currently living in orphanages throughout Russia. This recent case is no different. A senior official with the Russian Education and Science Ministry stated that Russian officials are "Outraged by the court ruling and believe it to be totally unjust and unacceptable". Alina Levitskaya went on to say that "It questions… [more]

The countdown has begun to the start of Russia's Lent, which begins this year on February 17. Last year I wrote about the food served in the week immediately preceding Lent, the holiday known as Maslenitsa, or butter week. By making blini, and piling them high with things like herring and sour cream, Russian households purge their larders of the last rich foods and get body and soul ready for Lent. But being an unabashed foodie, I would give some time in the days before Maslenitsa to other rich foods. Foods that get a good healthy kick from butter and sour cream. Foods like beef Stroganoff and chicken Kiev. Though food history may not be able to identify the Charlotte of Charlotte Russe fame, there was… [more]

Russia's effort to promote a demographic revival may be working. Tatyana Golikova, Russia's minister of health and social development minister said Friday that 1.6 million babies were born in the country last year in 2007, the highest number of births since 1991. According to the McClatchy-Tribune news service, the birth total for 2007 was up by 122,750 from 2006. Last January, Russian legislators approved incentives to encourage Russians to have more children. And maybe some good news for those of you flying to Russia for an adoption. British Billionaire Richard Branson--the man behind Virgin Atlantic--unveiled plans to start an airline in Russia. According to Bloomberg, Branson is holding talks with a discount carrier called Sky Express and may reach an agreement in two months, with… [more]

February starts off with a bang for those of you in the San Francisco Bay area. Today and tomorrow, the Russian Center of San Francisco is hosting its 20th annual celebration of Russian art, dance and music. This is a big shindig, and the event that inspired me to start a Russian cultural calendar for adoptive families last year. There is a great lineup, and even a large screen TV dedicated to the Super Bowl. Tickets are $10 for adults, but kids under 12 are free. Also, today and tomorrow, a dance presentation called "Stravinsky Revisited". This is being staged by the University of Michigan's resident dance company at the Power Center for the Performing Arts, tonight at 8 p.m. and tomorrow at 3… [more]

When I started writing for Adoption.com last January, one of the first blogs about Russian adoption that I was lucky enough to read was "Three Sons And A Princess". It was the tale of a military family with three boys who were trying to adopt a little girl, affectionately dubbed the "Pineapple Princess". Jennefer, or Jeneflower as she sometimes styles herself, is the mom of the clan and its chief memory officer. Her writing captured the ups and downs of her family's adoption journey and featured so many smart tips about surviving the craziness that was Russia over the last year that I sometimes thought she should have been doing my job instead of me. She also proved herself very skilled at taking advantage of every… [more]

This is a very nice way to end the month of January: Seven more adoption agencies have been accredited by the Russian government. The decrees, all dated January 28, cover three agencies from the United States, and one each from France, Italy, Spain and Sweden. Here's who they are and a little bit about what they do: The agencies accredited from the U.S. are ABC Adoption Services of Roanoke, Virginia, Beacon House Adoption Services of Pensacola, Florida, and World Child International Adoption Agency of Silver Spring, Maryland. Interestingly, ABC had been operating in Russia under the aegis of Carolina Adoption Services, but now is fully accredited on its own. Beacon House, which had been previously accredited, says on its Web site that after its… [more]

OK, I'm going to confess to a bit of cultural prejudice today. If I were going to be stranded on a deserted island and I could take along my three favorite desserts, they would all be French. So it's probably no surprise that my favorite Russian dessert is one that was created by a French pastry chef. The dessert is Charlotte Russe, and it was whipped up by Marie-Antoine Carême for Russia's Tsar Alexander I in the early 1800s. Wikipedia, citing a 2004 feature on Carême by National Public Radio, calls Carême the "first celebrity chef". That's not such a bad description considering that, just like Emeril Lagasse, Bobby Flay and Mario Batali today (yes, I watch way too many Food Network shows), Carême cooked for many… [more]

Russia continued to come out of its winter holiday slumber this week, but unfortunately not with more accreditations. On Friday, Russia signed a multibillion-dollar deal with Serbia to make the Balkan nation a key transit point for the natural gas pipeline that Russia is building to supply Europe. In addition, Gazprom announced that it is taking a controlling stake in Serbia's government-owned oil company. According to the Associated Press, the Russian government-controlled natural gas monopoly offered about $600 million for NIS, plus $730 million for improvements to the company's infrastructure. On Thursday, Russian election officials said a critic of President Vladimir Putin should not be allowed to run in the March presidential election. Reuters says that Mikhail Kasyanov has little chance of winning, but that… [more]

Today is a rather quirky holiday in Russia, called Tatiana's Day. Though it does fall on the name day of Saint Tatiana, an early Christian martyr, it is not in the traditional sense a name or a saint's day holiday, which I've written about before. And it's not in honor of the in-country rep who helped me with my first adoption in Vladivostok, in 1999--though some sort of lasting recognition for that would certainly be in order. A clue to the day's reason for being is pretty plain when you learn its other name: Student Day. Tatiana, for the record, was neither a Russian nor a scholar. A third-century Roman citizen who was raised a Christian, Tatiana was denounced for her faith and then tortured when she… [more]

We passed a bit of a milestone the other day: It's been six months since my little guy has had an episode of night terrors. Once every two to three weeks or so after coming home to America, he would wake up in the middle of the night screaming and shaking. He wasn't really awake, though he would get up out of bed and race for my room--or even down the stairs. When I got to him, his heart would be racing and his eyes would be wide open but not focusing on anything. And even if my Russian or his English had been better, I got the sense that there wasn't anything he could tell me about what it was that made him scared. The best… [more]