I picked up an interesting piece on adoption today from Newslab, a Russian wire service that focuses on news in Sibera. The news it reported is both bad and good.

The story says that 34 children were adopted by foreign citizens in the region of Krasnoyarsk for 2007, down from 180 for 2006 and 168 for 2005. That is, unfortunately pretty much in keeping with the larger nationwide slowdown in inter-country adoptions, which I wrote about back in December when I gave you the expected total for U.S. adoptions from Russia for 2007. The Newslab story says that Americans led the foreign adoption trend, welcoming 25 boys and girls. Six children were adopted by Spaniards, two by Israelis and one child by a French family. A disappointing total overall, but not unexpected given the national trends.

What was unexpected was that the authorities in Krasnoyarsk disclosed the number of children who found forever families with Russian parents, and that it is a fairly substantial number: 150. The authorities did not disclose how many children remain in the region's orphanages.

But when I am reading news reports from Russian sources I always try to read the tea leaves too. The Newslab report notes the fact that foreign adoption agencies have been working on re-accreditation and states, and I quote, "The experts believe that the number of children adopted may rise in 2008, as many foreign organizations have obtained the certificates." Yes, yes, yes! That is something we all have to believe in, and I will hope, for the record, that the number of children adopted by Russian families rises too.

One housekeeping detail unrelated to Krasnoyarsk. Five more adoption agencies were accredited on December 27, 2007, and I wanted to pass those names along so you can update your lists. Only one was based in the U.S., Alaska International Adoption Agency. Of the other four, one was from Spain and three from Italy. ASEFA, the Spanish agency, notes on its Web site that it had only 40 referrals in Russia last year, down from 176 for 2004.

The Italian agencies are I Bambini dell'Arcobaleno, L'Associazione Ariete and L'Airone. I wish them all success and speedy referrals in the year to come.

Image credit: forghis at Morguefile.com