Local Families Share Personal Stories, React to Russian Adoption Ban

Some Russian children would simply not be where they are today if it weren't for the South Plains families who have adopted them. 

The executive director of the Adoption Covenant Center right here in Lubbock adopted two children from Russia herself.

 And there is a family in the area who says they can't imagine a life without their daughter, whom they also adopted from Russia.

Ellie is four years old, and was born with an extra flap on her heart as well as chronic ear infections.  These aren't problems that can't be treated easily here in the United States, but in Russia, any type of health problem seen in a child automatically makes them less sought-after by Russian families.

"My daughter Ellie would not, I can tell you with all certainty would not have been adopted if I hadn't adopted her.," said Merinda Condra, the executive director of Adoption Covenant in Lubbock.

She adopted both of her daughters from Russia and has helped numerous families here in Lubbock adopt children from there as well. She said that Russia's healthcare limits some families from adopting children with any health problem, and her daughter stood no chance. 

"If she were in Russia well she would be deaf now because she wasn't even being treated for ear infections," said Condra. "They didn't have the capabilities to do it."

But she said it's not only lack in healthcare, it's also a lack in resources that hinder many children's chance of ever being truly cared for in Russian orphanages.

Condra said for every twenty to thirty children in Russian orphanages there may only be one or two caregivers--never giving them a chance to learn or interact.

"These children, they lose what inherently makes them people. That ability to belong to somebody else and interact with them and be attached to them."

And for Condra, it's hard knowing that there are hundreds of children like her daughter that will never have a family.

"For all of us who've adopted from Russia or anywhere you cant help but see the faces of the children who left there and knowing that some of them will never get out how do you live with that?"

The same goes for the hook family who adopted their daughter from Russia as well. They had trouble parting with her simply during the adoption process that can take longer than five months. 

"Not knowing if she's okay if someone's holding her tonight I mean, has she cried for the last twelve hours in a bed? I mean you don't know," said Robert Hook, father to Addie Hook who he and his wife Sherry adopted when she was nineteen months old.

And now the fate of hundreds of children comes down to one law--and politics. 

"You know it was hard enough when you left them there and you took your child home. But now knowing that no one can go get them you know it's just very hard," said Condra.

Condra added that these children are people, and not objects to be pushed aside.

"I wish all of our governments could recognize that these are children. These are people. They are not pawns. They are not property.  They are people and beyond issues of country or slogan or politicians. Every child needs a family."