The Shepherd's Crook Ministries

Urgent Situation Regarding Adoptions from Russia

Most of you are probably aware that adoptions from Russia to the U.S. have been interrupted by the implementation of a new law in Russia. This law went into effect on January 1, 2013, and has doomed thousands of Russian children, who might have been privileged to grow up in the love and nurture of a family, instead to spend the rest of their lives in an Eastern European orphanage.

This is a serious situation, both for the Russian children and also for the many American families who had already begun the process to adopt one of more of these children. According to the U.S. Department of State, forty-six adoptive families have already met their children in person, as the process in Russia requires multiple trips to complete the adoption. Imagine the pain and frustration these families are experiencing, and the confusion and sense of additional abandonment for the orphans themselves, as these new parents, whom the children have met and spent time with, never come to get them. Our hearts are breaking for all of those caught in these political machinations, and we pray for a speedy resolution.

One of the families caught in this situation is a TSC family. Dan and Sarah Brewer live in the Cincinnati area and have two biological children, ages three and two. Dan and Sarah began the adoption of a little girl from Russia back in the summer of 2012. In the fall they traveled to Russia to meet their little girl, whose name is Anya. It was only a month or so after they got back that these troubling developments took place, and by the end of the year, they knew that their adoption was in jeopardy. Anya is now six years old, she knows that her adoptive parents came and met her and promised to come back for her, and she knows that it’s now been a long time since they made that promise, which the Russian government seems determined to prevent their keeping.

Our government is working hard to convince lawmakers in Russia to change this destructive law, and we are asking all of you to let your voice be heard on this matter. An online petition has been created to help all of us join in the discussion, to the extent possible. Please visit EchoSign’s secure site and sign this petition, and let your voice be heard. [1] And please join all of us in praying diligently that this situation would be resolved quickly, and that those families already in process would be permitted to complete their adoptions and bring their children home.

In His name,
The Shepherd’s Crook

Notes:

1. This particular petition states that the signer knows a family in this situation. Many of you probably do not personally know such a family, and we wouldn’t want to urge you in any way to mislead anyone through signing this petition. But we have introduced you to the Brewer family, and if you would feel comfortable signing the petition on that basis—or if you know one or more other families caught in this situation—then we urge you to do so.