By Gretel Johnstone
When Americans Sarah and Jeff Sierawski travelled to Krasnoyarsk in the heart of Siberia to adopt their son Andrew in June 2001, it was their second trip to Russia in the long and emotional adoption process.
The Sierawskis of Grayslake, Illinois, were among the first families to be affected by a rule then-newly imposed by Russian authorities requiring adoptive parents to make two trips: first to meet the child and commit to the adoption, the second to appear before a judge and complete the formalities.
Even in 2001, a year when Americans adopted 19 647 children internationally, the rules for adopting Russian orphans changed with the political winds. But it didn't stop the Sierawskis, who like thousands of other US families decided to adopt children from Russian orphanages in the years following the fall of communism and the breakup of the Soviet Union.
They said the process was gruelling but worth every bit of effort. Now they have a thriving 10-year-old boy and 7-year-old girl, Claire, whom they adopted in 2003 from an orphanage in Tomsk.
Sarah describes her children as "delightfully normal." Andrew loves basketball and helping his grandfather show cattle at the county fair, while Claire takes horseback riding lessons and is a beginning Girl Scout.
The couple said they have always been open about how and where they adopted their children and consider themselves advocates for adoption. Few adoption-related stories have upset them more than an incident in April in which Tennessee mother Torry Hansen sent her son back to Russia alone, with a note saying he was violent and had severe psychological problems.
"I was absolutely enraged when I heard the story," Sarah said. "I don't understand why she is not in jail. When she adopted him, she did not check him out at the library."
Russia's threat to suspend adoptions in reaction to the incident could deter potential parents who have considered adopting from a country where some 700 000 orphans - more than at the end of World War II - are waiting for families.
The number of international adoptions already dropped significantly last year, according to the US State Department. In 2009, Americans adopted 12 753 children from other countries, down from 17 475 in 2008.
China topped the list in four of the last five years. Americans adopted 7 903 children born in China in 2005, but the number has dropped steadily, down to 3 001 last year.
Russia was second in 2005 - with Americans adopting 4 631 children, which fell to 1 586 last year.
Guatemala was high on the list of countries from which Americans adopted in the last five years, and Ethiopia moved from fourth place in 2007 and 2008 to second behind China last year, when 2 277 children born in the east African country made their way to the US through adoption.
In the wake of the Tennessee mother's actions, Moscow has not carried out its threat to suspend all adoptions of Russia-born children to US families, but the State Department has acknowledged the process is being delayed in some parts of Russia.
A delegation of US diplomats met with Russian officials in late April in Moscow for a first round of talks on adoption issues, and another round is set for this week.
Chuck Johnson, acting chief executive of the National Council for Adoption, said the talks were going well, and that Russia's threat has "slowed some isolated cases" but most are on track. Currently, there is no bilateral agreement between the US and Russia on adoption, Johnson told the German Press Agency dpa.
Johnson said the council was monitoring the Hansen situation, and he encouraged local law enforcement officials to pursue charges against her.
"I just can't imagine that a parent can abandon their child in this way and there can't be any consequences," he said. "There are certainly a lot of children's and adoption advocates who are gearing up to not let this story go away."
Johnson said that since 1993 there have been 15 deaths of Russian children at the hands of their US adoptive parents. While calling the deaths unacceptable, he said such incidents speak to the problem of adopting children from places where there is a higher risk of problems such as foetal alcohol syndrome.
"These terrible outcomes are not the true face of inter-country adoptions," Johnson said. "Children do find loving families." - Sapa-dpa