Dream Atlas: Another Brick in the Wall, Pt. 4

The sky is the limit. Reach for the stars. The world is your oyster. Sound familiar? Well I’ve got a fat challenge for these expressions. Let’s change the Russian Government.

I am dead serious. Let’s just do it. Now the corrupted government might not get fixed entirely by me. I could try, because I’ve have been taught that “can’t” is not a word. This is the overly optimistic ego speaking. We should all have one. My core focus on making a universal difference is based on reversing the ban on adoption from foreign countries in Russia. Let’s look at the facts. In 2012, the U.S. Congress passed the Magnistky Act, which is basically a bill that proclaimed the corruption of Russian officials. The ban was a response to this Act. This law that banned this once beautiful opportunity is known as the Dima Yakovelv Law, passed by Vladimir Putin in 2013. Dima was an adopted child by an American family. His parents left him in car at a parking lot. He had tragically died in the car in 2008, only after three months of living in America. Another tragic case spiked attention in Russia. A child had been brought to America. The mother decided to send him back to Russia. The child was sent on an airplane all on his own. Devastating.

There is no justification for the actions of these irresponsible parents. Zero. But how about we look at the effects of this ban. Nearly two dozen children in Russian orphanages were denied the right to be brought to America after families had made legal plans to do so. An estimation of 200-250 children had actually met with American families, created a connection, but then were not given the right to go through the adoption process. There was a case where a family had adopted a boy previously to the ban, and had hoped to adopt his brother. The ban revoked the family’s plan and now the boy is without his biological brother. This is absolutely heartbreaking. The boy had anticipated his brother coming home, and now the parents have to explain to the child that it is impossible.

Before the ban, about 60,000 children had been adopted by American families from the past twenty years. Three of those children happen to live in my household. My older brother Demetrios had been adopted a year before me. In Russia, we lived in the same orphanage, located in Krasnodar, Russia. Demetrios and I were best friends at the orphanage. When he had been adopted, he had missed me terribly. He would cry “Anya” to his mother in America. She did everything she could to find out who Anya was. I was the girl of my mother’s aspiration. I had reunited with my best friend a year later at the age of five. My best friend became my brother. In 2005, we adopted a four year old boy named Illushka or for short Illiya. He had been located at a different orphanage in Siberia, Russia. I have so much gratitude for my privilege to live in America with a loving and supportive family. The common good out ways the cases of the shameful tragedies. I am not sure how exactly I can change this law, but I think the first step is awareness. My heart aches for the families and children that could be united in a safe and loving home.