Families in Limbo After Russia Suspends Adoptions

(April 16) -- Mike and Mary Ferreira have already traveled to Russia to meet their new son, but it may be quite a while before he can come home.

The Ferreiras had just finished signing the final adoption papers when a Tennessee woman last week put her adopted 7-year-old son alone on a plane back to Russia because she said he had severe emotional problems.

The action thrust adoptive families into a crisis as Russian authorities temporarily suspended all adoptions to the United States. And confusion about whether a ban was actually in place made the situation even worse.

Thursday, the Russian Foreign Ministry announced the suspension of U.S. adoptions, but the State Department said it hadn't been notified of the decision.

Late Thursday, senior Russian officials confirmed what 250 American families and their adoption agencies had feared: All adoptions to the United States from Russia are suspended until Washington and Moscow can reach an agreement to ensure the safety of Russian children.

The situation leaves the Ferreiras in limbo. The Baltimore County, Md., couple already adopted a daughter from Russia and are waiting to bring home their 14-month-old boy.

"We've already met him," Mike Ferreira said in a phone interview with AOL News. "It's not interchangeable for us. We've been down the road with this child, and we're going to wait for this child," he said. "It would be unfortunate if we weren't able to adopt him until he was 3."

A U.S. delegation is heading to Russia next week in an attempt to work out an agreement with Russian officials, raising hopes that adoptions will resume soon.

But Janice Goldwater, executive director of the Washington, D.C.-area Adoptions Together agency, said the effect on families waiting to adopt from Russia has been devastating already.

"All we can do is fully disclose every single thing that we know and provide emotional support," she said, though she's optimistic that the Russian government will allow adoptions to resume soon.

Like many adoptive families, the Ferreiras have been through this kind of uncertainty before. The couple were in the process of adopting their daughter, now 4, when Russia mandated that adoption agencies in the country be recertified before any children could be placed. The process delayed the Ferreiras' adoption for more than a year. This time, Mike Ferreira fears the worst.

"I'm not optimistic because the last time this happened [the process] shut down for a year," Ferreira said. "Now that we've met our child, waiting a year would be absolutely horrible and shouldn't happen. We have a track record of absolute success."

Mary Ferreira said she was hopeful but added that the media attention makes "the dramatics of each day" more felt. "There are a lot of ups and downs," she said.

Kathy Brodsky of Ametz, the Jewish Child Care Association's adoption program, said the adoption process is often fraught with snags and setbacks. "We've been doing this for 20 years, so we like to say we've seen it all," she said in a phone interview.

Even amid intense frustration, though, many said they were empathetic to the Russian government's reaction.

"Russia does care about the children they place. I don't blame them for being upset," said Ilze Keegan, director of the Florence Crittenton League, an adoption agency in Massachusetts that places children from Russia.

But Sue Gainor, National Chairman of Families for Russian and Ukrainian Adoption, said the ban doesn't help Russian children. "We have to look at these tragedies as what they are, which is isolated incidents with tragic, disproportionate consequences," she said. "We could affect several thousand children in Russia who could come home to families who are ready to love them because this one woman made a horrible error in judgment."

As the situation wears on, many are still struggling to come to terms with the incident that started it all.

"Forget about adoption," Brodsky said. "How does a parent put a 7-year-old on a plane with a one-way ticket to be met by a stranger?"