BELARUS NEWS AND ANALYSIS

DATE:

08/12/2006

Confusion puts new focus on adoptions

By NORMA MENDOZA,

An inadvertent mix-up of the countries from which Mark and Marilisa Heiderscheid adopted their children, Jack, 3, and Jessica, 14 months, created a small storm for Small World Adoptions Foundation, the St. Louis agency that helped them with the adoptions.

For the record, Jack was adopted from Mogilov in Belarus and Jessica from Perm in Russia. Adoptions from Belarus were abruptly shut down on Oct. 4, 2004, barely a week after the Heiderscheids left there with Jack.

The closure was at the order of President Aliaksandr Lukashenko, who asked his cabinet to look into international adoptions from Belarus. In January of 2005, new guidelines for adoptions in Belarus were signed into law, but according to the U.S. Department of State, have yet to be put into effect.

Brenda Henn, director of operations for Small World Adoptions Foundation (SWAF), was not upset about the mistake in the story because, as she said, anything that calls attention to international adoptions is good.

Several of SWAF's former clients called her wanting to know if Belarus is open again and several people e-mailed this reporter to ask the same question, prompting this correction.

"I have so many clients who have children from Belarus and want to go back to adopt more," Henn said Wednesday.

Mark Heiderscheid said Belarus shut down international adoptions right after they left there with Jack in September of 2004.

"We knew four people who were actually over there who didn't get their children," he said. "They just shut it down and won't allow any more adoptions. My mother has remarked so many times about how awful it would have been if we hadn't gotten Jack out."

The U.S. State Department advises that the U.S. Embassy continues to raise the issue of adoption with the Belarus Ministry of Foreign Affairs, but so far, the government of Belarus has not provided clear information about how long the suspension might last or whether the government might make provisions to complete the adoptions for those families who were in the process when Belarus was shut down.

There is speculation as to why Belarus stopped allowing the adoptions ranging from the impression that Americans had ulterior motives to the unfavorable reflection on the country making it seem unable to care for its own. But, many believe it is solely up to Lukashenko.

Heiderscheid wasn't concerned about the country mix up because to them, it doesn't matter where the children came from, they just feel blessed to have them. He said he heard only positive comments about their story.

Henn urged families to stay in touch with SWAF because she said she really believes progress is being made.

"We hosted a couple of officials from the Belarus Embassy in Washington and they met with some of our families here," she said. "They actually visited with some in their homes and it was very positive. There are so many Belarusians, including those at the Embassy, who live here, that they know what it is like."

She said SWAF is engaged in some relief work to provide things for the children in the orphanages in Belarus even though it is difficult. Two of her partners at SWAF are from Belarus, she said, so the agency is not going to give up on the country.

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