Couple’s adoption efforts stymied
BOISE – Concern by Russian authorities that its orphaned children who are adopted into families outside that country, in particular in the United States, could face deadly abuse has stalled an Idaho couple’s effort to take in a boy and girl, one of whom has HIV.
Widna and Victor Stankewsky, a Boise couple who already had adopted two other Russian children seven years ago, began attempts to adopt two more in 2002.
Two years later, they met Stanislav and Valeria, now 6 and 4, while on a trip to an orphanage for mentally and physically handicapped kids in the Siberian city of Irkutsk.
Their efforts to bring the youngsters to America have been hampered by fear among Russian adoption judges over the at least 11 instances since 1991 in which Russian children have died violent deaths after coming to adoptive U.S. parents, including the 2005 beating death of a Russian girl in North Carolina.
Russian authorities hope by year’s end to have a law in place to ban adoptions organized by groups or individuals without accreditation.
On Thursday, Peggy Sue Hilt, the Wake Forest, N.C., woman convicted of beating her adopted Russian daughter, was sentenced to 25 years in prison, more than twice the minimum penalty. This has the Stankewskys hoping the North Carolina judge’s tough sentence will convince Russian officials that America takes the issue seriously – and allow Stanislav’s and Valeria’s adoptions to continue.
“It’s tragic that you’d want to be happy for a severe sentence,” Widna Stankewsky, who wrote to the judge before the hearing in North Carolina to ask for a stiff penalty, told the Idaho Statesman. “I never experienced that in my life. Now I understand it.”
Roughly 120,000 Russian children are registered as orphans every year, Paulina Filippova, a Russian expert on children’s issues, told the Associated Press recently.
About 7,500 Russian children were adopted by Russians last year, up 7 percent over 2004, while foreigners adopted 6,900 Russian children – a 26 percent decrease from 2004.
Sergei Apatenko, the director of the Education Ministry department responsible for adoption, has said that in the past year there were 13 cases of abuse of Russian children adopted by foreigners, but added the figure was at least as high for children adopted domestically.
Still, high-profile coverage in Russian media over cases such as the North Carolina killing have led to what Widna Stankewsky calls “an unspoken moratorium” on American adoptions of Russian children.
“We’re hoping the sentence is severe enough to placate the Russian authorities and we’ll be able to go get our children,” she said. “I have a child that’s dying, and I can’t get them out of the city.”
Stanislav’s infection with the virus that can lead to deadly AIDS hasn’t changed their mind about bringing him to the United States.
“Once you’ve been there and seen them, you’re never the same again,” Widna said.
The couple said they’ve spent more than $20,000 to adopt the pair, including curtailing ballet lessons, selling their home and trading in their newer cars to help finance the endeavor. If the adoption goes through, they expect costs of $50,000.