U.S. citizens still willing to adopt St. Petersburg orphans - children's rights commissioner
ST. PETERSBURG. April 10 (Interfax) - St. Petersburg children's rights commissioner, Svetlana Agapitova, has received a letter from U.S. parents, who have already agreed to adopt 33 orphans from St. Petersburg before the Dima Yakovlev Law, which banned Americans from adopting Russian children, had been passed.
Agapitova has released the letter from the U.S. parents confirming their desire to adopt the children.
"We have promised the children to come back and take them with us before we left. Each family from our group of parents is still devoted to keeping the promise. We still love them and hope that our lives will join one day. It is difficult to exaggerate the consequences of the trauma which will be done to our children's souls if we don't come back for them," the U.S. parents wrote.
"But we are still hoping that our countries will be able to find a solution for the situation in which the children and parents ended up. Our desire and our goal is to give the children what they very much need : a stable home and a close, loving family," the letter said.
It has been reported that 33 children from St. Petersburg orphanages, including 12 children with disabilities, met foreigners willing to adopt them before the Dima Yakovlev Law had been passed. Authorities could not decide whether these children could leave to the United States or not and children's rights committee sent a request to the education ministry.
