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International Adoptions
A Healthy Leap of Faith By Kelly Burgess
All of these concerns are complicated by the fact that videotaping, which was seen as a great leap forward in international adoptions just a few years ago, is now waning because many countries are no longer allowing it as part of the process.
Adoption agencies, prospective parents and the pediatricians that work with these agencies are finding creative ways around new restrictions. For example, the Ukraine does not "assign" a child to prospective parents the way that most other countries do. Instead, the parents travel there to choose their own child. Although it seems like an ideal situation, it's actually one that is extremely stressful. The parents don't have a lot of time to choose, and they have virtually no medical guidance on site. As Iverson puts it, they are kind of "flying blindly." What her organization has done to try to help parents in that situation is arrange for live video feeds or digital pictures sent via computer. The parents may narrow it down to one or two children and then the physician, thousands of miles away in Michigan, can help them make a final decision based on the pictures coming over the computer.