Russian Adoption Ban Now Won’t Take Effect for One Year

International   |   Susan Michelle Tyrrell   |   Jan 15, 2013   |   11:41AM   |   Moscow, Russia

A law that was supposed to take effect this month barring the adoption of Russian children by Americans has been granted what some are calling a “miraculous” reprieve. The law signed by Russian President Vladimir Putin was set to take effect January 1, leaving in limbo orphans who were in the process of being adopted by American families. In fact, it had already been enacted, so the sudden reversal based on this agreement is a mystery, but a welcome one.

The Washington Post reports, “the Kremlin suddenly announced Thursday evening that the measure would not go into effect for another year. The Post says:

A bilateral adoption agreement between Russia and the United States that was reached just last year remains in force, Dmitri Peskov, the main Kremlin spokesman, told the RIA Novosti news agency Thursday. He pointed out that the agreement requires 12 months’ notice for either side to withdraw. Russia, he said, delivered that notice to the U.S. Embassy on Jan. 1, although until now it has been portrayed as an immediate cancellation.

A US State Department spokesperson told CNN:

“So that would also take you to 2014,” department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said. “We are very hopeful that we will be able to complete the cases of adoption that had been begun before the law was passed. So that’s something that we will be working on with the Russian government.”

The Post, in another story, reports, however, that 2014 is when it will revert:

According to Peskov, the agreement will be annulled in early January 2014. The adoption document states that “the agreement is valid over one year beginning from the date one party informs the other via diplomatic channels about its intention to withdraw from the present agreement.”

What actually changed it we may not know, but it would be remiss of us not to credit the many prayers with tipping things in Russia.

We continue to pray and believe, however, that as quickly as this change this week has happened, that the entire ban will be lifted permanently. The plight of the orphan captures many hearts, and, as the Post reports,

The law was intended as a snub to the United States, but many here say its primary victims are Russian orphans.

Indeed, we recently told you this story, written by a parent who adopted a boy from Russia. Tesney Davis, said in response to this reprieve that it was a “serious miracle.”

Now, parents who have been in pained limbo wondering if they would ever get the children they had already found and adopted in their heart, while simply waiting for the adoption process to be complete, are rejoicing in this turn as well. Now they now will almost certainly see their children come home.

Russian officials are not sure whether or not more adoptions will be allowed in this interim, so we will continue to pray and make the need known. However, tonight we rejoice that more children without fathers and mothers will have them. No law should keep a child from a family. And thankfully, prayers are being answered.

We must continue to pray, with engagement, with specificity, with expectation that God wants to fulfill His will more than we want Him to do it. Truly, no one wants children with mothers and fathers more than the Father Himself.

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Be encouraged by this testimony of so many answered prayers, and then pray. Pray more. Add this to every prayer list you know exists. It is very likely that the work to end this ban fueled by the prayers of the saints could reach a crescendo causing President Putin himself to change it before 2014 even arrives.

Pray for the children who will likely get to come home now. Pray for negotiations between the US and Russia. Pray for President Putin to change the ban permanently and to have a heart for the children. And pray, always pray, for the spirit of adoption to be in operation, that all across the world, the hearts of the fathers would be turned to the children and the hearts of the children to the fathers, that abortion would end from a movement of love.

LifeNews Note:  Susan Michelle Tyrrell is the editor of Bound4Life’s blog.