Russia's adoption ban misguided

We adopted two Russian children, a 7-month-old girl in 1998 and three years later a 10-month-old boy. In addition, we have an older biological daughter. We chose Russia because we wanted to adopt an infant who shared our European heritage. The adoption process was long and challenging, and there were many times where it was difficult to maintain the commitment needed to work through all the paperwork, background checks, visits with social workers, medical evaluations and inspections of our home. In both cases, the adoption process took approximately nine months.

By Lynn Van Natta and Mark Van Natta

January 15, 2013