Russia

 

FTIA’s Russia program started in 1996. Over the years we have worked with different organizations and individuals in Russia as well as several different regions. To the best of our knowledge, FTIA was the first organization or agency to require families adopting from Russia to obtain an independent medical evaluation of a referral before they could officially accept the child as their child. Now all responsible agencies have this requirement. We made this a requirement because of our commitment to children. The requirement for an independent medical is because the medical records from Russia are difficult to interpret and we do not want to place a child only to have a disruption later which may be difficult for a parent, but is much more difficult for the child. Parenting is a huge responsibility and not all parents have the same abilities and strength.