Russ Moore at Southern Seminary has written a short piece on the adoption of Russian orphans: Russia's Orphans and the Father of the Fatherless. Russ and his wife Maria have two adopted children from Russia.
Russian national leaders are concerned with foreigners adopting their children and may stop the practice, though it would only encourage institutionalizing orphans. Russ wants something better because God wants something better. Here's a portion of the article...
The Russian orphanage where my wife and I found our sons, then Maxim and Sergei, was the most horrifying place I have ever been. Its sights and smells and sounds come back to me every day. But, even more so, before my mind's eye every day are the faces of the children we couldn't adopt. Until now, my hope has been that Christians from America, Canada, Germany, France or somewhere may have adopted them, to raise them in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. If the anti-adoption Russians get their way, I fear that these children will be sentenced to institutions, never to find families.
The plight of Russia’s orphans ought to spur American Christians to prayer and to action -- not only for Russian children but for abandoned children across the globe. What if Southern Baptist pastors encouraged, from the pulpit, families to adopt orphans domestically or from across the sea? What if older, more affluent Southern Baptist couples pooled money for young families who wish to adopt, but cannot afford the seemingly astronomical costs?
Yesterday my now four year-old Benjamin walked up and hugged my leg, saying to me (in the little southern accent he picked up from us): "I'm glad you're my daddy, and I'm glad I'm your son." I have learned more about the Gospel of Jesus Christ from such statements than from all my studies in systematic theology. Before I met these two, I “knew” all about what it means to have a new name in Christ, a new household, a new identity, new brothers and sisters. But I knew so very little about these things.