"Mommy and Daddy will be right back," I always tell them. My mother volunteers in a church nursery every Sunday. If I happen to be home I'll join her in taking care of "my babies" for an hour. We have the one-year-olds this year. A decent amount of those kids will just saunter into the room and go straight for the snacks. But a few still cry when their parents leave the room. "Mommy and Daddy will be right back," I say as I try to distract them with toy cars. "They're going to big church and then they'll come get you. It'll be just a little while. I promise."
But what if they didn't come back? What if I couldn't keep that promise? What if those parents just left, promising that they'd be right back, and then never returned? What would those babies think?
It's a horrible thought. But that's exactly what happened to some three hundred children in Russia. Three hundred orphans were introduced to their adoptive parents. And then the parents left because Russia required several trips before mothers and fathers can bring their children home. They promised they'd be right back.
And then Vladimir Putin decided that these orphans shouldn't come home. He figured that Russia's orphans made better political pawns than family members, so he signed the bill declaring that Americans may no longer adopt Russian orphans.
The children wait. I can't bear to think about what must be going through the minds of those three hundred who me their parents already. Why won't they come back to get me? They must wonder. Did they change their minds about me? Was I bad?
Mommy and Daddy promised that they'd be right back.
300 Broken Promises is a facebook page dedicated to helping these children be reunited with their parents. Please go like the page for updates and for simple ways that you can help these children come home. No child should have to wait as an orphan.
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