So to pull this back to adoption…… Why is everyone’s adoption experience unique?
Ukrainians learned to trust their social networks for support and information because they couldn’t depend on their institutions.
The adoption process had just changed when I arrived in Kharkiv in 2000. Used to be, one judge handled all the adoption cases. Now the adoption cases are divided among all the district (think county) judges.
My judge didn’t know anything about adoption law. He had a busy docket and didn’t have time to read, so he gave me a court date that was 30 days in the future. So my translator and my driver put their heads together.
My driver knew a court clerk who worked for a judge who understood adoption law. In other words I was leaning on a social network. The relationships make the system work.
Turns out I could hire the driver->court clerk–>judge to advise my judge on adoption law. This struck me as being similar to “friend of the court” in the US. I know there is a better analogy; I just don’t have a legal vocabulary.
Anyway I hired the other judge. He was an unbiased (he had no interest in my adoption) third party who provided information for my judge.
Because of this I was able to get an earlier court date.
Did I bribe anyone? NO.
I started this series to talk about why Ukrainian adoptions are different from family to family. And one of the biggest topics that comes up over and over and over is bribes vs expedite fee.
So in the next post I want to discuss the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act which applies to American familes.
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Institutional Uncertainty
Chernobyl
Ukraine’s Government from 1991 to 1994
Ukraine’s Government from 2000 to 2006
Why is everyone’s adoption experience unique?
Corruption