With the changes in both domestic and international adoptions, many families are now adopting children over the age of 4- and 5-years-old following a long period of waiting for their “assignment”. In many cases in Eastern Europe, particularly Ukraine and former Soviet bloc countries, many families have also taken on the unique and complex challenge of adopting children over the age of 10- and 12-years-old. While it is certainly admirable that families are attempting to find a home for all of these children who have been raised in very deprived institutional settings, it is a very complex situation as there is certainly the philosophy that, “Every child needs a home but not every home can handle or raise an institutionalized child”.

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