16? Depending on the orphanage the kids may run away or just disappear much younger.
We saw 10 yr olds standing outside our son’s orphanage smoking. We saw a girl of about 13 meeting her foreign “john” in the lobby of our hotel.
Our adoption facilitator “rescued” a 12 yr old she saw at the hotel and took her to a children’s home- no telling if she stayed
Some Russian orphanages pimp out the kids, westerners aren’t welcome to visit them. In Russia we met people adopting a kid from an orphanage in a region so polluted with radiation, they brought the kid to meet them, they wouldnt let them go to the orphanage
We met another couple who found out after medical consult that their darling baby girl referral had a potentally fatal kidney condition and decided to adopt her anyway and get her back to the US and surgery asap, and to stay in Russia with her and get her on meds and a special diet for the 2 months it was going to take for the adoption
I remember reading some some medical missionaries in Irkutsk desperately trying to find parents for a girl missing 3 limbs (congential) because she was to be sent to an imbecile asylum, the only facility for kids with any special needs
Watch this documentary if you have a strong stomach - the Children of Leningradsky
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x2qf5q_the-children-of-leningradsky-1-of-2_people
Ya know, thats why hypocrites like this grandstanding anti-US, anti adoption Russian guy PISS ME OFF
But on the other hand, we met MANY kind very caring and concerned Russians who waanted to get the kids families and GET THEM OUT of a system and a society where they will never succeeed
fwiw
We lucked out. Our 2 adopted Russkis are now 14, they have issues but not unmanageable and thank GOD neither is RAD! They are dear good people
My brother in law and his wife found the Russian adoption laws to actually be quite strict. Which is a good thing. They adopted 2 children ages 2.5 and 5 at the same time from different orphanages. The orphanages were very open about the pasts of both kids. They are now very well adjusted normal American kids doing well in school and a bright future. They had some behavioral problems due to one being food deprived as a toddler and the other being thrown into a rough and tumble orphanage at age 3. The most recent child adopted at age 14 is a fairly well adjusted kid. We love all three and they are now just like any other American kids in middle school and high school. Maybe they were lucky but they also were careful about what adoption agency they used here in the states.