Traditionally, adoption in Bulgaria is usually veiled in secrecy. There are various reasons for that: fear of losing the child’s love or not wanting people to know about one’s infertility. However, recently more and more parents decide to share the truth.

This is the chance of society to realize that adoption is not something shameful or frightening but a worthy act and another way for a family to have a child. Another issue is the fact that there are so many children left without parental care in peaceful times.

According to the State Agency for Child Protection, there were 1567 people wanting to adopt childen in July 2014. Children waiting to be adopted were 3248. This figure does not include children without parental consent for full adoption and those with pending documents. "Unfortunately, the number of those wanting to adopt a child has been declining and it is now half the level of 2008, while the number of children without parental care has been on the rise,” says Rositsa Ivanova of the Bulgarian Association of Adopted Children and Adoptive Parents.

Despite these bleak statistics, in recent days a corruption scandal related to adoption in Bulgaria erupted. According to media reports, families would easily adopt a child for a bribe of 5 to 15 thousand euros. A private TV crew secretly filmed a lawyer revealing the corruption scheme to a journalist in the role of a prospective adoptive parent.

"When we have a signal about violations, it must be immediately investigated by the competent authorities," says Rositsa Ivanova. "These crimes must not remain hidden. Our advice to all prospective adoptive parents is if they had information about such violations to immediately inform the competent authorities. On the other hand, when the adoptive parents participate in such a scheme, they are also committing a crime and have no interest in telling about it."

According to Ms. Ivanova, there was no need for major changes in adoption laws in Bulgaria. Processes, however, must be optimized and more attention must be paid to in-depth assessment of the candidates and their motivation, the lawyer says.

"Often people come to me with poorly defined motivation. Sometimes their desire is driven by purely human, but also selfish motivation to become parents at all costs. When problems emerge in an adoptive family that was not aware of possible problems and its responsibility for the development of relations, they often lead to collapse. Parents start thinking the child is bad and aggressive, as they imagined adoption as a fairy tale.”

Sometimes unrealistic expectations lead to terminating adoptions and more traumas to children. Therefore, methods of training prospective adoptive parents must be changed in a more practical direction, said Rositsa Ivanova and added:

"Parents are not always ready to deal with problems, especially when they adopt an older child. The child comes in a family together with its former life and mentality. Despite being welcomed with great love, the child experiences a shock. Often children react to such an abrupt change with aggression. "

At such times the adoptive parents blame themselves for not being suitable parents and rarely seek help. This shows how important training of prospective adoptive parents is. So this year the Bulgarian Association of Adopted Children and Adoptive Parents together with the National Network for Children held the first National Information Day on adoption. Communication with experts is among the prerequisites for adoption to become an amazing journey.

English: Alexander Markov