The children and their US families during the visit – MONTSAME

Five children who had been adopted through a US-based organization are now back in Mongolia with their two adoptive families to learn about the culture, heritage and traditional way of life of their country of origin. The visit is part of regular tours launched in 2017 for adopted children and co-organized by the Mongolia Immigration Agency and Holt International Children’s Services, the Mongolian news agency MONTSAME reported. The children were given insights into their early life in Mongolia, learned about their places of birth and saw their pictures when they were young. Their documents are stored at the Mongolia Immigration Agency.

During an open discussion, they expressed their gratitude for the opportunity to delve into their origins and to learn about the traditions and shared their impressions of Mongolia. According to the news agency, the children said they were pleasantly surprised to see modern tall buildings and the latest cars in the city and beautiful nature and gers, the traditional round shaped dwellings that have been a distinctive feature of life in Central Asia for at least 3,000 years, not far from the cities. Three of the children were adopted by the Millers family from the Central Infant Sanitorium.

“We adopted our son Tugsbayar in 2005. When we first visited the Central Infant Sanitorium, we saw that they cared for all children despite the low number of personnel. As we think that it is important that children receive from their guardians the love and care they were unable to get from their biological parents, we decided that we would adopt our next children from Mongolia again after adopting our eldest son,” Mrs. Miller was quoted as saying. Sarnai was adopted in 2009 and Tamir in 2012. Mr. Miller said that Tamir, “truly the greatest gift of my life”, wants to become a judge in the future, while Tugsbayar, the eldest, wants to major in marketing and work in the business sector and Sarnai, their daughter, wishes to become a surgeon.

The Antonuks adopted their two sons Davaabayar and Bayar in 2006 and 2010. Davaabayar, who became the swimming champion of the state, wants to become a lawyer Bayar, who loves sea animals, wishes to become a marine biologist. The adoption of a Mongolian child follows strict international procedures. In addition to the requirements stated in the Family Law of Mongolia, the parents must also fulfill other requirements, such as being financially capable of bringing up children, and provide documents on where they will live and what school they will go to, the agency said. If the child is an infant, the parents must also give information on whether they will look after him or her themselves or they will hire a babysitter. A tripartite agreement is signed between the parents, the Mongolia Immigration Agency and the intermediary organization to monitor the post-adoption.

Of the total of 269 children adopted by foreign citizens, the procedure for 171 children was carried out through intermediary organizations. As one of such organizations, Holt International said it has had 71 children adopted into families in the U.S. MONTSAME stressed that Mongolia joined the Hague Convention on Protection of Children and Co-operation in Respect of Intercountry Adoption in 1998. Since then, the issues of Mongolian children being adopted by foreign citizens have been regulated by the Family Law of 1999 and the Regulation on the Procedure to Interview Foreign National Requesting Adoption of a Mongolian Child approved in 2001.