More than seven years ago, Kenny and Kayla McDermitt flew halfway around the world to adopt two brothers who used to call Russia home, but have since settled in Carrollton.

If the McDermitts were in the middle of that process now, the outcome might be different because of a ban by the Russian president on American adoptions of Russian children.

President Vladimir V. Putin approved the adoption ban in late December as part of a broader law retaliating against the U.S. for the so-called Magnitsky Act, an effort to punish Russian officials accused of human rights violations.

Kayla McDermitt, who owns and operates Ole McDermitt's Farm on Baxter Road south of Carrollton with her husband, said it's "depressing" to see the children in need and knowing that the foreign government is presenting their adoption.

"We are very sad about this," McDermitt said. "It's just depressing to see these sad people, and the conditions of the places these children are living in is usually terrible."

The McDermitts, who have traveled to Russia several times, have seven children — including two adopted from Russia, one from Latvia and one from China.

The immediate cause of Russia's ban was to retaliate for the new U.S. law targeting Russians accused of human rights abuses. But the ban also reflects long-brewing resentment in Russia over the 60,000 Russian children who have been adopted by Americans in the past two decades, 19 of whom have died.

Russian leaders have complained for years about what they consider light sentences for American parents who abused or neglected children adopted from Russia. Putin named the ban after Dmitri Yakovlev, a toddler who died of heatstroke in Virginia in 2008 after his adoptive father left him in a parked car for nine hours.

The hasty enactment left many questions unresolved. Although Putin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has said that adoptions already approved by courts could go ahead, the Preeces said Tuesday they were told that the ban has left a legal vacuum — with no mechanism for issuing the decree that finalizes the case.

A spokesman for Russia's Supreme Court, Pavel Odintsov, told The Associated Press on Wednesday that the high court is seeking information that would allow it to make recommendations on establishing a legal framework for resolving the dilemma.

It is unclear when that clarity might come, but "we are not talking about months; possibly a couple of weeks," he said.

Kayla McDermitt said she has a friend who is in Russia now, trying to complete the process and get her child. The friend is currently waiting out the 30-day mandatory waiting period, McDermitt said, and she can't help but wonder if the other shoe is ever going to drop, and her hopes for adoption will go under.

"Forty-six families were all given the adoption and just had to wait," McDermitt said. "Now all of them are just hoping now and waiting to see."

Not everyone in Russia is pleased with the ban, however. Thousands of Russians have marched to condemn the Russian Parliament's move, in an event call a "March Against Scoundrels."

"I've seen pictures of the Russian people rising up and protesting, and I've heard that some churches over there are stepping up," Kayla McDermitt said. "I think that's a good thing, and I hope it continues until something changes."

The McDermitts host many foreign children throughout the year in an international hosting program. They're expecting two boys from China on Jan. 28 who will stay with them for five weeks. Last Sunday, they said goodbye to a boy from Latvia who had finished the program.

More than 650,000 children live in foster care or orphanages in Russia, of whom about 120,000 are eligible for adoption. Many children in orphanages are sick or disabled, and most have little hope of finding permanent homes.

In a survey released in December by the Public Opinion Foundation, 56 percent of Russians said they approved of banning adoptions by Americans.

Russia has been trying to increase domestic adoptions and says about 18,000 Russians are on the waiting list to adopt a child.

The number of domestic adoptions fell in recent years: Russians in 2011 adopted 7,416 children, a drop of more than 2,100 from 2007, according to Education Ministry figures published in the newspaper Komsomolskaya Pravda.

The same report showed that Americans adopted 956 Russian children in 2011, 89 of them classified as disabled.

"It's the kids who really suffer," McDermitt said.