U.S. Mother Sends Adopted Boy Back To Russia- Alone!

When you adopt a child, there are never any guarantees. The child you think is healthy and whole can sometimes have severe mental problems, and adoption agencies are not always upfront about those children's issues. Some people will willingly accept children with physical and mental disabilities, they are somehow well equipped to handle the challenges, but others are not and will specifically ask for a child with no problems. But in an effort to find homes for these 'problem' orphans, the agencies will sometimes willfully omit certain pertinent information that might negatively influence a couple from adopting the child. They of course will claim they had no idea, but trying to pawn off a sick child on prospective adoptive parents is wrong, and eventually will create major problems down the line, for everyone involved.

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You hear horror stories about adopted children who become dangerous and violent as a result of being severely abused in foster care, or by their biological parents. One Florida couple adopted 3 young brothers, toddlers who became so violent when they grew older that the parents were finding it very difficult to care for them. As a result, they were considering suing the state for not being told the children had been severely abused as babies. These people feared for their lives and had spent enormous amounts of money on therapy, to no avail. I'm not sure what ever happened with that case, but you can well understand their anger and frustration.

One woman's anger and frustration over the violent 7-year-old son, Artyom Savelyev, that she adopted forced her to do the unthinkable- send him back on a one-way ticket to Russia (where she had adopted him)- all by himself. Russia, with good reason, is furious over a rash of adoptions gone bad, including this one, and is demanding an end to all U.S. adoptions of Russian children.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov called the actions by the grandmother, Nancy Hansen of Shelbyville, "the last straw" in a string of U.S. adoptions gone wrong, including three in which Russian children had died in the United States. The cases have prompted outrage in Russia, where foreign adoption failures are reported with gusto.

The Russian education ministry immediately suspended the license of the group involved in the adoption — the World Association for Children and Parents, a Renton, Washington-based agency — for the duration of an investigation. In Tennessee, authorities were investigating the adoptive mother, Torry Hansen.

Torry Hansen, claims the adoption agency never revealed the boy's mental and behavioural problems when she and her mother flew to Russia to pick up the child,

"The Russian orphanage officials completed lied to her because they wanted to get rid of him," Nancy Hansen said.

She also said the boy was very skinny when they picked him up, and he told them he had been beaten with a broom handle at the orphanage.

They, of course, deny that they withheld information but it wouldn't be surprising if they did. They probably had no idea the mother would callously return the boy because she couldn't handle him. Being a single mother probably did not help the situation, but no-one should be saddled with a child that is a danger to himself and others. But sending the child back, alone, is unconscionable, although the grandmother claims they did not abandon the child as Russian officials contend. Apparently they paid $200.00 to a man to fetch the boy from the airport and accompany him to the Russian Education and Science Ministry. But even so, shoving him into a plane with a note, is cold.

The Kremlin children's rights office said the boy was carrying a letter from his adoptive mother saying she was returning him due to severe psychological problems.

"This child is mentally unstable. He is violent and has severe psychopathic issues," the letter said. "I was lied to and misled by the Russian Orphanage workers and director regarding his mental stability and other issues. …

"After giving my best to this child, I am sorry to say that for the safety of my family, friends, and myself, I no longer wish to parent this child."

Adoption is a serious matter, and whether an agency lied to you or not, you can't just return a child like you would a pair of shoes that doesn't fit to the store where you bought them. Frankly, I find it very foolish for a single person to want to parent a child alone, by choice. It's hard enough managing with two parents.

And one has to wonder what happened since the boy seemed fine initially. Adopted back in September, 2009, the grandmother said that all was well until January, 2010.

Speaking from the home in Shelbyville that she shares with her daughter, Nancy Hansen said a social worker checked on the boy in January and reported to Russian authorities that there were no problems. But after that, the grandmother said incidents of hitting, kicking, spitting began to escalate, along with threats.

"He drew a picture of our house burning down and he'll tell anybody that he's going to burn our house down with us in it," she told The Associated Press in a phone interview. "It got to be where you feared for your safety. It was terrible."

The boy told an official for the Children's Rights Commissioner, Anna Orlova, paints a different picture.

Anna Orlova, a spokeswoman for Kremlin's Children Rights Commissioner, told The Associated Press that she visited the boy on Friday and he told her that his mother was "bad," "did not love him," and used to pull his hair.

One has to wonder what the real story is. Was he really a devil-child trying to burn down the house, or just a normal young boy trying to adjust, getting into trouble perhaps and reacting to being disciplined? I suppose we will probably never know the truth, but as a result, the cessation of U.S. adoptions could mean that hundreds of families might not be able to adopt Russian children, which probably wouldn't be that bad a situation since there are many children in this country waiting to be adopted. In 2009, there were approximately 1,600 children adopted by Americans.

In the meantime, Tennessee authorities will investigate both Torry Hansen and the Russian allegations of abandonment.

Sadly, it seems that foreign adoptions are one of the main sources for finding homes for Russian children, since it's apparently very challenging to place them in Russia.

And there are at least 740,000 parentless children in that country. But this isn't the only bad ending for a Russian child adopted in the U.S.

In 2006, Peggy Sue Hilt of Manassas, Virginia, was sentenced to 25 years in prison after being convicted of fatally beating a 2-year-old girl adopted from Siberia months earlier.

In 2008, Kimberly Emelyantsev of Tooele, Utah, was sentenced to 15 years after pleading guilty to killing a Russian infant in her care.

And in March of this year, prosecutors in Pennsylvania met with a Russian diplomats to discuss how to handle the case of a couple accused of killing their 7-year-old adopted Russian son at their home near the town of Dillsburg.

I think it's great that Russia continues to look out for its children that are adopted abroad, but outright freezing adoptions might not be in the best interest of the children. Though any child that is harmed is one too many, should you make the other many children who might find loving homes suffer for the terrible actions of a few?

As for Torry Hansen, let's hope she decides children are not in the cards for her and doesn't attempt to adopt again. I don't think she's cut out to be a mother.