woman adopts Russian boy...then gives him back

[tattuchu]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/04/0 ... t_44269377

Poor kid. How much you wanna make a bet she was a religious twat who made the poor kid's life a living hell?

MOSCOW — Russia threatened to suspend all child adoptions by U.S. families Friday after a 7-year-old boy adopted by a woman from Tennessee was sent alone on a one-way flight back to Moscow with a note saying he was violent and had severe psychological problems.

The boy, Artyom Savelyev, was put on a plane by his adopted grandmother, Nancy Hansen of Shelbyville.

"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 telephone interview. "It got to be where you feared for your safety. It was terrible."

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov called the actions by the grandmother "the last straw" in a string of U.S. adoptions gone wrong, including three in which Russian children had died in the U.S.

In an exclusive interview with ABC News' George Stephanopoulos, Dmitry Medvedev said the boy "fell into a very bad family."

"It is a monstrous deed on the part of his adoptive parents, to take the kid and virtually throw him out with the airplane in the opposite direction and to say, 'I'm sorry I could not cope with it, take everything back' is not only immoral but also against the law," Medvedev said.

The cases have prompted outrage in Russia, where foreign adoption failures are reported prominently. Russian main TV networks ran extensive reports on the latest incident in their main evening news shows.

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, 33.

Any possible freeze could affect hundreds of American families. Last year, nearly 1,600 Russian children were adopted in the United States, and more than 60,000 Russian orphans have been successfully adopted there, according to the National Council For Adoption, a U.S. adoption advocacy nonprofit group.
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"We're obviously very troubled by it," U.S. State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley said in Washington when asked about the boy's case. He told reporters the U.S. and Russia share a responsibility for the child's safety and Washington will work closely with Moscow to make sure adoptions are legal and appropriately monitored.

Asked if he thought a suspension by Russia was warranted, Crowley said, "If Russia does suspend cooperation on the adoption, that is its right. These are Russian citizens."

"Child abandonment of any kind is reprehensible," said Chuck Johnson, acting CEO of the National Council For Adoption. "The actions of this mother are especially troubling because an already vulnerable, innocent child has been further victimized."

The boy arrived unaccompanied in Moscow on a United Airlines flight on Thursday from Washington. Social workers sent him to a Moscow hospital for a health checkup and criticized his adoptive mother for abandoning him.

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."

The boy was adopted in September from the town of Partizansk in Russia's Far East.

Nancy Hansen, the grandmother, told The Associated Press that she and the boy flew to Washington and she put the child on the plane with the note from her daughter. She vehemently rejected assertions of child abandonment by Russian authorities, saying he was watched over by a United Airlines stewardess and the family paid a man $200 to pick the boy up at the Moscow airport and take him to the Russian Education and Science Ministry.

[Feck]

Was it still under warranty .. I hope she got her money back not just shop credit !

[tattuchu]

Some more details are coming out, but we still don't know much about the adoptive mother. It's difficult to say at this point if the boy was indeed deeply disturbed as she claims (and if you've seen the film Orphan, you know this is entirely possible), or if the kid was simply acting out because his life was being made miserable by her. My sympathies rest with the boy for the time being. Maybe if he were an ugly kid, it might be easier to believe he was rotten. But it's difficult to look at that angelic face and think there's anything evil behind it.

[Twoflower]

It really doesn't matter if the kid was mentally disturbed or not. She adopted him, she is responsible for him. If she needed to give him back for whatever reason she should have contacted the orphanage and either gone with him back to Russia, or have someone from the orphanage come and get him. There is no excuse for what she did, and I hope she is locked up for a long time for this.

[JimC]

Was it still under warranty .. I hope she got her money back not just shop credit !

Maybe all that was needed was a quick repair, anyway...

[Xamonas Chegwé]

It really doesn't matter if the kid was mentally disturbed or not. She adopted him, she is responsible for him. If she needed to give him back for whatever reason she should have contacted the orphanage and either gone with him back to Russia, or have someone from the orphanage come and get him. There is no excuse for what she did, and I hope she is locked up for a long time for this.

^^This^^

Even if she was sold 'shop-soiled' goods, a child is not a DVD recorder that you can send back if it isn't compatible with an NTSC TV! If she had had a child of her own that turned out to have behavioral difficulties, would she have tried to send him back too?

[Ele]

I give the adoptive mother the benefit of the doubt and think that the Russians are trying to save face for having been exposed for their irresponsible adoption practice. It's not a good look for Russia to be adopting out the violent psycho children when there are so many other needy children... they are trying to point the finger of blame to the" heartless Americans". It's suspicious anyway...

This is not the first case of American adoptive parents who say their Russian children came with severe mental and behavioral issues, some to the point of extreme violence - the reputation of Russia's orphanage system is under scrutiny.

The adoptive mother was a nurse and she would have to be pretty bloody seriously concerned for her and her own family's safety to make this devastating decision. Her family arranged for the child to be supervised by a stewardess on the plane and to be picked up and taken to the office in Moscow. He was not abandoned on the street.

The letter she wrote and gave the child was very telling of her side of the story. It's hard to find it in its entirity online... looking....

[Twiglet]

You can see the full note at the bottom of the page here: http://whitewatch.wordpress.com/2010/04 ... m-anymore/



It provides a bit of context. Like Ele, I am wary of believing we have the full story here. It takes a lot of effort to adopt a child, and when people are in genuine fear, they don't always behave in the most appropriate way.

[ED209]

To Whom it May Concern,

Please accept delivery of this child which I have posted halfway around the world in the hope that some dude I met on the internet would actually show up to pick him up at the airport, not molest him, and deliver him to some or other institution, despite my having legal guardianship at the time.

This stupid cow needs to go to prison.

[Trolldor]

Not 'some guy', especially as she's a nurse this kid would have to have severe problems for her to be unable to deal with it.

[Chinaski]

Anyone would go batshit if they were suddenly served Jack Daniels instead of Absolut or Finlandia.