American Torry-Ann Hansen SENDS BACK Adopted Russian Son Artem
 

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/0..._n_531477.html

ussia should freeze all child adoptions with U.S. families, the country's foreign minister urged Friday after an American woman allegedly put her 8-year-old adopted Russian son on a one-way flight back to his homeland.

Artyom Savelyev arrived in Moscow unaccompanied on a United Airlines flight Thursday from Washington, the Kremlin children's rights office said Friday.

The children's office said the boy, whose adoptive name is Justin Hansen, was carrying a letter from his adoptive mother, Torry Hansen of Shelbyville, Tennessee, 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, according to Russian officials, who sent what they said was a copy of the letter to The Associated Press. The authenticity of the letter could not be independently verified.

The U.S. ambassador to Russia, John Beyrle, said he was "deeply shocked by the news" and "very angry that any family would act so callously toward a child that they had legally adopted."

The boy is now in the hospital in northern Moscow for a checkup, Anna Orlova, spokeswoman for Kremlin's Children Rights Commissioner Pavel Astakhov, told The Associated Press.

Orlova, who visited Savelyev on Friday, said the child reported that his mother was "bad," "did not love him," and used to pull his hair.

Savelyev was adopted late September last year from the town of Partizansk in Russia's Far East.

He turned up at the door of the Russian Education and Science Ministry on Thursday afternoon accompanied by a Russian man who had been hired by Savelyev's adopted grandmother to pick him up from the airport, according to the ministry. The chaperone handed over the boy and his documents, and then left, officials said.

That is absolutely horrible. And I hate to be selfish, but my husband and I were starting to go through the process of adopting a Russian child... I hope the process isn't stalled too long or cancelled completely.

I swear, the Law & Order episodes are starting to become self-fulfilling prophecies.

If this child does have major emotional problems and they weren't fully disclosed or outright lied about to the adoptive parents, IMO they are completely justified in returning him to the adoption agency. This sure isn't the way to do so though.

I ironically saw a "Police Women of Maricopa County" episode last night (there was nothing on, and it's totally a guilty pleasure of mine) and there was a woman who called the cops to take her foster son away- apparently he was a teenager, had some sort of mental disease that made him act much younger, and even though he was in the family's house since he was like 7 years old, they decided they had enough of him and told the cops, "Here, you take him". It's sad.

So do I! My friends are in the final stages of adopting an 18 month old girl from Russia. They are supposed to leave next week for a 28 day trip to pick her up and bring her back to the US.

The foster system itself is sad. Yes they do take children from crappy home lives, but they also are often put back into a foster family that is just as messed up. It happens in Kentucky all the time. A few of them were former patients of mine.

Do they tell you if a child is mentally challenged prior to the completion of an adoption?

I agree

Sometimes you get more than you bargained for in adoption.. or with your own kids.

To think these kids come with a money-back guarantee though... someone should lock this lady up. In adoption, you get what you get.

I don't think that's moral at all, nor justifiable.

There are no guarantees in adoption. Adoptive families need to be open to what they get as that's what they sign up for.

This is part of the problem. A lot of orphanages and agencies aren't disclosing known mental OR physical health problems with the kids, especially when foreigners are adopting the kids. Do you remember what happened when Americans adopted the children from Romanian orphanages after the fall of Communism?

There was a similar case in Minnesota, where the adoptive parents went to the state and shared their concerns. In this case, the parents had already adopted a Russian baby with little problem; the orphanages were different.

Also, let's not forget that many, if not most, of the kids in these orphanages aren't orphans at all and were just dropped off by their parents for whatever reason. Who knows what they saw and experienced before being dropped off?

We have a family member who was adopted from Russia. At the time the child was 7 months old. The adoptive parents were sent a tape of the child to be reviewed by doctors. They knew that there might be some developmental delays since he was turned over to the orphanage by the mother the day he was born and thus not given the attention necessary for proper development. Once the child turn 4 the parents were informed by doctors here that many of the child's problems were because of attachment disorders. There is no way the child is going to be returned to Russia, the parents spend lots of money on therapy and special school in order to help the child become successful in life.

To send the child back after 6 months because of behavior is awful. A 7 year old come with lots of baggage, and that means it will take time to adjust, learn a new language, not feel as if they are abandoned, and feel loved. There is no way this child will develop instant love and respect for the adoptive family. He is still trying to figure out what is going on.

DaffyKD

former co-worker of mine adopted from Russia and said that the biggest problems with the children in the orphanages were attachment problems and fetal alcohol syndrome- and in many cases both. When they returned with their son (he was about 1 when they go him) they began therapy almost immediately with him because of delays. He is now around 5 and is still in therapy, but leads a pretty normal life. (at least based on what I can tell via facebook)

I can sort of understand getting so frustrated that you don't know what to do to help a child, but sending them back in this way does not help with attachment issues that the child already has!

Like Munchkin03 said, many Russian orphanages aren't fully disclosing physical or mental problems. That isn't moral or justifiable either, if they're purposely doing it to unload kids who they don't think will get adopted. Some parents have no problem adopting special needs kids at all - in fact they request them. But you shouldn't be told "this child is 100% healthy" only to get him home and have to pay for $20,000 worth of surgery and ongoing psychiatric care.

I am unsure as to what all Russia discloses. I know that Fetal Alcohol Syndrome is a huge issue in a lot of the orphanages, and it does an adoptive family well to request current weight and measurements and allow a doctor who is experienced with foreign adoptions to review the medical history they send you. This helped my friends avoid some trouble. They were up for a brother & sister adoption. Once they got the current measurements back on the boy, it was clear he had fetal alcohol syndrome which was something that wasnt disclosed initially on the paperwork. It is not uncommon for adoptive parents to bring children back here from a foreign adoption, get checked out by an American doctor, and discover other problems. If the problems are intentially left out of the paperwork or not is speculation. Failure to thrive is a major issue with children from a lot of foreign countries because there are so many children and not enough help.

With Russia anyway you do have to make a trip to Russia to meet your child for a few days, and then in a few months you go back for about 28 days or so to pick them up and finalize the adoption process. Atleast that is how my friends have done it/are doing it.