Children have no 'return to sender'
Torry Ann Hansen made international headlines last week when she returned her adopted son, Justin, to Russia. Hansen said he “was violent and had severe psychological problems,” according to the Associated Press.
Did Hansen seriously stick this 7-year-old boy on a plane by himself and send him back to Russia with only a note in his backpack explaining her actions? Who does that? What adult thinks that’s O.K. or safe?
Possibly related:
- Contract questioned · Feb 8
- Creationist theme park shouldn't get backing · Feb 8
- It's not always ADD, know the real signs · Feb 8
- Views on weed now shifting · Feb 5
- Space exploration is a must · Feb 5
Now, Russia has threatened to suspend all adoptions to the United States and families who have already started the process are scared they won’t be able to finalize their adoptions.
Russians want legal actions taken against Hansen, while American authorities are trying to figure out who has jurisdiction over the boy, what charges to file against Hansen, whether Justin is an American citizen and if he should be returned to Tennessee.
According to a New York Times article, adoption officials said once the boy stepped on American soil he became an American citizen. Therefore, he should be brought back to Tennessee, which is where Hansen lives. Russian officials say he is a Russian, not an American, so he should remain in Moscow and be put back in to their adoption system.
I don’t understand why people are confused; it seems pretty clear to me. Hansen, an American, adopted him. Legally, Justin is her American son.
I also don’t understand why the authorities have delayed charging Hansen. If a birth mother put her biological son on a plane without a chaperone and sent him off to a foreign country, practically wiping her hands of him, that would be child abandonment.
She would be in jail and would lose custody of her child. How is this situation any different?
The Associated Press article said Hansen and her mother, Nancy, had no other choice but to send him back. They claim officials at the Russian orphanage lied to them. Nancy Hansen accused the orphanage of knowing about her grandson’s behavior and lying to “get rid of him.”
I bet if any parent were asked, he or she would say that all children have a tendency to be difficult. But the average parent doesn’t send his or her child to an orphanage or the hospital where he was born, claiming “this little kid is a nightmare, so I’m sending him back to where he came from. I don’t want him anymore.”
While I’m not a parent, I’m pretty confident it doesn’t work like that.
According to the U.S. State Department, when a parent adopts a child, besides agreeing to care for the child until he or she is 18, they are assigned an adoption specialist who helps the family and the new child adjust. The social worker also monitors the family for potential problems.
The Hansen’s were assigned a social worker, whose last visit was in January. The family claimed the boy was violent and unstable, yet they never reported problems to the social worker. The Associated Press story said there were no documented claims of his alleged hitting, kicking or other threatening behavior.
There is also no evidence to support the claim that Justin tried to start a fire in the Hansen’s house. If he did, why are there no fire department records or 9-1-1 emergency calls? If he was so bad, why didn’t the family speak up or ask for help? There had to have been other steps they could have taken before making the drastic decision to send him back to Russia.
While the details of the case and its outcome are being hammered out, the State Department is urging Russian officials to not halt other American adoptions of Russian children.
Other parents should not be penalized for Hansen’s actions. While Hansen clearly fell through the cracks of the adoption screening process, not every American parent will send their Russian children back after seven months.
I do agree with adoption officials who now say they need to re-examine their screening process for potential adoptive parents. Maybe new screening processes could prevent another “Torry Hansen” from becoming a mother.
The adoption process is long and stressful enough without this woman’s actions causing more problems. While this woman shouldn’t have been a mother, there are other perfectly sane, loving mothers who would love to give a child a home and should be given the opportunity.
- |
by SHB
I absolutely agree. As a mother (and an adoptive one at that), I don’t understand how this could happen with (so far) no repercussions to the mother. Having children naturally or by adoption is a commitment, and not a decision to be taken lightly – nor does it come with a money back guarantee. And besides all that…what kind of person puts a child on a plane and sends them off to a foreign country with a note explaining the situation? Is that really the best answer she could come up with?? I can’t blame the adoption officials who are rethinking some of their processes…though, hopefully they won’t let one person who clearly isn’t cut out for parenting spoil the chances for other American families to be created through international adoption.
Flag for moderationby daydreamer
You are correct, the mother is guilty of child abandonment. My grandson, is extremely difficult, but we love and we would never think of doing anything to him. He is a beautiful child. My son, when he was young, got made at school and threatened to burn it down, he was in 2nd grade. Today he married, a father of two, and goes to church every Sunday. A lot of kids can be difficult at times, but they outgrow it. This mother needed to love that child, hold him, and help him grow into a good adult. She needs, send her to Siberia and bring the boy back.
Flag for moderationby RAL
I agree with a lot of what this article states, but as an adoptive parent – my child was adopted from Russia – the statement “According to the U.S. State Department, when a parent adopts a child, besides agreeing to care for the child until he or she is 18, they are assigned an adoption specialist who helps the family and the new child adjust. The social worker also monitors the family for potential problems”… is NOT true – if there is an “assigned adoption specialist” I’d like to meet them – in the 4 years since my adoption in Russia was completed, I have never even heard of such, and I would venture to guess that even if a social worker did visit, it was for the first of the 3 required updates which have to be filed with the Russian consulate after the adoption and it is more a formaility than a “true” visit from a social worker…
I believe that this is a very sad situation and I pray that other children and parents will not have to pay for one overwhelmed individuals bad judgment… Mercy!!
Flag for moderationby spz
I adopted a 6 y/o from Russia, she is now 11. They told me up front that children instutionalized in Orphanages will have developmental problems, so I expected that. She also had nutritional defecits and at age 6 wore a size 18 months to 3 in clothing. These are children that never owned anything to call their own, slept on tiny cot like beds, were locked away from bathrooms at night, were never allowed to go to the refrigerator to get a snack, and never experienced the love, kindness and attention that family born children get from parents. Who wouldn’t have emotional problems under those circumstances. After adoption they experience post traumatic stress effects too. Post-instutionalized children must be treated with love and care. My daughter also has Fetal Alcohol Effects..drinking during pregnancy is common in Russia..so that means she has further cognitive delays. But she is my daughter, I love her, and whatever problems she may have are things that I will help her deal with no matter what I have to do. Her future is the important thing in my adoption.
After the adoption it is standard procedure to have a Social Worker (the one you had do your pre-adoption home visit, so it is a person of your choice) do post adoptive evaluations at 3 months, 6 months, 1 year and 2 years. This is to help evaluate and deal with any problems. Adoption agencies also recommend you take your child to a medical specialist pediatrican, psychologist etc. There are also specialists available, usually in bigger cities, in adoptive medicine that can help assess a child and steer parents toward services.Adoption is not about the parents and their wish for a ‘perfect’ fantasy child….it’s about the CHILD, a child that has already experienced the effects of abandonmen, and his/her need for a loving kind family that will love and take care of him/her no matter what. A family that will be like his/her rock of strength and help him/her deal with his problems, no matter what the extent of them. That poor, innocent little boy being bounced back and forth internationally country to country, from people (adults who should know better—I can’t call them “family”) to orphanage. How scared, hurt and painful he must feel. I can’t imagine how horrified he must have felt being put on an international flight (16 hours or so) all alone. (I also can’t imagine why the airline allowed a small child to travel alone on that long flight. Why did they even let him board?)These are scars to his psyche that will last a lifetime. His welfare is the important issue in this mess. I don’t blame the Russian government for feeling he’d be safer and better cared for than he was by these people back in the security of an orphanage.
The horrible thing is that they may have ruined the chances at Russian adoption for many loving families who would be willing to take any child no matter how imperfect.
Flag for moderationby brt
I very weary to believe that Russia with 740,000 orphans in its “system” is capable of providing full physical and psychological records of all their orphans to perspective parents. It is no hidden knowledge that most of these children are kept in dreadful subhuman living conditions. Many are born with birth defects due to an irresponsible lifestyle the birth mother might have had or the environmental conditions she might have lived in. Orphanages are often in poor conditions due to a lack of government funding. These children lack medical and nutritional care not to mentioned emotional loving care. I do not condone Torry-Ann Hansen’s actions, but I can certainly understand why she did it. Russia is up in arms about this whole situation, threatening to freeze all adoptions… demanding that Ms Hansen be held accountable for the abandonment, neglect and supposed abuse of this 7 year old russian child. Well… what about the abandonment, neglect and abuse of the 740,000 orphans in their system? Who in Russia is held accountable for their suffering?
Flag for moderationI do hope that our U.S. government doesn’t get persuaded into any adoption treaty… Russia shouldn’t have any legal say over Americans who adopt. They should busy themselves in prosecuting the thousands of dead-beat parents that so easily abandon their children. I’d rather they cease adoptions to the U.S. then to be bullied into a bureaucratic treaty.