Maladopted Trauma
For heartless denial of a child's needs this has got to be one of the worst instances of rejection. Who even knew that Russia permitted orphaned children to be adopted abroad? Yet it appears that there were 1,600 Russian children adopted by Americans last year. Among Americans looking to adopt children evidently Chinese, then Guatemalan children come in first and second preferentially, followed by Russian children.
Amazingly, Russian authorities are aware that some of these Russian orphans adopted by U.S. citizens and brought to the United States to live were murdered by their new parents. One two-year old child, a little girl from Siberia was beaten to death by a woman who had adopted her several months before she killed the child. Obviously these were anomalies. Obviously most adopted children are loved and cherished.
But just as obviously dispossessed children are in mortal danger when adoptive parents' backgrounds are not sufficiently investigated. Financial means must be present, but is there no investigation into mental stability and overall suitability for adults to take charge of vulnerable young children?
Surely adoption agencies do take all necessary precautions in ensuring the viability of assumptive parents before discharging American-born children to their care. Why not the same due diligence for children brought from abroad?
The case brought forward in the media where a 34-year-old nurse from Shelbyville, Tennessee, Torry Ann Hanson, went through an adoption process through the Vladivostok orphanage in Russia, to bring back to her home a seven-year-old boy, Artem Saveliev, to become her child, is shocking in the extreme.
Consider the mind of a 7-year-old child without a family, living in an institution with other orphans. How confused and alienated such a child must be. Then to be taken from the institution to an entirely new country with another culture, a different language and customs, to be confused and fearful of all these changes. Most children would 'act out'.
And it would appear that little Artem did just that. Hardly surprising when his very identity was removed; his new 'mother' deciding to rename him, as one might a dog taken from the pound. He would no longer be Artem Saveliev, but Justin Hansen. Quite the change for a child; his original vulnerable state compounded by a stranger resolutely altering his very idea of himself.
"To whom it may concern", wrote Ms. Hansen in a note that accompanied the rejected child, returned on an unaccompanied flight back to Moscow from Tennessee. The note set out Ms. Hansen's dissatisfaction with her misfortune: the little boy was exhibiting mental instability, was violent and had "severe psychopathic issues/behaviours".
The child, for his part, informed an interlocutor of the Kremlin's children rights commission that the woman who had gone through adoption procedures to take possession of her new son was "bad", and "did not love him", and pulled his hair. Children are frank and speak the truth, while adults prevaricate and speak what best avails their agendas.
Claiming that the staff at the Vladivostok orphanage had not informed her of the little boy's 'mental instability' in their anxiety to remove him from their care, she explained that she had "given my best to this child [but was] sorry to say that for the safety of my family, friends and myself, I no longer wish to parent this child.
"As he is a Russian national, I am returning him to your guardianship and would like the adoption disannulled (sic)." The single mother had evidently experienced some unsurprising but unappreciated acting out on the part of the confused little boy. He had been violent and angry, according to Ms. Hansen's mother.
It would have been surprising if he had exhibited none of these reactive tendencies, given his experiences.
When the little boy arrived in Moscow he carried a backpack and in it were candies and cookies and markers. Along with the note tersely explaining why the child was being summarily returned. Often enough people who adopt unwanted, abandoned and often mistreated rescued dogs decide, after a week or two has passed, that they haven't the patience to deal with the dog's issues.
It's hard enough on a dog, a sentient creature, to be rejected time and again. Tougher still on a small child to understand why he has been so cruelly treated by an indifferent fate. Horrible beyond reason that children would be considered disposable objects; expendable, and swiftly forgotten.
Amazingly, Russian authorities are aware that some of these Russian orphans adopted by U.S. citizens and brought to the United States to live were murdered by their new parents. One two-year old child, a little girl from Siberia was beaten to death by a woman who had adopted her several months before she killed the child. Obviously these were anomalies. Obviously most adopted children are loved and cherished.
But just as obviously dispossessed children are in mortal danger when adoptive parents' backgrounds are not sufficiently investigated. Financial means must be present, but is there no investigation into mental stability and overall suitability for adults to take charge of vulnerable young children?
Surely adoption agencies do take all necessary precautions in ensuring the viability of assumptive parents before discharging American-born children to their care. Why not the same due diligence for children brought from abroad?
The case brought forward in the media where a 34-year-old nurse from Shelbyville, Tennessee, Torry Ann Hanson, went through an adoption process through the Vladivostok orphanage in Russia, to bring back to her home a seven-year-old boy, Artem Saveliev, to become her child, is shocking in the extreme.
Consider the mind of a 7-year-old child without a family, living in an institution with other orphans. How confused and alienated such a child must be. Then to be taken from the institution to an entirely new country with another culture, a different language and customs, to be confused and fearful of all these changes. Most children would 'act out'.
And it would appear that little Artem did just that. Hardly surprising when his very identity was removed; his new 'mother' deciding to rename him, as one might a dog taken from the pound. He would no longer be Artem Saveliev, but Justin Hansen. Quite the change for a child; his original vulnerable state compounded by a stranger resolutely altering his very idea of himself.
"To whom it may concern", wrote Ms. Hansen in a note that accompanied the rejected child, returned on an unaccompanied flight back to Moscow from Tennessee. The note set out Ms. Hansen's dissatisfaction with her misfortune: the little boy was exhibiting mental instability, was violent and had "severe psychopathic issues/behaviours".
The child, for his part, informed an interlocutor of the Kremlin's children rights commission that the woman who had gone through adoption procedures to take possession of her new son was "bad", and "did not love him", and pulled his hair. Children are frank and speak the truth, while adults prevaricate and speak what best avails their agendas.
Claiming that the staff at the Vladivostok orphanage had not informed her of the little boy's 'mental instability' in their anxiety to remove him from their care, she explained that she had "given my best to this child [but was] sorry to say that for the safety of my family, friends and myself, I no longer wish to parent this child.
"As he is a Russian national, I am returning him to your guardianship and would like the adoption disannulled (sic)." The single mother had evidently experienced some unsurprising but unappreciated acting out on the part of the confused little boy. He had been violent and angry, according to Ms. Hansen's mother.
It would have been surprising if he had exhibited none of these reactive tendencies, given his experiences.
When the little boy arrived in Moscow he carried a backpack and in it were candies and cookies and markers. Along with the note tersely explaining why the child was being summarily returned. Often enough people who adopt unwanted, abandoned and often mistreated rescued dogs decide, after a week or two has passed, that they haven't the patience to deal with the dog's issues.
It's hard enough on a dog, a sentient creature, to be rejected time and again. Tougher still on a small child to understand why he has been so cruelly treated by an indifferent fate. Horrible beyond reason that children would be considered disposable objects; expendable, and swiftly forgotten.
Labels: Human Relations, societal failures, United States
posted by Pieface @ 5:43 PM
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