@ Lynnette: The boy in your article is a lot older though.
I think at age 7 even a kid with serious issues has a chance if ppl really try to do all that is possible - which in this case would definitely have included to seek psychological help if adoptive mom and grandmom truthfully described the problems with the boy.
But the thought of getting professional help apparently didn’t even cross their minds.

I also kind of doubt that it is really possible for anyone to know that it is utterly impossible for them to go on living together with a child after having spent only 7 months with him. A lot of that time must have been taken up by trying to overcome the language barrier in any case…

One thing’s for certain though; this damaged the poor kid even further and any future parents will have to deal with this added baggage as well.

@ JG: I sincerely hope that US authorities find them guilty of something, be it abandonment or whatever would be fitting for this under US adoption laws or whatever.

@ Lynnette: Or maybe he’s just still so fascinated by my frozen roses.

Mel, the frozen roses certainly did grab my attention! When I was in Berlin in Jan and Feb it was all dirty, icey snow everywhere, and no frozen roses at all. Guess I’ll have to wait until next year!

Yes, the boy in my article is probably around 13, given that it was a middle school he brought the gun to. He was adopted at the age of 3 from Russia. And it appears that that couple did try everything, including psychological help. One would hope that removing a child that young from an abusive environment would help with his problems. But whatever was tried apparently didn’t work, and it remains to be seen what the future holds for this boy and anyone who may come in contact with him.

I would like to add that I certainly don’t want to imply that all children adopted from Russia are at risk for violent psychological problems. I know there are many wonderful outcomes for families and the children they adopt from that country. And I also have heard of problems with adoptive children from the US. I think that it is the responsibility of the adoptive parents to look into the backgrounds of any children they may be seeking to adopt. Just as in the adoption of special needs children with physical limitations they need to know what they are getting into and decide if they have the capability of dealing with the special problems these children may have. Although, even then, that might not have helped the couple in my article. Obviously, they were overwhelmed.

The couple from Tennessee who sent the boy back to Russia unattended certainly might be open to a charge of child abandonment. But I don’t know all the details, nor the legal requirements to make that charge stick. Hmmm..I just went up and read the full article. It sounds like the authorities aren’t sure either. And it does appear that the parents tried to arrange for the boy to be met in Russia and escorted to his destination.

As for the language barrier, if he could tell people he wanted to burn the house down, and be understood, then he must have known some English. But perhaps the question is, was that desire motivated by psychologiical problems that pre-date his arrival in the US, or from something that occurred after he arrived? They interviewed one of the family’s neighbors on TV and she said that the family pretty much kept to themselves, but that she was aware of some problems they were having with the boy. I just hate to judge from what I read in the press.

Btw, if you speak to Anarki, would you tell him that I think I have solved my computer problem? The one where I kept getting that horrible “Internet Explorer can’t display the webpage” message? He tried to help me with that, and I just thought he might like to add the solution to his professional reference library. It was a problem with my anti-virus software, Norton. After I did an uninstall, I was able to view the pages I couldn’t before. I did end up removing it entirely from my computer using the Norton removal tool. I went with something else, as Norton also seemed to slow down my computer.

JG,

I’ve stopped by the last couple of days to catch up on the comments I missed while I was busy. There really hasn’t been much I’ve felt like commenting on. They seem to have fallen into the usual pattern of name calling, rather than real debate. And Bruno finally seemed to give up on our debate, so I haven’t had to come up with a rebuttal. Gives me a chance to try to catch up on the other blogs I’ve neglected. I’m still way behind on “My Marrakesh” for instance. *sigh*

So Bruno blinked first!

When Adoption Isn’t Easy