Return to sender, address unkown...

…No such person, no such zone.  I doubt that when Elvis sang that catchy tune, he could have known that decades later we could be singing the same tune, but instead of lovers’ spats, we would be singing about Russian orphans. 

You may have heard about the boy “Justin” who was put on a plane sans parents, with a note telling Russian authorities that he was, in essence, a defective child and they didn’t want him anymore.  It can be very difficult adopting children, especially older children who may have many emotional problems.  Many of them lack the ability to attach and bond because of their abandonment issues.  That said, is it ever okay to pack a kid up like a toaster with a sticky button that you take back to Walmart?   I have thought long and hard about this, and I have come to a resounding “No way, José.”

First of all the adoptive mother, Torrey Hansen, is a nurse.  This is a woman whose chosen career is dedicated to helping those who are sick.  Perhaps she felt that mental illness doesn’t count.  It is impossible to know, because she is currently nowhere to be found.  I guess you can’t really blame her for running.  After all, a woman who would ditch a kid at the airport probably has no scruples about hiding from the law.  (By the way, the family denies that they “ditched” him because they paid a tour guide to pick him up in Russia and take him back to the orphanage.  Has anyone else ever heard of human trafficking?  How hard would it have been for someone to take that kid and we would just never hear from him again?  Would Torrey Hansen have even cared?  He wasn’t her problem anymore.) 

In her reasoning, Hansen stated that she and her family felt threatened by the child and that they feared for their safety.  One might think that the logical thing to do with a boy who is clearly suffering from emotional problems would be to enter him into some form of rehabilitative therapy.  Unless, of course, your name is Torrey Hansen.  According to news sources, she spoke to several psychologists about the boy.  She just never bothered to actually take him to one.  Wow.  Really?  First of all, it might not have been a bad idea for the boy to see a therapist in the first place.  I am sure that adoption in and of itself is a traumatic experience.  Lay on top of that moving the child to another country where no one speaks his language, and that is just a whole other thing.  Lord knows that there are plenty of doctors around who speak Russian.  Heck, even my anesthesiologist at my last surgery was Russian.  How hard would it have been to do an internet search to find the kid a therapist that he could actually talk to? 

Why didn’t the Hansen’s turn to local agencies for help?  There are always programs to help with disturbed children.  They could have received help and much needed support to help him adjust.  If for some reason he was found to be so emotional disturbed that he couldn’t function in society, well, they have programs for that too.  What kind of human being dumps a kid with a note in his pocket (reading, by the way: "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.") at the airport without so much as an hasta la vista? Call me when you land to let me know that you got there safely?  Anything?  The kind of people who belong in jail for child abandonment.  Torrey Hansen’s mother was the one who actually bought the ticket and put the child on the plane.  Is there a criminal charge for accessory to child abandonment?  If there isn’t there should be.

We shouldn’t excuse the behavior of people because they have seen one too many movies about evil orphans from Russia and they are afraid that they are going to get pushed down the stairs.  (Really, there is a movie called Orphan about an evil orphan from Russia.)  Especially when they hardly even bothered to look for help for him.  Let’s be honest, the real reason that they sent him back was because he was more work than they bargained for.  They wanted a cute Russian kid who was polite and smiled.  They felt like they got refurbished goods in a brand new box, so they him back to the manufacturer. 

If this kid didn’t have problems before, he sure as hell does now.



F. Bear Slippers