This is cross-posted from my Nikto Ne Zabyt (Memoriam for Russian Adoptees Murdered and Abused by their Forever Families) blog.
These are “before” and “after” pictures of Artem Saveliev/Artem Justin Hansen. The first picture isof Artem and Forever Mother Torry Ann Hansen taken mid-end September 2009 at his orphanage in Primorye. The second picture is of Artem at Domodedovo Airport, Moscow, April 8, 2010
Here is a picture of the note Forever Mother Torry Ann Hansen sent with her throw-away.
I am writing in depth today, but I wanted to get these pictures up. They’re important.
My hope is that this case shines a light on these adoptions, espcially those being undertaken by people who think they’re *called* to adopt. the pictures are very revealing.
This boy was raised by his original mother for 6 years. How would he not have had some serious issues? Moreover, this is information his adoptive mother would have received. Just put 2 + 2 together.
Ok, you made me cry, looking at that last picture, especially compared to the picture I got yesterday of my happy, healthy, beautiful Russian niece who is not much younger.
If only Russia could extradite that “Mutha” and let whoever are the present equivalent of the KGB take over. Maybe a nice trip to a nice salt mine in Siberia would be in order too. Hanging is too good for the people who did this to an innocent child.
Hi BD, BBC World Sevrice Radio here. If you get this by 4pm Eastern give us a call for your reax to Artem. I’m on +44 207 557 2141
Paul
WACAP was the agency – and they’ve been doing placements from Vladivostok for a long time.
As for the issues he had – I don’t doubt he had the issues and the orphanage director and workers LIED and drugged the boy while Special Nurse Loving Happy AMom Torry was at the orphanage.
That does IN NO WAY EVER excuse what she pulled on this kid. NO WAY. What in the HELL was this bint thinking BEFORE she adotped a 7 year old from an insitutional setting, from a child who’d been removed from his (allegedly) alcoholic biological not quite a year before? Was she living in happily ever after all it takes is food and love and PAL land?
The US should charge her with child endangerment, along with HER mother.
What I don’t understand is, how come she didn’t try to “re-home” him on the 2nd hand kid market? Usually that’s the first place these I.A. AParents go when they can’t handle the child. You know one of those megafamily Kid Kollectors would have jumped at the chance to “rescue” another soul.
FWIW I hope this will see the end of Russian adoptions. Enough is enough. And we AParents have only ourselves to blame.
E.Case –
AParent to an International Adoptee
My heart is breaking for that little boy, how could any right minded person be so cold and cruel to such a vunerable child. Hopefully it will be a big wake up call to people that adoption is a lifelong adjustment process and requires work and patience.
This story actually made the news.
People are sick.
If you want to judge the boy’s character and personality by these three photos… in the third he looks slightly retarded. Having said that, the american should not have been lied to. adoption of a child without developmental issues is difficult enough, taking on one with lots of problems only intensive therapy can improve is extremely difficult. I work with kids between 11 and 16 who are autistic, dyslexic, dysphagic, etc. If the american believed she couldn’t handle that type of a child, it is better she send him back rather than risk damaging him further. As for the Russians…. shame on them.
BBC: I only have long distance on my cell and it won’t let me call overseas. I’d love to talk. If you call me at 614-0571-2999 I can give you my landline number and we can do an interview.
Well, Anon, you could just as easily conclude from the pictures that in the second the child displays focused activity and fine motor control. As for the third one, how would you look after an international flight of long duration over multiple time zones? No way to know when the child last slept or ate. This sitation makes us uncomfortable, but no need to add to the demonization of the child.
Boy is not a toy. Also, it is crime to send him back unattended to virtual nowhere in Russia. He would died, if no one get him to the authority. Torry Ann Hansen did very bed reputation for Americans indeed! Irresponsible, stupid and outrages move!
Actually, the name of the child on the first picture is Ivan C. So it is not Artem.
Just to clarify, as the child does look extremely different on the first picture, as compared to the 2photos.
I think some people do not realize what is involved with adopting a child that needs extra care.
Still, his adoptive mother has just multiplied his issues by a gazillion by sending him back in this manner.
Hopefully this tragic case highlights the immorality of the international adoption trade, the lust some adopters have for saving kids and what happens when god gives instructions.
It also highlights the vast ammounts of money to be made in the international trade in kids and the upside down way we look at parenting.
Future for this child…bleak.
maryanne you’re looking at the wrong culprits.
This child’s world has obviously been turned upside down. I have a problem with the “called to adopt” sainthood seekers who don’t have a clue about the kinds of needs these children have. I wonder if they go by the arrogant assumption that being in America, the Promised Land, and getting love from the “right kind of people” is going to save a child with issues? He was clearly exhausted and befuddled in that last picture. Shame on everyone involved.
There are several culprits here, and the adopter is one of them, as she had the final responsibility for what she did in to this child. Do I blame the agency? Of course. But the buck does not stop there.
I would not discard a pet, even a very bad one, the way she discarded this little boy, after only 6 months of owning him.
By the way I generally stick up for adoptive parents when anyone makes sweeping generalizations about them, and know many good ones, but this woman deserves no sympathy. She is an adult. She signed on to be a parent. She is responsible for her actions, just as the placing agency is responsible for theirs.
Even if Artem Saveliev did not have psychological problems, after traveling half way over the world alone, knowing that he was just kicked out, like a dog, by his mother, the only person in the world he could trust, he might well have them.
I do not understand why our government allow adoptions abroad. It is very difficult to get hungry in Russia. Why we cannot just keep these children in our country. We pay a lot of taxes. And the demographic situation in our country is not that good.
It is not the fist time we hear of cruel treatment and exploitation of Russian children abroad.
I wonder if the US authority would allow a boy with the name, say, John Smith to be let on plane over the ocean alone.
But with a child, who has a Russian name anything goes. Anything.
Thank you that you did not send our boy home in a kennel.
Where does the first picture from? It`s not Artem. That boy`s name is Ivan (Иван – in russian), it`s written there on the right. Date of birth – 06/2006. Artem was born in 2002.
First Picture is not Artem’s, boys name is IVAN
I fixed it I saw that it was Ivan before I put it up, but that’s what KP was posting as his photolisting. In the US children’s names are changed, and I thought that might be so in Russia, too, but it’s not.
The problem is not in the boy. Problem is in our mind and in our responsibility. Don’t tell me a fairy-tail – the boy was unstable. His “mother” is real unstable person. And if for now – what would be with Artem? Who will care of him? Wright or wrong this situation – it doesn’t matter, ’cause it truly had happen.
Another question – how to help him? We are talking NOT about a monster. We are talking about a little boy who needs care and family.
Irina, Russia.
as i understood Torry said she was told the boy didn’t have any psychological problems. was that orphanage workers who lied to her? who knows what the boy had done to make Torry send him back to Russia. but the question remains: who is to blame??
Pictures do not reveal everything…
The fact is that there are two sides to every story.
Not all adults are fit to be parents (even moreso advoptive parents or a 7 year old) and not all children are inherently innocent and good (no one knows what the boy did).
Sending a seven year old child on an Interntional flight alone does seem extreme and neglectful but she obviously arranged for the orphanage to meet him at the airport & flight attendents to care for him while in flight.
I feel people are making a bigger deal than necessary and Russia & the US are always looking to point fingers at eachother.
Apparently, the US mother wishes to continue ruining this child’s life. Despite discarding the child more cavalierly than one would deal with a pet, she refuses to give up her parental rights, thereby blocking an adoption in Russia.
http://www.themoscowtimes.com/news/article/boy-sent-to-russia-cant-be-adopted/429172.html