Here's a happy update from a story we wrote about previously. Torry Hansen is a woman who adopted a young Russian boy, bringing him from Moscow to her California home in 2009. According to Hansen, that didn't go over too well because she felt then-seven year old Artyom Saveliev was unbalanced and violent. She then put him on a plane with a note pinned to his shirt telling the adoption agency that she no longer wanted him. That didn't exactly go over well, especially with the Russian government, who was already aghast at the number of their kids being adopted by American families.
The agency that helped Hansen secure the Saveliev's adoption, The World Assn. for Children and Parents, decided to sue her for breaking her contract and the overall handling of the situation. This week, the ruling came back in the Association's favor, which made Hansen pay back $150,000 in fees and, for the next nine years, child support of $1,000 a month. Saveliev currently lives in an orphanage in a suburb outside of Moscow.
The World Assn. for Children and Parents decided to use the court victory to make sure people don't think this was the right way to go. On their site, the group's president, Lillian Thogersen, noted that "We are satisfied that this ruling finally offers some justice for this boy. Adoption is a legal, lifelong commitment to a child. Adoptive parents have the same rights and responsibilities as they would to a child born to them."
"Sending a child alone on an international flight back to their birth country is not an option for any parent."