Sunday, April 11, 2010

Don't like your adopted kid? Return 'em!

Recently a story about the adoption of a Russian child and his rather abrupt return to Russia has been bugging me. The "mother" (I am not sure that is the right word for the woman) has said that the child (seven years old) had emotional issues and was dangerous.
So let's see if I have the facts right: she adopted a child who had to learn a new language, become part of a new culture, learn how to interact as a member of a family, and expected him to not have any issues with that. And he was to do all of this in seven months, since they had just adopted him in September. She also changed his name to Justin, after he had been Artyom for seven years.

I do not condone the actions of the child, but he is a child. We are not to expect him to act as an adult would. Yes, he does have emotional issues. But that is part of being a parent. You do not simply get to choose to have a perfect child (regardless of what my in-laws may say) and never have any issues. The degree of the issues does not matter. She legally adopted Artyom. Sending him back, alone, on a flight from Washington State to Moscow should be considered child abandonment. A stewardess is not a suitable supervisor for a seven year old child with emotional issues. Nor is it acceptable to "send" back a child, for any reason, whom you have legally adopted.

The ancient Romans understood something that this woman does not. In their legal system, when you adopted a child the record was changed to show that this had always been your child, with the same rights as any other child. This is what Paul was referring to in Galatians 4:4-6.
Torry Hansen (the "mom") has failed as a parent. She does not deserve the last name that she has. Hansen literally means son of Hans (which is Germanic and Scandinavian for John). But Hans comes to us from the Hebrew via Latin, Greek, and the European languages over the years. In Hebrew John is Yochanan (if you are curious Strong number H3110). As is common with Hebrew words, this word is made up of two separate words. Yo refers to YHWH, and chanan means to have mercy on/be gracious to (H2603). So the name all together means the Lord is gracious. Which is who needs to have grace upon her, because right now I am feeling a bit more Old Testament towards her as opposed to New Testament and forgiving.

3 comments:

  1. Don't you love the 64-year-old neighbor's comment? "Guess the Russian people are angry. . ." I don't think he really gets it.

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  2. Wow, that's awful!

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  3. Hey, this should be no surprise, people do this to the children God gives them all the time! Inconvenient, just send them back! Not financially secure enough, send them back! Not the correct gender, send them back! Too young to have a kid, send them back! Etc, etc.

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