Horrible, Just Horrible

I recently came upon an article from Russia about a child abuse case here in the US. Allegedly, a married couple who had adopted twins from Russia beat their son so badly, he tragically passed away.

The Moscow Times article linked to above states:
U.S. police have arrested the adoptive parents of a 7-year-old Russian boy for homicide after an autopsy found more than 80 external injuries on his malnourished body, Channel One state television reported Tuesday.

The case reignited Russian anger over U.S. adoptions, a delicate issue in U.S.-Russian relations in recent years, and could tangle efforts by U.S. President Barack Obama to "reset" ties that deteriorated under the previous administration.

Complicating matters, the boy died in August, and the Education and Science Ministry, which oversees adoptions, accused U.S. authorities of failing to notify their Russians counterparts within the time frame required by international law.

Sickening. Absolutely sickening.

The article goes on to say:
Foreign Ministry spokesman Igor Lyakin-Frolov said cases of Russian children dying in adoptive U.S. families "have become systematic recently," Interfax reported Wednesday.

From 1996 to March, at least 15 Russian children appear to have died at the hands of their adoptive foreign parents, including 14 in the United States and one in Canada, a spokesman for the Education and Science Ministry said by telephone Wednesday.

There are thousands of US families that would make wonderful parents to lonely Russian orphans—giving them a life infinitely better than one spent institutionalized. And the children would, in turn, make these families' lives infinitely better and more complete.

Unfortunately, however, there are parents like the ones in the article. And sadly, situations like these make it much more difficult for couples like us to be a “forever family” to these orphans.

Take an excerpt from this other Russian article for example, headlined “Another adopted Russian boy beaten to death in US”:
In response to (the boy’s) death a Russian senator has forwarded a proposal to introduce a temporary moratorium on American parents adopting Russian orphans, information agency RIA-Novosti reported.

Valentina Petrenko, the Head of the Parliament’s Committee on Social Policies, said that the situation should be discussed with the US Department of State, but for the time being, no Russian children should be adopted by American couples.

I pray for everyone in that family, particularly the twin sister left now without her brother and—undoubtedly—without parents yet again. I also pray for the loving and hopeful prospective adoptive parents (PAPs), that our journeys will not be hindered by such evil.