Randy Wills received the long-awaited call from his adoption agency last Thursday: a 10-month-old girl from eastern Russia was available for adoption. He and his wife, Magdalena Kleczkowski Wills, who live in Southington, Conn., could plan to travel to Russia in two weeks.
The agency sent by e-mail a photograph of the infant, and Mr. Wills and his wife, who had undergone unsuccessful fertility treatments before pursuing the adoption, were giddy. The nursery was ready — complete with a stuffed animal named Shmuley the Monkey.
Two hours later, however, their euphoria turned to panic. Mr. Wills’s wife had seen an item on the Internet saying that an adopted Russian boy had been returned, alone, to Moscow and that the Russians were threatening to halt all American adoptions.
“Within hours, we went from utter joy to ‘Oh my God, what’s going to happen?’ ” said Mr. Wills, 36, who works for an insurance company. “It is killing us, killing us.”
The largely unfathomable decision by one woman, Torry Ann Hansen, to send her adopted son Justin back to his home country has not only touched off a diplomatic drama, it has also shaken the tight-knit community of would-be adoptive parents of Russian children, many now fearful that their own plans to adopt may have been irrevocably harmed.
Russia is the third-leading source of international adoptions for parents in the United States — with 1,586 last year, after China, with 3,001, and Ethiopia, with 2,277, according to State Department figures. An estimated 3,500 Russian children are in some stage of the adoption process with 3,000 American families, according to the Joint Council on International Children’s Services.
The reaction among prospective parents has ranged from incomprehension to rage at the woman whose actions sparked this development. Parents, including Mr. Wills, have fired off letters to the State Department and the United States Embassy in Russia, and many have weighed in on highly emotional debates on blogs and in chat rooms, their comments running the gamut from compassion for Ms. Hansen — who sent Justin back to Russia unaccompanied with a note that said the boy “is violent and has severe psychopathic issues” — to comments like “Does anybody else want to choke her?”
While the Russian foreign minister, Sergey V. Lavrov, announced on Friday that he would propose suspending all adoptions of Russian children by Americans in response to Justin’s case, the Russian government has not yet formally put such a measure in place. Russian officials on Monday gave no indication when they might do so.
Still, it seemed likely that regional officials across Russia would slow down or even halt pending adoptions until they had more clarity on any new rules.
“If I were the agency, I would be saying to the parents: ‘Slow down. We don’t know what’s going to happen, but be prepared for some delays,’ ” said Adam Pertman, executive director of the Evan B. Donaldson Adoption Institute, based in New York. “Be cautious, but not pessimistic.”
Larisa Mason, executive director of the International Assistance Group, based in Oakmont, Pa., and accredited in Russia, said that “for now, adoption continues, referrals are still coming. I cannot say what will happen tomorrow.”
Ms. Mason added: “People are extremely worried. Our phone lines are lighting up because this could jeopardize a lot of people’s adoptions.”
She said that much depended on how the United States deals with Ms. Hansen. “Russians are outraged that no charges have been filed against this woman,” she said.
The United States Embassy in Moscow announced on Monday that a delegation of high-level State Department officials would arrive in Russia for consultations with their Russian counterparts.
“We want to discuss concluding an agreement or bilateral understanding that will help us better ensure the well-being of Russian children who are adopted into the United States,” Ambassador John Beyrle said.
Shannon and Daniel Nelson of Cape Girardeau, Mo., about 100 miles southeast of St. Louis, are caught in the painful limbo. They returned last month from Russia after visiting two unrelated 3-year-old boys they are planning to adopt. A second trip is required before the adoption can be finalized. The Nelsons have been told that the agency is hopeful but that there may be problems ahead.
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