When Adoptions Go Wrong

Just before we left to go to court in Russia a child abuse case featuring a toddler adopted from Russia became very public. It also became the center of our Court Case.

Nina, adopted from Russia as an infant, was physically aggressive, had violent tantrums, destroyed property, and had not attached to her family. In fact, Peggy Hilt, her mother, stated that she pushed her away from the very beginning.

But it was obvious that Nina needed help. Did she get it? Did she have sensory integration dysfunction, Fetal Alcohol Syndrome, post traumatic stress, night terrors?

The result of this murder was disastrous for Russia and US agencies. The Hilts had used an independent agency for their second adoption, indicating that perhaps Nina’s adoption had not been scrutinized carefully enough.

After passing their agency’s screening, they brought home their first daughter from Ukraine in 2001, and that went so well they decided to adopt two Russian sisters. But when they flew to Siberia to meet them in May 2003, they were told the sisters were no longer available. Instead, they were told, they could adopt Tatiana, a lively 18-month-old, and Nina, a quiet, withdrawn 9-month-old. They visited Tatiana every day for a week, but officials never let them see Nina again. “They said she had a bad cold,” Hilt said. Nonetheless, they signed adoption papers for both girls. But when they returned to finalize the adoption in January 2004, they were told that only Nina was still available. The Hilts hesitated. They suspected a bait-and-switch, especially when officials insisted they sign papers testifying they’d spent many more hours with the baby than they had. “The whole process didn’t feel right,” Hilt said. “But we figured we could love any child. You convince yourself that everything will turn out OK.”

Independent agencies were not requiring as much information from pre-adoptive parents, thus making the screening much easier, and sometimes faster.

Eliminating independent adoptions “would greatly reduce the risk of future tragedies such as Nina Hilt’s,” the council said late last week in a news release.

Nina’s murder resulted in the halt of Russian adoptions for almost a year. In fact, upon our court date on July 25, 2005 we were THE LAST family to go to court with our agency in the Arkhangelsk region for over 11 months. Our Minister of Education was replaced and the neighboring orphanage director was also replaced (different agency and for reasons unknown).

Agencies were forced to be re-accredited, all pre-adoptive parents are now required to have psychological testing completed (I also had to do this for Guatemala because of my post adoption depression, for which I sought help), and there are no independent agencies allowed to operate.

The Russian view of this case.

Other cases of interest.