Adopt a Newborn Baby Camp Hill
It takes a lot of understanding and support to raise a child from another country, parents and experts say.
By the time their son was 18 months old, Nanette and Michael Craver were already worried. Nathaniel, whom they'd adopted from Russia, pulled out his eyebrows and eyelashes. He pulled the hair off animals, they told doctors at Geisinger Hospital.
Five years later, as the Carroll Twp., York County, couple sat accused in the beating death of their son, they told police they never got the help they needed for his emotional issues. The family, police reports said, characterized counselors as ineffective, prescribing medicine they said did not help. Two weeks before he died, court records said, they took him off his medication.
During the investigation, police said, as Nathaniel's father, Michael Craver, sat in a quiet room in the Penn State Milton S. Hershey Medical Center, he blurted out, "We had feared this day would come."
Perhaps, said a world renowned-expert on international adoption and the issues of post-institutionalized children, the Cravers had a real reason to fear a fatal outcome. "Parents (who abuse their adopted children) are responsible," said Dr. Ronald Federici, a developmental neuropsychologist from Virginia. "But they are responsible for being ignorant and for not having support to address years and years of cumulative problems. Parents reach a point of burn-out."
Federici, a father of seven internationally adopted children and the author of "Help for the Hopeless Child," has worked on all of the 18 fatal Russian adoption cases in the United States.
All have shared similar circumstances: a virtually unregulated Russian and American adoption system that can allow children with significant medical and neurobiological issues to be placed in homes of parents ill-equipped to handle them, parents clueless about these significant issues and a serious lack of post-adoption services for these parents.
While deaths like Nathaniel's always grab headlines, experts and statistics show the vast majority of adoptions are successful.
For Jennifer and Thomas Archer, of Camp Hill, bringing home their two children, Nicholas and Victoria, from Russia was the greatest experience of their lives. Though both children are healthy and happy, the couple said they had some challenges to face when they brought each child home.
What made the difference, they said, was that they prepared the best they could and then reached out when they felt they needed help. "I don't think these families want to get these children and hurt them," Jennifer Archer said. "But anybody who thinks a child will make their life prettier or their marriage better, those expectations are not appropriate or realistic."
Russian and Eastern European orphans can come into the world with a host of early problems, including exposure to environmental toxins and drug, alcohol and tobacco abuse by their mothers. Those issues are exacerbated, Federici said, by orphanage conditions in these countries, where infants can lie in cribs all day, with little stimulation or affection. Some face abuse at the hands of their caregivers.
All of that can contribute to severe neurological, biological and developmental problems that can emerge in later years, Federici said. Inna Pecar, the founder of Kids First Adoption Agency in Indiana, said quality post-adoption support by an expert trained in international adoption is crucial.
The Archers consulted a doctor and a psychologist who specialized in issues facing Russian adoptees. Through them, the Archers learned what they needed to do to help Nicholas and later Victoria catch up, maintain and then thrive. "Both [doctors] said no matter what anyone tells you, your child will be dealing with different things because of the institutionalization," Jennifer Archer said.
Russia has taken a hard line with the United States when it comes to the deaths of adopted children. Since Nathaniel Craver's death, Russian officials have vowed to keep a close eye on the case. Representatives from the Russian Embassy and Consulate will attend his parents' preliminary hearing April 29. Russia is also seeking an adoption treaty with the U.S. that would provide for not only post-adoption reports that are already in place, but also visits from Russian consular officials. The Russian media have also turned a critical eye inward toward the country's treatment of adoptees who stay.
When 7-year-old Nathaniel Craver died in August, he had more than 80 external injuries to his body, 20 of which were to his head, police said. He was emaciated, and his brain was riddled with trauma, police said. His twin sister, adopted at the same time, has been placed in a safe location, authorities have said. Michael and Nanette Craver remain jailed without bail on homicide, conspiracy and child endangerment charges. Their preliminary hearing in York County Court is scheduled for April 29.
International adoptions
The countries with the most adoptions by U.S. families last year:
- China — 3,001
- Ethiopia — 2,277
- Russia — 1,586
- South Korea — 1,080
- Guatemala — 756
Source: U.S. Department of State
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Adopt a Newborn Baby Camp Hill
Source: https://www.pennlive.com/midstate/2010/04/international_adoptions.html
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