Return to Sender

Last year, a Tennessee woman adopted a 7 year old Russian boy, Artem Saveliev from an orphanage but because he turned out to have behavioural problems, she sent him back to Russia alone with a note which explained why she didn't want him anymore.



His adoptive mum Torry-Ann Hansen, an American nurse, put him on a ten-hour flight as an unaccompanied minor with a note 'to whom it may concern' saying: 'I no longer wish to parent this child'.

Russia was horrified by her callousness when they found out he was packed off with sweets and biscuits and a colouring book. Apparently, he was told that he was going on an excursion to Moscow!

This story makes me sad for the little boy concerned. If he's already suffering from behavioural problems, it won't be made any better with this going back and forth on aeroplanes from an orphanage to a better life and back to the orphanage again.

I'll make sure that I tell my sons about poor little Artem and I'll remind them that if they want to entertain misbehaviour, they're a plane ride away from a note and a 'Russian Excursion'.