“Mother’s Duty” by Kenyan artist Joseph Cartoon.

If you live in the US and have adopted a child from Ethiopia, you probably already know the story of Hana.
The trial of Hana’s adoptive parents is happening these days in Washington State and all the chilling details of Hana’s life and last days are emerging.
Not long ago I wrote about how many adopted children come home with physical and mental problems and how important it is to be prepared to deal with them.
It’s obvious to me that Hana had trouble adjusting and clearly needed help, but it is also clear to me that Larry and Carri Williams were determined to get rid of Hana at any cost. 
Instead of looking for help, they isolated themselves from the rest of society and dealt with their daughter alone and in the most cruel ways.
To my eyes, they are cold killers. At some point they decided they would eliminate Hana, erase her from their lives. What is so devastating is how they tortured the girl and her brother, slowly and steadily without any remorse until her last day.
There is also the matter of extreme religious beliefs. It is not a problem of religion itself, since most humans in the world practice some type of religion, it’s how some people take their faith beyond normal boundaries and use it to commit heinous crimes.
I’m sure these sick human beings justified their actions in their faith, denying any personal responsibility in the death of their daughter.
But I don’t want to label them as crazy, they are not crazy, they coldly decided to kill Hana, not by shooting her, but by denying her food, shelter, education, medical care, and love.
If they couldn’t handle Hana, they were so many things they could have done, from therapy to adoption dissolution, but never ever kill her.
Hana’s story also highlights how many children adopted into this country shouldn’t have never left Ethiopia in the first place, and how unprepared the adoption system is to protect adopted kids.
I don’t approve the death penalty, it’s against my beliefs. Can these people be reformed? I want to believe that any human being can change but in any case, the Williams must live to think about what they did and to participate in any way they can to change the lives of other children like Hana, at least as a living example of what should never be done to an adopted child.

AliciA