HOPEFUL: Robert and Kim Summers of Staten Island and Freehold could become victims of Russian politics. (Jonathan Baskin)
ALMOST HOME: Kim Summers kisses her potential adoptive son, Preston, on a visit to the youngster in Russia before the push to ban adoptions. (
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Kim and Robert Summers were weeks away from bringing their adopted son home to America from Russia with love.
Now Russian President Vladimir Putin is pulling down an iron curtain, signing a bill Friday barring Americans from adopting Russian children.
For the Summerses, who live in Freehold, NJ, and Staten Island, it means their nearly three-year, $50,000 hope of adopting a child has come crashing down, even though a Russian judge has granted them permanent guardianship.
“This has nothing to do with the Russian people. They are a wonderful, loving people. This has nothing to do with babies,” Kim told The Post.
The move is widely seen as the Kremlin’s way of retaliating against American sanctions against specific Russians considered to be human-rights violators, and it comes as Putin has become increasingly confrontational toward democratic freedoms.
“Because of political nonsense — garbage — my little baby . . . ,” Kim started to say, her words trailing into tears.
“I promised to be his mommy. We promised him a good life, and we promised a judge to care for him.”
The bill has angered even some Russians, who believe orphans are being victimized so that Putin can score a political point. More than 100,000 Russians have signed an online petition urging Putin not to sign the bill.
The Summerses were 40 when they met — by chance at a restaurant. Months later they were engaged and a year after that they married.
“It was wonderful and immediately we started planning a family,” she said. But after three miscarriages and four attempts at in-vitro fertilization, they were faced with nothing but grief and pain.
The Summerses spent a year and a half putting together the necessary paperwork to adopt from Russia, going through background checks and taking parenting classes.
Finally, on July 5, they received the necessary referral to adopt a baby.
“Our whole world changed — magnificently,” Kim said. “We were walking on air. We couldn’t believe we were getting this beautiful little boy.”
On Aug. 8, the couple traveled to the orphanage in Kaluga to meet the boy they would name Preston Mackie Summers.
“We completely, instantly, fell in love. It was instant love. I knew this was the child I was meant to parent,” Kim said.
Like many orphans, Preston is developmentally slow and wasn’t speaking much.
The parents-to-be had consulted a pediatrician and a speech therapist in preparation for his arrival in America.
“My dream is for my child to have a wonderful life, to be a wonderful human and to contribute something good to this world,” Kim said.