I don't even want to think

about how this will affect adoption in Irkutsk - the region where Skip & Harry and were born, and where 4 children continue to wait to come home to the US, to families we know and pray for daily:

Seven-year-old Ivan Skorobogatov, adopted by an American family from Russia's Chelyabinsk region, was allegedly killed by his adoptive parents, TASS news agency reports.

Ivan was adopted in 2003 together with his twin sister by Michael J. Craver, 45, and Nanette L. Craver, 54, and moved to Carroll Township in Pennsylvania. In the US he was given a new name, Nathaniel Michael Craver.

On August 20, 2009, his parents brought him unconscious into the local Holy Spirit Hospital. They said that a day before he had fallen from stairs and hit his head on an oven head. The condition of the boy left no other choice but to put him on life support.

Four days later, the family insisted that Nathaniel be taken off life support. One more day he struggled for life on his own, but died on August 25. An autopsy revealed that the boy's death was caused by a number of traumatic brain injuries. He had over 80 external injuries, 20 of which were to the head.

An investigation was launched. The Cravers insisted the boy had had a predisposition to destructiveness and self-mutilation.

It took half a year to collect evidence, and now the Craver couple has been arrested. They are accused of first-degree murder. Preliminary hearings are set for March 31.Police say the twin sister of the murdered Nathaniel Michael Craver is safe and being cared for.

Ivan, who was 7 years old, became the 13th Russian child to die in the US after being adopted.

In response to his death a Russian senator has forwarded a proposal to introduce a temporary moratorium on American parents adopting Russian orphans, information agency RIA-Novosti reported.

Valentina Petrenko, the Head of the Parliament’s Committee on Social Policies, said that the situation should be discussed with the US Department of State, but for the time being, no Russian children should be adopted by American couples.

Petrenko stressed that the life of a child is priceless and the damage can never be undone even if the guilty parties are punished.

PLEASE join us in praying for this situation and for the four families we know, who who have all waited at least four years for their children - SASHA, VLAD, TANYA & STAS - to come home.