by Jim Robbins

About the author: Jim Robbins is a freelance writer who lives in Helena, Montana.

When Mary Obringer and her husband adopted a five-month-old South Korean baby in May of 1987, she knew immediately that something was wrong. “He developed slowly,” Obringer says of the infant, whom they named Max. “He had speech disabilities, motor skill problems, social problems. He was hyperactive and had trouble concentrating.” As a toddler, Max couldn’t be in a large group of people without getting violent—hitting, kicking, and screaming. By the time he started kindergarten, in Jackson, Wyoming, “It was clear right away he wasn’t going to be able to stay.” Even after doctors diagnosed the boy with attention deficit disorder (ADD) and put him on the drug Ritalin...