SINCE HE BECAME famous last year as the boy who "divorced" his parents, Shawn Russ' life has become surprisingly normal.
"He's doing wonderfully," said George Russ, his adoptive father.Shawn became known around the world during what became the Gregory K. case. (He was born Gregory Kingsley, but he has chosen to be called Shawn Russ.)
Abused and abandoned by his natural parents, Shawn was close to being adopted by the Russes when his biological mother decided she wanted him back.
He didn't want to go.
"I wanted a family," Shawn said. "I never really had a place that felt like home."
So he filed suit in Lake County, Fla., to terminate his biological mother's parental rights. (His father voluntarily gave up his rights.) Last September, the court ruled in his favor.
But a year later, "we don't dwell on that in our home," George said. "He lives a pretty normal life.
"He goes to school. He plays video games. He watches TV. He reads voraciously. We joke. We kid. He becomes a brat just like the rest of the kids, sometimes. I mean, it's a pretty normal situation."
Oh, there's still media interest in his case. There's a made-for-TV movie coming up - "A Place to Be Loved" airs Sunday at 8 p.m. on Ch. 5. And Shawn and his new family spent a couple of days in Los Angeles visiting the set.
"But the day we got back, everything was just the same," said Liz Russ, Shawn's adoptive mother. "Nothing has really changed in our lives at all.
"We all know that a movie's being made about us and it's going to be on television, but, really, we don't talk about it, believe it or not. We're worried about homework and things like that."
"He's just a run-of-the-mill, basic, 12-year-old boy," George said. "We have all the same good and bad things, I guess, as the average American family."
And his wife is quick to correct the notion that the Russ family is anything but normal, albeit rather large - the Russes have eight biological children ranging in age from 4 to 21.
"We're not the Brady Bunch," Liz said. "Sometimes it seems like everybody thinks, `Oh, he found this perfect, ideal family.'
AS MIGHT be expected, adding a ninth child - an 11-year-old - to the family wasn't effortless.
"The biggest problem with Shawn was just finding his niche in the family," George said. "It was kind of like a new kid on the block and he's got to find his place among the others. There were little rounds of jealousy and adjustments and whatever, but nothing out of the ordinary."
"It's like if you threw another chicken in the chicken house, you've got to figure out the pecking order," Liz said. "Everybody felt confident in their place in the family, and then you throw a new person in, everybody kind of flies up and then they have to come back down again and get their space again."
But each of the kids adjusted to the addition.
"The honeymoon's over but we've settled into a good life," George said. "He's part of the family now. There's no distinction between him and the other kids."
Since Shawn won his case and the Russes were permitted to adopt him, he has been baptized a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. And he talks about going on a mission when he's 19.
"He's always said that. He just assumed," Liz said. "He kind of picked up on our lifestyle. He wanted so much to be a part of our family, whatever our family was."
"Shawn's interest in the church was very much his own doing," George said. "We have never pressured him on the religion thing."
Before Shawn came to live with the family, George told him they were LDS and that they expected him not to smoke or drink. And because they wouldn't leave him home alone or get a baby-sitter, he'd have to go to church on Sunday. But they also didn't pressure him to attend any of the meetings, saying he could sit and read a book if he wished.
"He readily agreed to that and wanted to go," Russ said. "And the amazing thing was, within a matter of weeks he was pulling out all these tapes we had and he was watching them himself. And he was reading the Book of Mormon on his own. I mean, just doing it."
"I think that he's found a lot of answers to things that he's always wondered about in our religion," Liz said. "But at the same time, he's like, `Do I have to go to this fireside?' - the typical 12-year-old behavior."
The fact that the Russes are LDS was brought up during the court proceedings.
"They attempted to make the religion angle part of the trial by accusing us of trying to convert this child," George said with a laugh. "I told everybody, `Look, if I was out to convert people, we have much more effective means than adoption. Or at least less costly and troublesome. And I didn't need to fight a major lawsuit to do that."
And through the highly publicized court proceedings, Shawn never wanted to be known as the boy who divorced his parents.
"That phrase got coined in the press and it never left. And I think that hurt," Liz said. "He hated that. He didn't want to do anything to hurt his parents, it's just that he felt like, `I can't live with them. I want to live where I am now. I'm happy now.'
"In a way, he was mature. He understood, `They just can't take care of me.' It's not like he was mad or out to hurt them or anything like that. He was just willing to do whatever it took to stay with us."
THE RUSSES didn't set out to become adoptive parents, let alone fight a court battle. But George, an attorney, found himself becoming involved with child-rights cases. (See accompanying story.)
And, as a member of a children's welfare commission, he happened upon the boy then known as Gregory Kingsley.
"I went out to the (Lake County) Boy's Ranch and saw him," George said. "I had the overwhelming feeling that I needed to do something for this child. . . . I tried to put it out of my mind."
George asked for more information about Gregory, and when he got it, "I put it in my drawer thinking, well, this will pass. I've got eight kids. I can't afford another child. But I couldn't get it off my mind.
"Finally, I talked to my wife about it. So we, reluctantly, met him and went to lunch with him. And we decided to become foster parents."
Like her husband, Liz Russ did not envision adopting a child.
"It was just that (George's) reaction was so strong. I'd never seen him act that way," she said. "I could just see it weighed on him so much and it seemed so important to him, so I just kind of agreed to do it on impulse. I just said, `OK, I'll do it.' "
They brought Gregory - who immediately wanted to be called Shawn Russ - home with the understanding they'd soon be able to adopt him. After Shawn had spent close to six months with the Russes, "all of a sudden we get a call," George said. The biological mother decided she wanted him back.
"And after all these years, instead of doing the right thing and continuing with the termination, they banked on us not fighting and they reversed their position for reunification, despite that he was 12 years old and said he wouldn't go back," George said. "They were going to force him back. Happens every day all over this country."
But the Russes never considered backing away from the fight.
"The day they called and said they were going for reunification, (Liz) called me on the phone and she was crying and she said, `George, if there was ever any doubt in my mind at all, it is gone. This little boy needs to be with us. We need him to be with us,' " George said.
"It was just such a shock," Liz said. "I didn't realize how much I did want to adopt Shawn until they talked about not letting us. Then it really hit me."
Over the years of watching her husband struggle with children's legal issues and the publicity that followed the trial, Liz has also been struck by the size of the problem.
"I had no idea. That's something that I hope people will realize from the movie," she said. "In every community, there are older children like this who, through no fault of their own, have just been neglected or abandoned by their parents. I just didn't realize there were so many children that their parents don't want them or can't take care of them.
"Shawn's is really a good story, there are just so many heart-breaking stories out there."
*****
(Additional information)
`Place' is quality TV
Unlike so many based-on-fact TV moveis, "A Place to Be Loved" (Sunday, 8 p.m., Ch. 5) is engrossing withouth being exploitative.
Under the guidance of executive producer Beth Polson ("Go Toward the Light," "A Message from Holly"), this is an unsentimentalized look at a touching story - a boy who only wants a place to be loved.
This is not only simply a legal drama. Indeed, the court case takes up less than a third of the two hours. The rest is devoted to the less-publicized but not less-human trials of trying to iintegrate a lonely boy into a family that already includes eight children.
Richard Crenna and Linda Kelsey do fine work as George and Lizabeth Russ, as does Rhea Periman as lawyer Jerri Blair. tom Guiry, as Shawn, turns in an amazing performance for one so young. "A Place to Be Loved" is not ripped-from-the headlines tabloid TV. Its' a fine TV movie that makes you think as it carries you along.