Our neighbors adopted from Russia. The boy was older. They did not know what he must have been through in his short life, but it must have been bad. He suffered from Reactive Attachment Disorder in the worst way. These kids will never be able to love or feel empathy.
He tried to kill them and their bio-daughter. He killed animals. He started fires. He beat up kids at school. He lied. He stole. These were good Christian people doing their best with a person who was unable to feel empathy, a true little sociopath. He was a complete danger to others and himself all the time. He finally did something bad enough to be put away for a long, long time.
Do not adopt an older child without studying about attachment disorder for a year or two. It’s not something to mess with; it takes a LOT of hard work to raise a hate-filled, feral little person.
That was a very interesting but disturbing story of what can happen when one adopts children. In this case, I believe the boy had a alcoholic mother who lost custody of her child. Such parentage could cause her child to have severe problems.
I really feel sorry your neighbor or for anyone in that situation - trying to do good but being saddled with more problems that anyone should bear.