Saturday, January 23, 2010

Orphans in Haiti

As we watch the images of the horrible tragedy that has taken place in Haiti, one cannot help but be heartbroken especially for the children who do not have a family to take care of them. With all the families who want to adopt children, it seems like the thing to do would be to get them out of Haiti to these families. However, the Office of Children's Services explains in their recent post, Children Affected by the earthquake in Haiti, why unfortunately it is just not that simple.

Many of these children in the orphanges may have been waiting to be reunited with their families when they were in a better situation or extended family. So it's not as simple as they are all orphans with no family.  Because until they can figure this, which could be months with the state of the government and the area as a whole, they just cannot move them out of the country.  Thankfully they are expediating those children that do have adoption paperwork already in progress and getting them out of the country and to their adoptive families as soon as the can. I just hope and pray that when it all settles out that those families offering their homes now will be available to help the estimated 350,000 who were orphans before the quake, plus the many more who are now orphaned after this disaster.

Haiti has very strict adoption rules. Many families unless something changes would not even be eligible to adopt from Haiti according to their current laws, us included. The marriage requirement is 10 years and we've only been married 8 years in June. Also since we have two children, we would need a Presidential Waiver to adopt and these are extremely timely and often refused :(  There are new laws pending but have not yet been passed. Read more about this at Creating a Family, which is an excellent resource on adoption created and managed by Dawn Davenport. Dawn has a weekly radio show and is an expert on adoption and infertility issues.

If you'd like to help financially, please consider donating to http://www.americares.org/  Americares is delivering medicines, medical supplies, and aid to the people of Haiti. They have already airlifted more than $6 million of supplies into the area.

Join us in praying for these children, and the other people in Haiti as they begin to heal from both their physical and emotional injuries inflicted by this horrible event, and as they rebuild their homes and lives.

1 comments:

balujan29 said...

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