Only now is information about the 254 Haitian children who are being adopted by U.S. citizens beginning to trickle out of Haiti. Some of these children have already been legally adopted by U.S. citizens and are just waiting for their passports and travel visas. Some of them have been known by their adoptive families for months or years. Almost all have been visited by their adoptive parents at least once.
A Washington State couple appeared on Thursday morning’s Today Show and spoke with Meredith Viera about the eight-year-old girl and six-year-old boy they are adopting. The adoption has been completed in Haiti and the children are legally theirs under Haitian law. They are waiting only for the passport and travel visas. (My former co-blogger wrote about being in this situation while waiting for the passport of her daughter in Liberia. You can read her account here.)
Some adoptive parents have heard from the orphanages, their adoption agencies, or other church or volunteer connections that their children are safe. The couple who spoke on the Today show said that a missionary who was at the orphanage at the time of the quake was able to leave the orphanage grounds the day after the quake and get to an area where he could send a message to church members in the United States that all the children were safe. This email was forwarded to many church members, volunteers, and eventually the adopting parents.
Many parents, however, are terrified that children who may already be compromised by malnutrition and overcrowded living conditions will suffer further shortages of food, sanitary facilities, medical help and caregivers in the wake of this earthquake.
Adoption agencies say it appears that a good deal of adoption paperwork in Haiti has been lost in destroyed buildings. They fear that many families will have to repeat steps when the Haitian agencies are up and running again, which may take quite some time.
Word is that both the Canadian and U.S. governments are considering granting emergency humanitarian visas to Haitians with loved ones in Canada or the U.S., including adoptive families. Many families are calling their government representatives in hopes that something can be done. One hopeful story occurred earlier this weekend when three families in Kansas received their teenage children from Haiti.
The U.S. State Department has set up hotlines and email accounts for U.S. citizens inquiring about these children or other loved ones. The State Department asks adoptive parents to send their children’s name and the name of their orphanage to the following email address: AskCI@state.gov . Inquiries about U.S. citizens can be made to the following email address: Haiti-Earthquake@ State.Gov . Include as much of the following information as you can: full name and passport number, address staying at in Haiti, local phone number, and your own name, phone number, email address, and relationship to the person you are seeking information about.
This link to a page of the U.S embassy website contains a link to Google’s crisis person finder. You can post an inquiry here about anyone in Haiti, U.S. citizen or not.
Meanwhile, U.S. adoption agencies are receiving calls from people offering to adopt children orphaned by the earthquake, just as they did after the earthquake in China in May 2008. But as with all disasters, care must first be taken to make sure that children are not merely separated from searching relatives. Then usual adoption processes need to be followed to ensure that no one is taking advantage of the situation to pressure desperate birthfamilies or children. The U.S. agencies advise that for now, the best way to help newly orphaned children in Haiti is to donate to a reputable relief agency.
Please see this related blog:
Is Adoption the Best Option for Earthquake Orphans? –the Disagreement
I’d also like to refer adoption readers to my last year’s Martin Luther King Jr. Day blog: Our Holiday Too