UNICEF Meeting & Other Thoughts...

We have a meeting scheduled with the UNICEF representatives who have been involved in changing the adoption laws in Haiti to discuss some of the unintended consequences of their focus on adoptions and the change of the adoption law. In preparation for the meeting, I would like you to email me if:

(1) You have had difficulty in Haiti (i.e. being stopped by the police and accused of child trafficking) while traveling with your adopted children.

(2) Your child's adoption file is currently in the Ministry of Interior (MOI) waiting for passport approval and your child is sick or has any special needs. (For example, IBESR expedites the adoption approval process if you are wishing to adopt a child that has medical needs or is ill. In MOI, this is supposed to happen also, but to what we have learned, it is not happening.) It would really help to have a list of those children's names.

Thanks! --- I was asked today why I am so engaged in this area when I already have my daughter home with me. One of the main reasons is that I believe that it is a child's most basic human right to grow up in a loving forever family, not an orphanage, an institution or in foster care.

Another reason is that I was really lucky to have adopted in Haiti when I did because with the proposed new law, I would not have been able to adopt her because she was(is) a baby. I wonder what would have happened to my Haitian daughter if I had not adopted her? Would she be one of the dead babies in the morgue? --- That is a harsh reality.

When I came home with my adopted son from Liberia in 2004, I took him to the hospital right away. He was so badly malnourished that the doctor told me that had he stayed in the conditions that he was living in, he would have been dead a few months later. Today, he is healthy, happy and thriving in school (he is one of the smartest kids in his grade)! He has a future!

I do not usually quote scripture on my blog, but I want to draw you to two quotes James 1:27 (Look after orphans) & Gal 4:5-7 (We are all adopted into God's Kingdom).