Why Haiti?
I met a wonderful woman while we were at Crater Lake National Park. “What was so wonderful about her?” you ask? Simply put: she was genuinely interested in my family; not as a freak show but as a family with an interesting story to share. She was wonderful, and also happened to be a mom with six children. She asked a question that we’re often asked, and I imagine you are all wondering the same. Well, those of you reading who don’t already know my family’s story.
It all began innocently enough. We were researching our options for foster care and adoption but with the understanding that we would follow through when our youngest child, who happened to be an infant at the time, was at least a teenager. In the process of researching, I met a family who was in the process of adopting four siblings living in an orphanage in Haiti. Through that contact, we began sending donations to the orphanage. In the process, we began to learn about the children living there. Eventually we connected with one child in particular.
Okay, I connected with a child in particular. My oldest daughter connected with him as well. She had no idea that I was feeling a strong connection with the child. She just saw his photo and exclaimed, “There he is! That’s my brother!” Until that point, I did not tell anyone of my interest, not even my husband. We both had a plethora of reasons why adopting any child in any country of any age would not be a in our family’s best interest. Nor would conceiving a child biologically. We also thought this would be a poor idea for any child coming into our family. Yet we could not escape what we were experiencing.
In August 2005, we officially committed ourselves to adopt L, who was 5 years old at the time. We had decided that we would simply move forward with the adoption process until we met up with an insurmountable obstacle, such as not being approved by a social worker in our homestudy. We would stop at that point, and it would be our clue that we were barking up the wrong tree. We did meet obstacles, but none were insurmountable. The homestudy was actually easier than we thought it would and we were approved. After a 17-month wait, L walked through our front door around 11:45 p.m. on November 2, 2006.
Over the next few weeks, and as I write in the future, I will explore how our decision to adopt has affected our family, how the experience has affected L, and my own feelings and opinions regarding my family’s experience and adoption in general.
For more information on life in Haiti, one phenomenal blog is written by the Livesay family, who is an American family living in Haiti.
The U.S. Government has a detailed webpage regarding adoption in Haiti.
Rainbow Kids has some resources on adopting in Haiti.
© Copyright 2007 Rebecca Wilson. All Rights Reserved.
Used with permission.
Haiti, Haitian Adoption, Inter-Country Adoption, International Adoption, Older Child Adoption
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