Earthquake in Haiti leads to adoptions in Ethiopia

An adoption agency helping facilitate adoptions in Haiti says that their interest levels spiked after the disaster, so much so that they began pointing families to other countries with lots of orphans.

Thanks to Angelina and Brad, international adoptions from Ethiopia have seen a sharp increase since the earthquake in Haiti, but adoption experts are afraid the motivation behind some of these adoptions aren’t helpful.

From the article:

“When our calls nationally about Haitian adoption went from 300 a month to 300 a day, we immediately thought of Ethiopia, but we want to make sure the motivation is family-building, not a response to tragedy,” said Nancy Dykstra-Powers, director of Bethany Christian Services adoption agency in Fair Lawn. “We are here to help the children, not the parents.”

Use your head, not your heart: Another blow for missionaries in Haiti

The ten American missionaries to Haiti accused of kidnapping have made another blunder, this time in choosing their lawyer.

Turns out the man they hired, Jorge Puello, is wanted for just a few minor things: crimes against children, sexual exploitation of minors for porn and prostitution and human trafficking.

No big deal. And now it’s also come to light that he absconded with $30,000 in legal fees from the Americans.

Would somebody please teach these people how to research?

Should white adults adopt black kids?

Here’s some food for thought from the blog Racism Review on the movie Blind Side. This blog post brings together several topics I love mulling over: adoption, race relations and film theory.

Overall, something this blog does well is generate thoughtful conversation. It links here, to a statement by the National Association of Black Social Workers in 1972.

So what do you think? Should white adults adopt black kids?

Define “orphan”

The United Nations has defined orphan as any child who has lost at least one parent.

The New York Times published a sloppy AP report that neglects this fact. The article says that none of the 33 children being smuggled across the Haitian border by that group of Baptists were in fact orphans.

Maybe this is too nit-picky, but could we get some fact-checkers in here?

Haitian orphans rushed into families

For most parents, having a baby takes around nine months. Throw an international adoption into the mix and you’re looking at an average of three years.

But Yves-Merry Telemaque became a mother in four short months when a decision by the U.S. government allowed her to bring home Addison, a two-year-old Haitian orphan she had begun adopting in September.

Organizations and individuals have pressured the Haitian government to speed up the adoption process for children already identified by families for adoption.

Nearly 1,000 Haitian children were in the process of being adopted into U.S. families according to this article on America.gov’s Web site.

According to the site (run by the State Department) children identified for adoption into American families could be brought to the U.S. temporarily under humanitarian parole until the process is finalized.

That the expedited process can be this quick begs the question: are the families receiving these children being scrutinized enough? And if they are being adequately screened, why does it take a crisis of this size to place children in families quickly and efficiently?