Agencies: A wait ahead for Haiti adoptions

NORTH PLAINS, Ore. – Heartbreaking images of orphaned Haitian children are causing local families to move toward adopting a child from Haiti, but local adoption agencies said the waiting time for an adoption from the shattered country could be years.

Even before the earthquake, Haiti was considered one of the most challenging countries for adoption because of red tape and an unstable and corrupt government.

But long before the images of devastation from the 7.0 earthquake that rocked the island nation two weeks ago and left children homeless and hungry, Cherie Bolton decided to act.

“While I was there, I fell in love with a little boy” and a girl, she said.

However, making Patrick and Kenya part of her family took patience. She met Kenya when she was one week old but didn’t get permission to bring her home until she was almost four years old.

“The orphanage director was corrupt and embezzling hundreds of thousands of dollars, and we had a lot of problems,” she said.

Adoption agency officials say people who are now flooding local agencies with calls may not have any idea what obstacles they’ll encounter.

“No one right now is accepting applications for adoptions because of the collapse of the (Haitian) government,” said Hollen Frazier of All God’s Children International.

She said she believes it will be a year before Haiti will begin to allow adoptions again and then the wait may be up to three years.

“I would just encourage people to keep the orphan in their foresight with the understanding we have orphans throughout the entire world,” she said.

If there is one bright spot in the rubble and the heartache that is Haiti, Frazier said it’s the new focus on orphans.

“Many times children’s issues are more at the bottom of the barrel. They’re not always the voices that you hear. They’re the silent voices,” she said.

Bolton said Patrick and Kenya, now ages eight and six, respectively, call the United States home but are struggling with the images from Haiti.

“My daughter keeps saying that was our home. It’s really hard, really sad,” she said.

Despite the difficulties, Bolton has advice for people thinking of adoption.

“I think people should step out in faith and do it,” she said.

Frazier said she hopes Haiti doesn’t follow in the path of Rwanda. After the genocide in that country in 1994, it took 14 years before most orphans there were allowed to be adopted.

The earthquake in Haiti, however, has fast-tracked some adoptions that were in the works before the tragedy.

On Monday night, three boys from Haiti arrived at Portland International Airport and were in the arms of their new parents Amy and Eugene Brownell. The adoption was supposed to take two years but because of the earthquake it took only a few months.

The Brownells described the arrival of Thomas, Luther, and Lucas as “bittersweet” because it was a blessing among so much tragedy.

“The USCIS (U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services) granted humanitarian parole for many of the orphans already in the process of adoption, and other children who are not referred are likely going to be frozen until the Haitian government can regroup,” said Amy.

“What we want for these kids is no change for the foreseeable future, because they’ve been through so much,” said Eugene.

Now, however, as the boys head home to their new life, they’ll have to adjust to three new sisters who the Brownells adopted years ago.