I can't tell you how many people have emailed, called, and sent texts asking us what they can do now to start the adoption process to Haiti. On one hand this is awesome. God is moving people's hearts towards adoption in a huge way and for that I'm thankful. On the other hand I worry about trying to start that process right now. I mean offices are demolished where adoptions took place. Demolished. Done. Orphanages are now scrambling to find supplies to feed the children, clothe the children and get clean water for the children. From what I understand it is chaos in some, if not most, places.
In my most uneducated opinion I would advise you to wait and pray. Pray for all the children that just lost one or both parents. Pray for the orphanages there. Right now they can't even take care of the kids that were already there due to lack of supplies since the earthquake. There will be a HUGE need for families to adopt from Haiti. Heck, there already was. The Haitian adoption process is not an easy one, and now it will be even harder I'm guessing. Ask God to guide your heart in the direction it needs to go.
Am I saying you shouldn't adopt from Haiti – absolutely NOT. I think you should. Yes please. Children need families. I'm just saying it is crazy there now. Be patient. Contact an agency. See what they say. Be patient. Prepare to wait. Prepare to be flexible.
If you would like to contact an agency that deals with Haitian adoptions I'm sure they could give you a much more educated opinion in all this. They would know much more than me. I'm just a mom giving my opinion. Take it or leave it. If you have any more resources or information about this feel free to leave it in the comments so everyone can see it.
*I found this picture on someone's fb. Please forgive me for not asking permission to use it, but I don't remember where I got it. This is a great example of government offices that are demolished.
I too felt the need to jump in and adopt from Haiti its human nature and maybe thats God’s plan…..but I would like to take this opportunity to say to those interested if your willing to adopt a child in Haiti (requirements are 1. ingle women:
* who are U.S. citizens.
* who are between 35 and 55 years of age at the time of dossier submission.
* who have no more than two birth children*.
* The Haitian Government only considers the number of birth children in the home when determining a family’s qualification to adopt from Haiti.
2. Legally married heterosexual couples:
* in which at least one applicant is a U.S. citizen.
* who are between 35 and 55 years of age at the time of dossier submission. If the couple is childless due to infertility, the minimum age is 30 years.
* who have been married a minimum of ten years. However, applicants may be married at least five years with an exclusive relationship with the current spouse totaling ten years in length. (This length of relationship must be substantiated in the home study.)
3. Applicants must be in good physical and mental condition necessary to provide responsible care for an adopted child.
4. Applicants’ income must meet the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service (USCIS) requirements as specified in Form I-864P for 125% of the current Poverty Guideline:
http://www.uscis.gov/files/form/I-864P.pdf
5. Applicants who meet the above qualifications and have no more than two birth children in the home of the current marriage are eligible to adopt a child up to 13 years of age.
All qualified applicants are permitted to adopt more than one child at a time. Multiple-child adoptions can be siblings or unrelated children. )SO if you do not meet these requirements, and I am assuming its going to be a very long time before they will have the infrastructure to support adoption processes. What about considering foster care children that are waiting here in the USA, or other countries??? There are MILLIONS OF CHILDREN all over the world. If God opened your heart to adoption though this disaster, would you consider children from other places if Haiti opportunity does not work out? Or support families/organizations/churches to help fund families that will adopt????
Thank you Jamie. I value your insight and I will be taking the steps that you’ve recommended.
Is it true that you can’t have more than 2 biological kids before you adopt from Haiti? I’m crushed if this is the case. I hear of others who are adopting with more than 2. What am I missing? Anyone know where I can find the information? Thanks!
Jamie- I agree with you and am excited but also frustrated that so many people want to jump on the adoption thing now…. there was such a need before…. maybe people just did not know, I don’t know.
Thank you for encouraging people to pray first. Adoption is expensive and I wonder if that money that people would have to come up with might best be used to keep children alive in Haiti now.
If the wait before was 2-3 years… imagine what it will be now. Families would have to know they might be in for a very long wait.
Thank you for giving your opinion on this. I know people want to “help”…. but it won’t be easy.
Jamie,
As an adoption advocate, and advocate for children at risk,and an adoptive mother from a child from Kyrgyzstan, I agree completely with your advice.
There will be plenty of children to adopt, but for now…wait and just pray.
Tami Snowden
Hey Jamie, before I say anything else…I am praying for Amos and RHFH as they move. I’m so sorry that you are unable to be with him right now, praying for you and Aaron as well.
Thank you for writing this. What you’re saying is very true…which is why many of the following thoughts have been difficult for me over the past several days……
I know that God put Haiti on our hearts in early 07, we started the process to adopt from there and were told to wait because of our ages(we’re still too young and haven’t been married long enough). I truly believe that God said wait for the right time…. so we have. And, in the mean time, we’ve become foster parents and we have a foster to adopt beautiful boy in our home…
Also, we have been praying for, supporting, learning about, and falling in LOVE with Haiti, it’s people, and the ministries there. We also have been praying alongside many families, like you guys, waiting for their kids. We’ve become extremely familiar with the laws and the wait, etc.
I actually have been “following” you since before your adoption journey with Amos and Story began (I emailed you probably in 06 asking questions about domestic adoption)…. anyways, totally getting off track here 🙂
So, here’s the deal. When I first read that there was an earthquake in Haiti, my heart sank and I burst into tears for all of the people there and for adoptive parents like you guys waiting for your kiddos. I sat, glued, to the information that was coming through from the Livesay’s, FB, etc.
And here is the really strange sounding part…. Over the next couple of days God literally threw the typical adoption verses into my lap…my Bible, my kids’ devo books, everytime I read something it would be about setting the lonely in families etc. And I really felt that God was saying, “ok, now’s the time,” in regards to adopting from Haiti. And here’s the even more strange sounding part. I feel like He also is asking my husband and I to create a community of believers and orphan advocates….living together for the glory of Christ and to provide love for as many kids as God would bring, whether through fostering or intl adoption, etc, and to raise awareness to other Christians about the needs of orphans worldwide. WEIRD, right? Yep.
My main concern that I keep bringing to Him and going over in my head is…hurting kids need stable homes and loving, CLEAR authority. If there are multiple families living under one roof how would this work with moderate to severe behavioral issues, past hurts with violence or sexual abuse, etc? It seems to me like NO ONE is going to think this is a good idea. So, I don’t know. I just, at least, have to be in prayer about it and see what He does.
He does have us do strange things sometimes…I believe He also wants us to adopt from Cambodia which is currently impossible for US citizens…last month, however, the Cambodian govt finally decided to START the process to get compliant with Hague. Yay!
Gosh, this is ridiculously long. Sorry. I would love to hear your thoughts on this but I know that you are an EXTREMELY busy lady right now, so I won’t expect anything. Again, thank you for writing this.
This was posted on Angel Missions Haiti blog. If people are willing to adopt maybe they are willing to host a child or children. This may be something that can be done probably a lot faster than adopting from Haiti. Just a thought!
Need Host Families…
All families who are interested in hosting children being brought out of Haiti on refugee status please contact Fran at AMHfamilies@hotmail.com. There is an application and background check with fingerprints that needs to be done before children can be placed.
Due to the conditions in Haiti all missions trips this year will be scheduled medical trips or construction trips. If anyone has any questions they can contact us at angelsmissions2@msn.com
I think your post is brilliant! And thought provoking and I appreciate it. Jesse and I have been wanting to adopt for awhile now and just haven’t figured out God’s plan for us…this is a great post Jamie!
I have wanted to adopt from Haiti since I began researching adoption. Timing, unfortunately, has not been on my side. Now, as we witness the devastation that this quake has caused I am left to wonder how Haiti will pick up the pieces and when adoption will become viable again. it’s too soon to tell which children are true orphans and which are just separated from their families. Additionally some of the processing buildings have been demolished. If the wait prior to this had been 2-3 years, I can only imagine that the wait now will be much, much longer and the process probably won’t start back up for some time now.
Prayer is the first step in any adoption plan.
Thank you for this post.
Blessings!
I really wish they would just put a bunch of orphans on the plane with a temporary visa and let people with a completed home study adopt them and finish all of the other paper work while they were already in their homes…I know there are a lot of couples like us who are waiting on a child…any child that God gives us…and we would be thrilled to adopt an orphan from Haiti. The only reason we haven’t is because of the age restriction. That is why we have not started the process. It really breaks my heart that the whole process is not about the children…
If people are serious about adopting from Haiti or elsewhere, than can start by getting a home study. That takes a couple of months and by the end of that they should know whether or not a Haiti adoption is the right thing for them, or another program with children in need, like Ethiopia.
This is just off of the God’s Littlest Angels Website….
Why We Aren’t Accepting Applications for Adoptions…..
Posted by Tom Vanderwell
This was personally a very difficult post to write because I’ve really appreciated all of the people who are interested in helping and adopting the orphaned kids from Haiti. ‘
But here’s what the realities are at the moment:
* We don’t know when the Haitian government will be able to begin processing new adoptions.
* We don’t know when the Haitian government will be reestablished enough to either reaffirm existing rules or set up new ones.
* We don’t know how long and under what situations the orphaned status of the new children being brought to us will be able to be determined.
There are just too many things that we don’t know. So, until we know more, we can’t accept applications for adoptions.
But we do need help in many ways besides for that at the moment.
Stay tuned to this site for more information.
Also, Here is a good article about adopting from Haiti at this time….
http://www.rainbowkids.com/ArticleDetails.aspx?id=687
Jamie,
Would you email me at either jherwin@juno.com or themiddlemom@gmail.com? I really want to talk with you about the kiddos at the RHFH. Thanks friend,
Praying..
Christie
I am an Italian medical doctor, I have been working as a humanitarian aid worker for the last 15 years.
My wife Graziella is doing the same job. We have been assisting children, women and men in war zones and developing countries with all our dedication and skills.
In these hours, many of our colleagues are helping the Haitian survivers out.
Graziella and myself have been thinking of adopting one or more children for long time.
I really value what jamieivey posted on Jan 17, 2010…
…but still, this time we could help and be helped (it’s our biggest dream) by having the chance to adopt a Haitian child.
Thanks for your advices. Take care. Luca and Grazy
As I continue to watch all I can think is ” Lord help these kids get out of there!” Putting adoption aside for the moment ( ideally that would be the best end result ). I think so many of us just want to see these kids in a better situation than this! What happens when it rains? Everyone is living outside, what happens when the ground they sleep on turns to mud? When and where will they get to have a more stable shelter? When will their supplies run out and when will be the next time they get more? So many un-answered questions, so many things to pray for! Maybe adoption at the moment might not be feasible but opening our homes to take care of these kids is. I think James 1:27 is ringing in so many of our hearts
27 Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.
Noel Piper ‘s blog posted this link the other day http://www.togetherforadoption.org/?p=5175 “Church-centered initiative to serve Haiti’s orphans”.
My prayer at the moment is that they (Us state Dept. or whoever it may be) will start allowing these children out and into loving and caring homes. I know many of us would love to adopt but we are also willing to take in and care for children even if it is temporary.
I just continue to watch and pray and pray some more! He is mighty to save!
My husband and I started researching adoption and various countries and were sad to learn that we had to be married (or at least together) a minimum of 10 years to adopt from Haiti. And many other countries had a minimum 5 year marital requirement if one spouse has been thru a divorce. There were so many rules and regulations and we felt God leading us to adopt domestically. We are now in the midst of the domestic adoption process (and working on getting our fostering license as well).
Your advice is dead on. Adoption is not something to be rushed into to “save” anyone. It is a life-changing journey and requires much thought and prayer.
While we’d be happy (and have notified the proper agencies) to host any Haitian children (or adults for that matter) in our home, we know that a Haiti adoption cannot happen for us for at least another 5-6 years under the best of circumstances.
Hello,
Thanks all for the replies I must admit I am one who was naive to the need for adoption. I currently live in Oregon, 42 years old, married to my wonderful and beautiful spouse for 23 years. We have three children, with our oldest graduating from college in May. They are awesome.
My wife and I are interested in adoption. We love children, financially sound, children are parochial schooled, and very involved in our church. Would love to have the opportunity to add another family member and am trying to understand how to pursue.
Any support or information on how to pursue would be fantastic.
Please let us know. traceroo@netscape.com
Best and god bless.
Paul
As an adoptive mom, I am so moved by the plight of the kids in Haiti, but please – we can’t rush kids into homes here when they may still have family members alive and looking for them in Haiti. Imagine you lost everything – and then you learned that your child or your grandchild was still alive and had been given to someone else? I am not advocating against families who were already in process completing their adoptions ASAP, just sounding a note of caution.
http://pear-now.blogspot.com/2010/01/pear-statement-on-identified-adoptable.html