One family’s struggle with possible Haitian adoption

It was winter break, and my mother had just gotten home from work. She sat down on the couch and let out a large sigh. My father and I both looked at her rather puzzled and figured she had a hard day at work. She went on and spoke, "So, how would you guys feel if we fostered a Haitian child?"

My mother, a social worker at the adoption agency Children's Choice, received a mass e-mail a few days after the earthquake. The e-mail inquired if employees were willing to house a Haitian child, but it did not say much more.

However, with the controversy surrounding the 10 Americans affiliated with the New Life Children's Refuge group, concern began to spread about the legality of Haitian fostering and adoption.

Apart from wanting to help out, the main concern on my family's mind was how these children were being taken out of Haiti.

Program Director Cindy Knapp said, "the situation is only isolated within the Christian group and [that] our agency [Children's Choice] is not affiliated."

She then said that if a Haitian child was adopted "the children must first be identified and determined to no longer have a living relative."

Still, questions persisted among families who had already gone far along in the adoptive process. Prospective parents wondered if they were going to be able to raise the children they adopted before the earthquake. To their relief, the answer was yes.

"Children brought over from Haiti were those that were already far along the adoptive process," said LaTannia Neal, the supervisor of the company's Newark office.

In the days following the earthquake, the Haitian government halted new adoptions of all Haitian children. The ban was made to ensure no child was brought or trafficked into foreign countries amidst the chaos.

However, when asked why the company would request its employees to consider housing a Haitian child, Neal replied, "It was just in case any more children needed to be adopted, our CEO wasn't sure if anymore children were going to be released."

The company maintains that no Haitian children, other than those adopted prior to the devastation, were brought to the care of Children's Choice.

In the end, my family decided against housing a Haitian child, yet some employees chose otherwise. Dover supervisor, Karen McCall, accepted the company's request and put her name among those willing to foster a Haitian child. She said, "I wanted to help out as much as I could, and I'm still willing to house a Haitian child if need be."

My personal inquiry of the company seemed to only leave me with questions. Perhaps it was the fact that I was my mother's daughter, but all the explanations felt circular, as though the employees, too, did not truly understand the context of the e-mail. It seemed that many were willing to help, yet no one knew how or why. The devastation in Haiti seemed to spawn altruistic practice, but with no clear reasoning.