Why Haiti?

One of the most surprising things I’ve encountered in the past few months since we started the process of adopting is how little people seem to know about Haiti. Naturally I bring it up in conversation all the time, so people ask me why we chose to adopt from Haiti.

The simple answer is that we were called their specifically by God. 
But of course that answer isn’t satisfactory to most people. So we start to talk about the tens of thousands (if not hundreds of thousands) of orphans living in institutions or on the streets there. People don’t realize that it’s an island only an hour’s flight from Miami. They don’t know it is officially the poorest country in the world. Much to my surprise, some people forget that it was an earthquake that devastated the capital of Port-au-Prince almost three years ago, but that cholera and hurricanes have only exacerbated the problems there. 
Haiti was, and still is in many ways, a beautiful country. A country, like ours, that was founded by revolution when slaves fought for their freedom. But now they are a country oppressed by poverty and enslaved once again by foreign aid. 
I came across this really well done news report from PBS Newshour yesterday about Haiti and the cholera epidemic and how poorly the country has recovered since the earthquake.

I didn’t like the United Nations BEFORE I learned anything about Haiti, but in the past few months I have really come to despise them for their negative influences on that country. Having the UN peacekeeping force (MINUSTAH) may be a necessary evil, I don’t know. The way UNICEF is influencing adoption law there in Haiti is not good. Kristen explains why better than I can here.

The long and short of it is that Mike and I are willing to take the risks of Haiti’s crazy system. We’re willing to even get stuck in the system and wait a long time if that’s what it means to rescue a child from a life in an institution, or death from starvation if she were to stay with family members. Children are absolutely starving to death in Haiti, I see it every day on the Facebook pages of HIS Home, GLA and especially Real Hope for Haiti. Yes, they may have one or two living parents, but in some cases they will not survive unless they are placed in an orphanage and they should not live out their lives in one.

The headline of this New York Times piece from yesterday irks me. To say a child is not an orphan because they have living biological parents is misunderstanding the situation. When a child is abandoned by their parents due to poverty, they are orphaned. Yes, we want parents to be able to provide for their own children. But the problems are complex and so children are orphaned every day.

Some people have said to us “You can’t save them all.” No, but we can offer at least one a loving family. To her it will make a difference.

Author: Sarah

Mom of three. Triathlete.