Friday, August 5, 2011

Haiti's orphans... a documentary worth watching!

Haiti, warm in my heart... is where our adoption journey started. It has been almost 19 months now since the devastation of the earthquake and the images of all those displaced orphans... planted a seed within us to adopt.

This documentary is really worth watching and certainly gives me mixed emotions. Wouldn't it be wonderful if families could afford to feed, clothe, and educate their children - and not be forced to give them up? Absolutely! And wouldn't it be wonderful if all the money that would be otherwise be designated to adoption... pay to keep these families together? Sure! But, sadly... it doesn't work that way. This is an extremely destitute country... with half of the population being children. No jobs, no health care, no assistance, no opportunity. These children are being abandoned, starved, dying of illnesses and being sold as servants. Look into these children's eyes and tell me that they don't want a better future! The poor boy crying as he has to watch the other boys go to school, when he is unable. Or the girl (Denise) who certainly has a preference for the orphanage than she does her own home! There is a very bleak future for these children in Haiti. A life in an orphanage is the best opportunity they have in Haiti, and I personally find it disturbing that the directors of the orphanage where Sonson resides think that a life in a orphanage is a better option than adoption. If it were me, or my own children... I would want them to have a family, and a life of opportunities. There are not enough orphanages to house the children in Haiti, so why not provide an orphan a loving family by way of adoption to make room for one more orphan... saving one more child's life?

I would bet you would be very hard pressed to find a Haitian (or other third world country) Adoptee who wishes they would have been left in their birth country to endure the daily struggle of hunger, disease, and lack of education.

The adoption freeze... it had to be done. I understand that. But clearly, there are paper ready, orphaned, abandoned children... let's get them out and give them the love and life they deserve! God bless God's Littlest Angels orphanage! (If you are interested, Dixie has her own blog.)

Unicef is very hard on adoption... only supporting children to remain in their birth country to the fate of which they were born in. I think there is a healthy balance of supporting families, and supporting adoption. Not all children have families obviously. By sponsoring a child in a third world country, you sponsor the entire family and enable them to stay together... this is important, and we personally sponsor 3 (one in Kenya!). By adopting, we are giving a child a family that they don't have.. or never will have if they are not adopted.

Video below:
http://www.cbc.ca/documentaries/doczone/video.html?ID=1742067139

4 comments:

Candice said...

Hi Jo, just wanted to say how much I enjoy your blog. I read your entries and you have put down in words the way I feel in my heart about adoption. I am at the very beginning of my adoption journey. Your passion is an inspiration to me.

Jolene said...

Thank you Candice! I have been inspired by so many blogs along the way - in fact I may go as far to say that they are a large reason we are embarking on this journey!
I would love nothing more than to do the same for someone else!
Best of luck on your journey!!
Jo

Jacquie said...

Very interesting documentary. I agree with you that there needs to be a balance. One thing that stuck out to me was, that adoption was made out to be an absolute last resort, and even then it needed to be justified. I know a lot of birth mothers that have given their children up for adoption, not because they didn't love them, or because the child would die if they didn't, but because they felt that it was the best choice for them and their child, and wanted something better for their child that they just couldn't provide. There are many blessings to adoption other than "saving" the child, and I wish more people would see that part of it. I don't want to sound like they shouldn't be helping these children find their families, they should, but adoption can also be a beautiful thing.

Jolene said...

Thank you for your comment Jacquie! I completely agree!