Most Have Homes, But Some Haitian Orphans Still In Shelters

By Rose Arce and Soledad O'Brien, CNN January 11, 2011 10:09 p.m. EST

(The yellow highlights are mine. --Sherry)  (And my current music selection on this blog does not quite fit the subject matter of this post; so, please feel free to hit "mute" before reading.  Meci.)

Valencia, one of the orphans on a harrowing bus ride,

was at risk of dying from heat exhaustion.

(CNN) -- In the middle of a snowstorm nearly a year ago, a planeload of 54 Haitian children landed in Pennsylvania as part of an airlift of orphans stranded by the powerful earthquake that devastated their country.  They were taken to Pittsburgh's Holy Family Institute, where they were thrilled by the flush toilets, running water and plentiful food, said the institute's president and CEO, Sister Linda Yankoski. 
Their stay at the facility for troubled or abused children was supposed to be temporary, just until U.S. adoptive families took them in, she said.

Wednesday is the first anniversary of the Haiti quake, and by now most of those children have moved into adoptive homes, as have hundreds of others around the country who arrived in similar airlifts.  But many spent months in federal custody -- some even experiencing their second winter detained in shelters in Pennsylvania and Florida, still waiting for their lives in America to truly begin.  "They are confused, they feel rejected, they wonder what's going to happen to them and whether they are ever going to be with a family as they were promised," said Michelle Abarca, a lawyer with the Florida Immigrant Advocacy Center, which is representing some of the children who were taken to Miami.  They faced rejection in Haiti, rejection here. It's all rejection."

The children's complex legal status unfolded because they were airlifted out of Haiti in the midst of a crisis, believed to be orphans in the process of being adopted by U.S. parents. The plan was to finish the adoptions in the United States, an unusual exception to international adoption protocol.  But once the children were in the United States, it quickly became clear not all of them were orphans already matched with U.S. families. Even for those who were, completing adoptions from so far away had obstacles.

"I believe it was done with the best of intentions," said Cheryl Little, director of the Florida Immigrant Advocacy Center. "But we are challenged as never before to determine what's in the best interests of the child."  The airlifts were a humanitarian gesture prompted by an outcry over conditions at Haitian orphanages after the earthquake. The 54 children taken to Holy Family were typical -- they had been stranded at the BRESMA Orphanage in Haiti's capital, Port au Prince, run by two sisters from Pittsburgh, Jamie and Ali McMutrie.  Using social media, the sisters told dramatic stories of babies exposed to the elements, being rocked by aftershocks, living without food and water. Pennsylvania Gov. Edward G. Rendell heard the appeal and enlisted the Obama administration to help airlift the children to Pittsburgh.

In all, the United States granted 1,090 children, including the 54 in Pittsburgh, what it calls "humanitarian parole," effectively permission to enter and stay in the United States on special visas while their U.S. adoptive parents complete the paperwork here, rather than abroad as is usually required.  "Massive deaths, that's what would have happened if they had not gotten humanitarian parole," said Diana Boni, director of All Blessing International, the adoption agency that works with the BRESMA orphanage.  "I would estimate that about 50 percent of the children (who) were airlifted out ... would have died. All the agencies were struggling to even get food to children in all the orphanages."

About 400 children immediately moved in with U.S. families trying to adopt them, said Jeffrey Kelley, spokesman for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.  But HHS ended up with custody of another 660 children as their complicated legal situation was sorted out. They were placed in foster homes or shelters used for children who enter the country illegally.  A string of government agencies was able to get most of them placed with adoptive parents or in foster homes in days. But a few dozen remained detained in shelters over the course of the year for a variety of reasons:
• Some children did not have firm commitments from U.S. adoptive parents.
• In about a dozen cases, the U.S. adoptive parents changed their minds and returned the children to
  shelters.
• In other cases, the biological parents in Haiti had not finished paperwork declaring they were giving
  up their children for adoption, or the paperwork was missing.
• The Haitian government slowed the adoption process further after one group of Americans was
   arrested for trying to illegally depart the country with children.

Eventually, one by one, all but 15 of the children moved in with families.

In the case of the 54 who arrived in Pittsburgh that snowy night, HHS contracted with Holy Family Institute to care for them. In turn, Holy Family hired staff who spoke Creole and arranged trauma counseling for the children, along with weekly phone calls to their biological families, Yankoski said.
The children began to go to school and learn English as they waited, living in a 5,000-square-foot home segregated from the delinquent children who usually make up the institute's population.

At first, the adoptions moved quickly, but 12 were still at Holy Family for Christmas.   "In the context of crisis and chaos on the ground, 12 of the children who came to the U.S. had not been matched with prospective adoptive families prior to the earthquake and the wishes of the birth families were unclear," said Sharon Parrott, human services policy counselor to the HHS secretary. To safeguard these children, the government of Haiti, in collaboration with the United States government, identified and spoke with each of the birth families that could be located.  When it was established that the birth families wanted the children matched with adoptive families in the U.S., HHS worked with the Holy Family Institute ... to identify families that could best meet the needs of each individual child."

The number of children at Holy Family dwindled to five just last week as children were matched with U.S. families cleared for adoption. Another 10 children remain in custody in Florida, either in foster homes or shelters where children who enter the country illegally are usually detained.

"Given the situation (in Haiti) and what was happening on the ground, people did the best they could at the time," said Yankoski, adding that she believes the time spent at Holy Family has allowed the children there to adjust to American life.  They will be better suited for adoption after this slow transition," she said, noting that the children have open adoptions that allow for contact with their birth parents.

Boni, of the All Blessing International adoption agency, credits federal agencies for their swift and effective rescue effort, but she is critical of what happened in the small number of cases where the adoption process hit snags.  Some of the BRESMA kids were brought in prematurely, before the humanitarian parole program had been established, their paperwork was not here when they arrived ... the obstacles they faced here were all bureaucratic," she said.  Also, Boni said, the shelters are "very inappropriate places for these kids" because they were designed to house children with illegal immigration or social issues for short periods of time.  I'm not sure what their crime was," she said of the Haitian children still in custody, "but they've been in jail for a year."

The government has defended its handling of the children, telling CNN the shelters provided the children with "excellent" care, including therapy for their trauma.  "We believe that the program implemented protected both the children and the integrity of the adoption process," said Parrot of HHS. "The program resulted in more than 1,000 children being united with their adoptive families in the United States."  In 2009, the year before the quake, the U.S. State Department processed 330 adoptions from Haiti. The earthquake prompted the government to open the door to hundreds more, in some cases reducing to weeks what can be a four-year process.

In a report being released on the quake anniversary, the Florida Immigration Advocacy Center spotlights the difficulty in making sure adoptions are legitimate and in the children's best interests when they are rushed.  "Given the emergency nature of their evacuation from Haiti, some children were brought without proper entry documents or evidence of the ongoing adoption process begun in Haiti," the report said. "A few adoptions have failed, and some children's permanent placements are still unclear."  The report also describes children who were taken out in medical evacuations, never intended for adoption, but nonetheless in the United States now with no parents to care for them.

It tells the story of 3-year-old Christina, who was rescued from the earthquake's rubble, and 5-year-old Odette, who was crushed in the collapse of her school. They were treated at U.S. hospitals after being evacuated, then detained in federal shelters upon release.  In cases like theirs, the advocacy center wants the U.S. government to grant their parents visas to come to the United States and join them. Meanwhile, HHS is continuing to house and provide medical care for them at its shelters.

The airlifts also raised issues for U.S. families who launched emotional campaigns to get the children they were adopting to safety. These parents had to finish the adoptions from long distances, dealing with a country in crisis.  Usually, children adopted abroad enter the United States holding U.S. passports as the children of U.S. citizens. The Haitian refugee children arrived as Haitian citizens, ineligible for U.S. citizenship until they lived with U.S. families for at least two years. If they turned 18 before that time was up, they would lose the opportunity to gain U.S. citizenship.  In December, President Obama signed the Help Haiti Act, which puts the Haitian children on equal footing with other children adopted abroad.


The airlifts were criticized even as they were happening. They were described as "hasty" by international child advocacy groups like Save the Children, which said that the "adoptions would risk permanently breaking up families, causing long-term damage to already vulnerable children, and could distract from aid efforts in Haiti."  Haiti had an estimated 350,000 orphans before the earthquake and as many as 1 million afterward, according to Haitian government estimates. Many had parents unable to care for them but not willing to permanently relinquish them, according to UNICEF, the United Nations Children's Fund, which raised concerns at the time that child traffickers might pray on this vulnerable population.

HHS' Parrott said it was an "extraordinary" program undertaken in the best interests of the children.  "The program was limited in scope and designed to ensure that every effort was made to verify documentation and mitigate the risk of anyone taking advantage of the system to improperly remove children from Haiti," she said.

The concerns raised by international child advocates met headlong with the compelling stories of desperation and danger coming out of Haiti that captured the attention of the media and political leaders.
At the Haiti orphanage Maison des Enfants des Dieu, 135 children were languishing in high temperatures without clean food or water while U.S. adoptive parents pressured their government to help them get the children out.

Valencia, one of the orphans on a harrowing bus ride, was at risk of dying from heat exhaustion.Their plight is chronicled in "Adopting Haiti," a documentary by independent filmmaker Timothy Wolfer being released on the quake anniversary. It tells the story of how the children were taken on a harrowing bus ride from Maison to the U.S. Embassy amid fears some children might perish in the heat. The bus was turned back because the U.S. government had not yet authorized the airlifts.

The documentary tells how media attention, including that of CNN, helped persuade U.S. officials to act. The documentary features both the biological and adoptive parents of one girl, who describe the painful separation process of the adoption.  Adoptive parents call the airlifts a great success. The Maison children included a boy whose adoptive mother, Kim Harmon, is director of For His Glory, the U.S. adoption agency that runs Maison.  "We just finalized our adoption last week for our son, Benjamin Jhonsley Harmon," she told CNN in a recent e-mail. "Ben fits right in, and it is as if he were always a part of our family. He is a typical boy full of life and energy."

A recent image of Valencia, 15 pounds heavier than when she left Haiti, living with her adoptive parents in Colorado.Another of the children on that harrowing bus ride, Valencia, was at risk of dying from heat exhaustion. A year later, her adoptive parents have a picture of her on their website, 15 pounds heavier and living with them in Denver, Colorado.

In Haiti, the number of children in need of new homes continues to grow, and the United States has reopened the door to new adoptions. The Maison des Enfants de Dieu orphanage featured in "Adopting Haiti" has filled up again with children destined for U.S. adoptions, this time to be completed in Haiti. The McMutrie sisters returned to Haiti in August to help families find ways to keep their children, but already they are caring for seven newly orphaned toddlers.  "We can't wait to see the kids growing and thriving in their new homes, and, like all the children we lived with and continue to live with in Haiti, we will love them and be connected with them for their entire lives," the McMutrie sisters told CNN by e-mail from Haiti.

Back in Pittsburgh, Yankoski said the situation reminds her of U.S. orphanages at the turn of the last century, when parents left children because they had no means, not because they didn't want them. The difference is the Haitian children also have suffered the trauma of an earthquake destroying their home, lived through an emergency airlift to a foreign land and spent a year in an institution.  "It's really a shame, because most of these families turn the children over because they need support and can't feed them. I can't imagine any of these families wanting to give them away. There needs to be a different system, but there isn't, so at least these kids have a way to a better life," she said.

The children still at Holy Family often ask their parents by phone if they have anything to eat or places to live, expressing concern over the families they've left behind.  "It's quite heartbreaking," Yankoski said.  "In the long run, the children are going to grow up and want to know why they are here and how did they get here and where is their own home and their own parents," she said. "This is a good solution, it's not a complete solution. But it's a solution for now and I can understand why their parents would have chosen it given what they were facing."

CNN's Alsye Shorland contributed to this report.

HOME! There is no place like home. The kids are home!!!

Yes!  Wi!  Amen!  We are family.  Celebrate good times.  Sweet home Chicago (well, sort of).  This is home.  And over a few evenings I will eventually write for you our journey, and yes, post some pics  .  .  .  but it's past 11pm and the kids will need me in the morning -- all four of them!

"I" Is For "Integrity"

And then there's also their tenacity and resourcefulness -- Jamie & Ali McMutrie are named "Pittsburghers of The Year."  Take a read down difficult-memory-lane, and get a satisfying, inside look at a traumatic and miraculous time in the lives of 54 children, their new families, and the entire McMutrie family  .  .  .  Their youthful appearances belie their no-nonsense, uncompromising commitment to the children in their care.  Click the link below  .  .  .

 http://www.pittsburghmagazine.com/Pittsburgh-Magazine/January-2011/Pittsburghers-of-the-Year-Jamie-amp-Ali-McMutrie/index.php?cparticle=1&siarticle=0#artanc

Congrats, ladies!

Not Always What You Think

Well, I touched upon some of this months and months ago, and now that kids are closer to coming home, it would be helpful to give an updated primer for friends and fam about the basics we've learned about parenting adoptive children.  This is all in general terms, and only time will tell what is relevant to our two beauties.  I realize I run the risk of sounding like I'm lecturing, but know that my intention is only to share with you what I would want you to teach to me if our roles were reversed.  Knowing makes everything more comfortable; at least, that's how I tend to feel.  And there are so many dear, dear people who've been on this journey alongside us, I want to make certain you sense our gratitude and feel a part of things in a most comfortable way.

First, the general rule of understanding the needs of the kids, and therefore, the decisions of the new parents, is that children who have lived in orphanages have learned that adults are transient and replaceable, and it can take a very, very long time for kids to learn (deeply and with trust) that parents are permanently theirs, forever. 

So, what this means is it's not uncommon for adopted children to show indescriminant (false) affection to everyone, as they've been accustomed to being "everyone's child," as well as to ask strangers if he/she wants to be their mom/dad.  Prior to adoption training (and before talking with lots of adoptive parents), my so-called common sense would have led me to believe that kids acting this way must really bond quickly with people, and that they must have problems at home if they're "shopping" for parents.  Of course, both of these assumptions are quite false.

That leads to the second cardinal rule (if you will) -- that the causes behind many (but not all) behaviors of adopted children may be very, very different than what one might assume based on experiences with your own birth children and the (not-adopted) kids in our classrooms or at the neighbor's house next door, for example.

In an anticipated chronology of events .  .  . Upon homecoming, and for many months thereafter, kids new to the family need loads and loads of calm, quiet time at home with their new parents and siblings -- not only to get to know their new family, but to drink in the sites, sounds, smells  .  .  .  all the things an infant learns while rocked and fed by a mom and dad  .  .  .  stuff that most of us probably don't consider consciously when caring for our newborns.  Yet, this is so critical to security, trust, and familial identity.  In short -- bonding!  Attachment.

Once the family begins to invite guests into the home and venture into more social settings, there may be triggers for the children with which the parents must deal appropriately for the kids and without compromise.  If a situation is too overstimulating, or reminds the child of a fearful moment from their younger days, or lacks the structure he/she still needs, the visit may have to draw to a close earlier than planned.  Please, take no offense; it's likely to happen, but it's not due to your burnt meatloaf or lame jokes.  (Can you feel the love?)

 
Grief upon grief will usually surface as the children begin to bond healthily with their family; when they begin to trust and to love genuinely their parents, they finally feel they have an emotionally safe place to release their pain.  This is a very good sign of attachment and growth.  But it is messy and challenging.  Handled with love -- smart structure and high nurture, the children should come through with coping skills that surpass those of their age-mates.  It does, however, take time, and a lot of it. 

Over the years, developmental milestones and cognitive advancement lead the children to process their losses at increasing degrees of sophistication, and their sense of identity raises challenges in cycles throughout their lives.  Facilitated intuitively, these cycles can provide tremendous self-knowledge, courage, and wisdom.  But it takes patience. 

If you're still reading my cluvercrew blog after all these months, you've already proven your stamina.

And we thank you.

And as questions come to mind, please just ask -- open dialogue is a welcome friend. : )


(images borrowed from the internet)

Two More Hoops Before Four Stockings

Hope is reborn in our home as we await more word on process -- two pieces in particular -- that might, possibly, perhaps, maybe bring home Beatha and Jameson in time for Christmas.

These almost-eleven months have been filled with slow, careful verifications and documentation.  Every "t" crossed and each "i" meticulously dotted.  The children are nearing the realization of their dreams of a future with a family -- a promise of hope for which they have held in their hearts for such a long time.

A Watched Clock Ticks Loudly

tick.

tock.

TICK.

TOCK.

Thurs., 12/9/10 -- Obama Gave HHA His Left-Hand-Scrawl

Help Haiti Act eases adoption process for local family
Ernst Lamothe • Staff writer • December 9, 2010

"Agencies told Josh and Liz Daby to expect 18 to 24 months and the occasional bureaucratic hitch before the paperwork for adopting two children from Haiti was finalized.  While the process remains unfinished more than two years later, the Greece couple received good news from Congress this week that could make their two adoptive Haitian children —Johnny, 3, and Marie, 4, U.S. citizens.

Congress approved the Help Haiti Act and President Barack Obama signed it into law today. The measure instructs the secretary of homeland security to ensure that Haitian orphans receive permanent resident status just like other children adopted abroad by U.S. citizens.

'There is always something that comes up during the adoption process, and we’ve been waiting and trying so hard to finish everything — so anything that makes it easier for us is a blessing,” said Liz Daby, who picked up her adoptive children in Orlando, Fla., in January, almost two weeks after the earthquake. “Now we don’t have to wait years for our children to be U.S. citizens.'

After the Jan. 12 earthquake in the Caribbean country, about 1,000 Haitian orphans were brought to the United Sates for adoption by American families. However, they were placed in a legislative holding pattern in April because the earthquake disrupted the final administrative steps of the adoption process. The Help Haiti bill was introduced to Congress a month later. Without passage, the children might have faced being returned to Haiti if something were to happen to their adoptive families.

'The unprecedented devastation has turned the international adoption process upside down, where it could take years before these children could have any legal status in the U.S,” said U.S. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y. “In this moment of great uncertainty, we must ensure that these children have the legal protections that they deserve.'

The Dabys, who already had two biological children Emma, 6, and Josiah, 5, recognize the adoption process remains far from finished. With their drafting documents almost completed, they plan to go before Monroe County Family Court in the coming months. Then a judge will determine whether their paperwork is sufficient. Until then, they continue to help their children navigate a new home, culture and language less than a year after they experienced massive calamity in their homeland.

'When the earthquake happened, it was so devastating. We lost some friends there and we were so nervous about getting our children home safe,” said Liz Daby. “We didn’t know how they would adjust in the beginning but they are speaking almost complete English and have adjusted to being part of our family. The process has been difficult, but the end result of us having our kids here has been amazing.'"

This is an article I borrowed from a Google alert; nobody in it I know, personally, and I knew the President's signature was a matter of formality.  Yet, in a process with so many formalities, and many of which put familial relationships on hold for painful amounts of time, it felt really good to see something in the "done" category.

A Season of Waiting and Preparation

DAVID CRARY  The Associated Press

Wednesday, December 1, 2010; 7:04 PM

"-- After months of uncertainty, the way has been cleared for U.S. families to adopt 12 Haitian children who've been living at a Roman Catholic institution near Pittsburgh since a chaotic airlift that followed the devastating earthquake in January.

The Haitian government had sent a letter formally approving the adoptions, State Department spokeswoman Rosemary Macray said Wednesday, and the children will be matched with U.S. families over the coming weeks.

Unlike some 1,100 other children flown out of Haiti to the U.S. after the quake, the children at the Holy Family Institute in Emsworth, Pa., were not part of the adoption process prior to the disaster and, according to some legal experts, shouldn't have been eligible for the emergency program. Most of them had birth parents still living.  However, Macray said those parents, who were interviewed by U.S. officials, have formally relinquished custody.

Since their arrival in Pittsburgh on Jan. 19, the children - ranging in age from almost 2 to 13 - have been staying at the Holy Family Institute.  Preliminary steps were taken to match the children with adoptive families, and those matches will be reviewed to ensure their viability, said the institute's president, Sister Linda Yankoski. She said the four pairs of siblings among the 12 children would be kept together.

Yankoski said the prospective adoptive families are far-flung - from Oregon, Colorado and Illinois, for example. They are not being identified at this stage, and she said it's possible some of the matches could be changed. "We have to come up with a thoughtful transition plan for these children," she said, noting that some of the children didn't understand the concept of adoption and had grown used to living with each other.  "We're going to go at the pace of the child," she said. "We're going to follow their cues."

Initially, the Haitian children were kept largely apart from the American children at Holy Family, but this fall the older ones attended public school. Other highlights of their stay were their first experiences with hot showers and with snow.  "No one had to teach them to make a snowball and throw it - that came naturally," Yankoski said.

She said the children had spoken by phone with their families in Haiti and were expected to remain in contact with them after their adoptions. "It's been a privilege to be of service to these children," Yankoski said. "We're thrilled that we will be able work with them through this step to having a family they can call their own."

The children were part of an airlift of 54 youths from the Bresma orphanage in Haiti's capital, Port-au-Prince, where two Pittsburgh-area sisters, Jamie and Alison McMutrie, had been volunteering for years. The sisters' urgent post-quake pleas for help were heeded - participants in the Jan. 19 airlift included Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell."

It Passed!

The Help Haiti Act reappeared in the House as quickly and mysteriously as it had previously disappeared, and adoptive parents of ~1,200 Haitian children are thankful for the immediate rights and protections it ensures upon finalized, legal adoption.

Additionally, the parents may apply upon finalization of adoption for citizenship for their children rather than having to wait for two years before such application.

Thank you, D.C.!  And thank you to all of you, friends and family, who pesterd legislators on our behalf.  Just waiting for Obama's signature  .  .  .

A Place for Hope to Grow

The Road to Hope is a nonprofit charitable organization that chose to dedicate it's resources to the McMutrie Sisters' nonprofit Haitian Orphan Rescue.  Read the update from The Road to Hope, found below, for exciting details about Jamie and Ali's new orphanage! 

"The continued suffering of the Haitian people, the frustratingly slow speed of the clean up and reconstruction, the outbreak of cholera and the uncertainty of the election has troubled us all. We are proud to inform you of how your donated dollars are making a real difference in the lives of many Haitian children in need TODAY!

Things are in full swing at The Road to Hope. Nouvo Vilaj has decided to start in a beautiful home in the hills above Port au Prince. Since the purchase of land has become so burdened with politics (and timing seems to be so out of our hands), we rented a large, wonderful home so that we can begin caring for children. Jamie and Ali are living there and getting things working beautifully.

They have eight children in the home, a few nannies, a nurse, a couple of cooks and some folks helping take care of land around the home. We are putting in a water filtration system that will provide plenty of clean water and looking at plans for composting. The land already has orange, grapefruit, tangerine, lime and avocado trees, but will soon have potatoes, carrots, coffee, spinach, and green onions growing! We already have a cow, two pigs and chickens. We are working on a chicken coop and safe area for them to live.

What about the community surrounding the orphanage?

Jamie and Ali have helped to keep more than forty children out of orphanage care and with their families! Jamie and Ali, along with The Road to Hope, believe that only children whose families truly cannot or do not want to care for them should be in an orphanage. Jamie and Ali have been a major part of keeping more than thirty families together by helping to provide supplies and formula for those in dire need.


Jamie and Ali help to provide birth control to more than twenty women in the surrounding area. Birth control in Haiti is not only very hard to find, but the education that goes with keeping women on it can be a daunting project. Jamie and Ali travel every month to educate and provide birth control for these women, thereby decreasing the number of children needing to go into orphanage care.

Jamie and Ali provide many pounds of formula for the community. They distribute it for pregnant and breastfeeding women to drink. They provide it for children over two years of age who are no longer breastfeeding. They have also given some cans to women to help facilitate small businesses. They even unofficially "train" them in starting a business. This has been very successful for a number of women.

And there is much more to come. There are plans underway that will reach out to the community and increase self-sustainability for the area in many ways. Stay tuned!


See more pictures and follow our efforts by visiting our website at www.theroadtohope.org"