Want to adopt from Haiti right now?

Anytime there is a natural disaster in another country, families are separated from each other (sometimes temporarily and sometimes permanently).  The situation in Haiti right now is horrendous.  The licensed adoption agencies that work in Haiti are working very hard to get the children that have been referred to adoptive families (this means the adoption process for a specific child had been started before January 12, 2010) out of Haiti and home to their adoptive families.  Those agencies will also continue to work in Haiti to place children who are legally available for adoption with adoptive families.  It could take months, even years to identify children who have no living relatives to care for them.  In most cases, the country will do everything possible to identify living relatives and reunite the family.  The children will not be available for adoption until they have been identified as legally an orphan and available for adoption.

If you are interested in adopting from Haiti, of course, go ahead and start your Home Study. We would be happy to work with you for your Home Study.  You will also need a child placing agency, but should only work with a licensed child placing agency that has an existing adoption program in Haiti.  Many legitimate adoption agencies will not accept new applicants for an adoption from Haiti right now because they are very busy helping the children already adopted and because they want to proceed cautiously during the restructuring of the country.  Be very careful, you may see or hear of emails, news stories or other media sources that tell of hundreds of children coming to the U.S. for adoption.  Many children may come to the U.S. from Haiti for temporary care and shelter, but these children will not automatically be available for adoption and would likely need to go back to Haiti at some point to be classified as an orphan and then start the process of being adopted.  There is no guarantee that a family providing temporary care and shelter would be able to adopt that child regardless of how long the child is in the family’s home.

If you would like more information regarding our agency and the services we provide or the situation in Haiti, just let me know and we will be happy to help you!

Thanks,

Colleen Parker

Assistant Director