Revision is the Best Process

International adoption requirements must be revised in order to allow more children to have homes. The United States adoption agencies need to work hand in hand with international agencies in order for the adoption process to move quickly. Waiting 12-14 months for a just a referral is enough to shy families away from adoption.

This complex policy has families waiting more than a year to even meet a child and to top it all off, their religion becomes a factor. Religion should not play a factor when adopting a child because everyone has their own rights to religion. Requesting what gender and age of child should not be allowed. When you get pregnant you don’t decided the sex of your baby, so why should it matter now. Older children are not being adopted as much because most families want a baby. If the factor of not being able to choose wasn’t there, then older kids would have a better chance of being adopted. The policy requires the family’s marriage to be more than 10 years. Most families have kids before they have been married for 10 years, so this rule can easily allow more couples to apply.

Haiti is in a crisis and hundreds of children have become orphaned due to the fact. The adoption agency in Haiti made a mistake and closed all adoption applications for the time being. The United States needs to step in right now and take over that process. Allowing families to adopt these children now would be a blessing because the kids would be safe and out of Haiti. But instead the Haitian government is too afraid to let these kids leave due to trafficking. Let’s put trafficking into a new light for everyone to consider. If the adoption process wasn’t so long and open right now, then the kids in Haiti wouldn’t be trafficked, they would have families. The government in Haiti is allowing trafficking to happen by turning their heads the other way and focusing on a different issue. Making plans to revise the adoption policy could stop trafficking and make Haiti a better place to live.

Haiti has too many current orphans at this moment that are not eligible for adoption for 1-2 years because of the earth quake. Haiti needs to take a stand and allow these children to be eligible. The government would be helping themselves out because that would be one less child to worry about being trafficked.

International adoption is a long and complex process that most families don’t want to go though. They would much rather adopt from the United States because the process is easier. We need to step up and help the International policy become easier and more appealing. Revising the policy may take years but when the next disaster strikes, the kids will already have homes.

Adoption Policy

I decided I needed to know the policy on how to adopt these children. Knowing the policy can further my plan to reform and help make this a better process for the families and the children as well. Some of the polices could be changed for the fact of making it easier to adopt. Also more families would be willing to got through the process. Here are some requirements:
1. Length of marriage must be at least 10 years, unless the couple is infertile.
2. Applicants who are between the ages 45-50 must be willing to accept a toddler.
3. One previous divorce is accepted.
4. Preference is given to Christian and Jewish families, LDS families are not eligible for the program.

The Adoption Process:
1. Families should plan on waiting 12-14 months for a referral of an infant girl or 5-7 months for the referral of an infant boy or child over the age of 2.
2. Families will wait another 24-26 months for notification that their child's adoption has been completed in Haiti and their child is ready to travel.
3. Families must travel to receive child.
4. Plan for a 3-4 day stay in Port-au-Prince.

Fees:
It cost 20,715-21,580 to adopt a child from Haiti. This does not include travel expenses or the home study program.
-Nonrefundable.

The adoption process is currently closed due to the earthquake. Since there were already 300 some kids to adopt before the eath quake, those who were orphaned due to the fact are not eligible for 1-2 years. The only people able to adopt at the moment are those who were waiting for their child before.

This process just blows my mind because there are so many requirements and not a lot of people qualify for them. The National Adoption Center website gives 10 steps on how to adopt and they make it look super easy. Revising the adoption plan would take years to complete but why not make a change now, for the kids.

Juno was wrong, you can't find parents in the penny saver, have a child, and hand it to them.

Understanding

In a previous post I was questioning why these children are not being flown to the US to get help. Then I found an article to tell me why. In Haiti trafficking kids is a huge problem. More than half of these orphans are trafficked kids and actually have families. The reason these kids are not being shipped out is because some organizations come in and take these kids. What I mean by that is, some organizations seem to be legit and want to help kids make it to safety, but others are not legit. These not legit organizations traffic kids for money and even their organs. That's why each kid has to be released by the embassy in order to come to the US. Trafficking is the main reason why it's a very long process to adopt a child from Haiti. So I stand corrected on my judgement about Haiti and what is happening with their children.

I think we still need to step in and adopt these children. I found an article about a family from Lincoln that adopted two kids from Haiti. The article is amazing to read because the earth quake effected this family and they were not there when it happened. The most touching thing the mother says during the audio is "I thought our paper work was burned and that our children would have to live without us." The two girls got to experience snow for the first time...how fun would that be? Here is the article about the family: Nebraska Family Welcomes 2 Girls
This family met these girls in 2007 and now they are finally home with them and it took a disaster to make it happen.

Time to Step Up

I have been reading many articles about what is happening to the children in Haiti and so far not a lot is being done. I came across a number of articles that say flying these children to the US is not in the best interest of the child. I understand that it's a new country with a different language and lifestyle. But look at it this way, we have water and doctors. Most of these children are under the age of 6 and were going to be adopted into the US any ways so why not allow these kids to be happy.

The government has kind of disappeared when it comes to solving the problems with children in Haiti. The only time they stepped in was when the director of the orphanage said these kids need to leave and get protection. That's when the government all of a sudden "cared." I think this earth quake made the government run for cover because it was just one more thing they had to deal with.

Safety is usually the number one rule for most situations and Haiti is not keeping that in mind with the children. On the news kids were just walking around with out an adult in sight. Who is going to care for them? These kids need help and the US can give it....let us help. Let other countries help as well. Kids just want a family so let us figure out how to get them that. These kids were vulnerable before the earth quake and now it's even worse. Starting with the children is an easy way to help rebuild Haiti when the rubble is cleared.

Haiti's New Orphans: This is a link to a video on CNN. If this video doesn't frustrate you about these children, then I don't know what will.

What about the kids?

Haiti is in wreckage and we are all concerned with these people getting help. But has anyone stopped to think about the children? I was wondering how these kids are being cared for and what happens to them if their parents were killed in the earth quake. According to New York Times, orphans are being airlifted to the US. There are 53 kids that have flown to the US because their orphanage was destroyed. These children were matched with American couples and most of them are being adopted. What I find interesting is Haitian law makes it hard to adopt a child because not all these kids are legitimate orphans because most of them are trafficked. So the kids who "appear" to be orphaned due to the quake were flow to Florida and put into group homes. These kids are not being adopted because they are looking for remaining family members in Haiti.

The government was reluctant to let these kids go and my question is why? Why wouldn't you want these kids to have a safe home and get what they need to be healthy? I think the government needs to look at the larger picture for the kids and let them be flown to the US. Wandering around Haiti is not going to help and most of the people can hardly help themselves. I realize it is a long process to adopt a child from other countries, but why not let that rule drop for the situation. One thing that really made me mad was when Haitian officials were only 28 of 54 go because not all of them have been cleared for adoption or matched with a family. You would think the safety of these children would be first priority. It took the director to say if they don't all go then none of them go. Good for her for standing up for these kids and looking out for their needs.

After reading this article I realized that Haiti has a lot of issues that are going to take years to fix. America can only do so much and if that means adopting these kids, then that's what we need to do.

Census 2010

The census always creates controversy and the topics seem to never change. I came across this article Census 2010 can Count on Controversy and Audrey Singer made her point very clear. The article goes through what the census does and what it is actually used for. Then she goes into detail about who will and will not fill out the census. She makes a point about how the census is not kind to people with hardships or students.

The census says to count those living and sleeping in the house-hold "most of the time." So in my case, I would not be counted on my parents census because I am away at college. Home changes for a lot of people so this was not clear to me or Singer. What if my aunt stayed at my house "most of the time," do you count her? The census leaves lots of room to count people more than once and this is a problem that happens every year. The one question I had was, what about immigrants that are not authorized to live here? Should they be counted in our census or not? This is something I don't know the answer to but it makes me wonder how this is handled. The new issue for this census that Singer brought up is misplaced Katrina victims. Most of them have not returned for more than 5 years so then they can not claim that place of residence any more. The term 'home' is used too loosely and it can be twisted as to what you think home is. What about a person in prison? If they have been there a year or more, then that is their "home." They are not counted in their former residence but some family members still count them. This article really got me thinking about how accurate the census actually is. Filling out the census is the law, but making the census unclear is just asking for trouble.

After reading this article I saw the new Census 2010 commercial on t.v. It was funny and I thought it made the census look like a joke. I was unable to find the link for that commercial but here is the video from 1990....

Hello World

Hello world! Here it is...my first post. I can't wait to get started with this blog. Enjoy.