America World Adoption News

Mission Trip to Haiti

We invite you to join us for a last minute mission trip to Haiti May 23 – 27.  Several of our adoptive families in the Haiti program are traveling to Haiti to spend time with their kids.  We will be spending our days at one of our partner orphanages interacting and playing with the children. The trip will cost $2,100 per person and will include airfare, transportation, breakfast, dinner, accommodations and translators. For more information, please contact Michelle Reed.

America World Licensed in Haiti

America World is thrilled to announce that Haiti's adoption authority (IBESR) has licensed America World Adoption as an “Acceptable Adoption Organization (OAA).” This means America World is one of the U.S. adoption agencies licensed to process adoptions in Haiti. If you are interested in adopting from Haiti, please visit our website. The program is open and accepting new applicants.

We will post changes to the adoption requirements as they are released by the Haitian government.

For more information, please contact Michelle Reed at Michelle.Reed@awaa.org.

Update on Haiti

The IBESR has postponed their decision of which agencies will be licensed in Haiti until January 15. We will post information here on the blog when we receive it at that time. 

Adoption - Is It Worth It?

I’ve often wondered and been asked many times why international adoptions take so long, and are so complex. The question behind that of course is, “Is it really worth it?” “It sounds very risky?”

We have been in the process of an international adoption for almost one year. We expect to be in process for at least one more. During that time, we have had both highs & lows. We have experienced exhilaration, disappointment, confusion, and frustration along the way. I can begin to explain why adoptions take so long. I could talk about infrastructure in a third world country, government bureaucracy, child trafficking protections, and yes, even possible corruption. That would not be a good use of time, because I can’t affect any of those issues.

I would like to answer the questions behind the question and tell you about unspeakable joy & adventure in the journey itself.

Despite all the red tape, delays, hassles, costs, mosquito bites, and setbacks, it is indeed worth it! Belle & I just returned from our second trip to Haiti and had this very conversation.  We wouldn’t trade a second of this journey. It has been a profound, life altering decision and journey. We don’t know what tomorrow holds and that is just fine. Here are just a few reasons that adoption is a worth it, and you can’t put a price tag on it.

• Building a love & concern in our family for the marginalized.
• Watching my children cultivate a missional & servant mindset.
• Experiencing Jesus in deeper & more powerful ways.
• Being exposed to third world poverty and brokenness.
• Seeing our local church grow in concern for orphan care.
• Having an opportunity to love on orphans in practical ways.
• Meeting incredible people.
• Seeing the body of Christ in action in diverse ways.
• Watching miracles & seeing prayers answered.
• Observing a girl set free from modern day slavery.
• Watching my wife meet our daughter for the first time.
• Seeing our extended family support and grow in excitement for us.

Then there is Monday night 11/19/2012 at 11pm. I look down and see my new daughter fast asleep beside me on a single bed in Port au Prince. I watch her, study her, and place my hand on her back to feel her breathe. I am extra careful to make sure I don’t inadvertently roll over on her. I’m not sleeping. This is almost too much for me to take in. The events and red tape that have gotten us to this point suddenly no longer exist. Do you understand the miracle that has taken place? I’m laying next to my daughter at this point, not an orphan.  We have been given the ‘experience’ of adoption. This is something Paul talks about in Galatians, where we receive a very deep knowing (feeling) of our adoption through Christ. On human terms, as I lay beside our sleeping girl, I’m realizing this is taking place. I’m loving her with fatherly love, which is distinct, unique, jealous, and powerful! I’m also noticing that she doesn’t look like me in any way, and that doesn’t matter in the slightest.   I’m watching this all happen in the course of 48 hours, and appreciating the fact that after our embassy appointment, we will leave her behind for another long period of time.  It could be easy to become saddened over this. I am not sad. I am appreciating the journey and the joy God provides when we get engaged in the sort of activities for which we were designed. 

I don’t know exactly how this story ends. There are going to be more disappointments.  There are going to be difficult days. It’s also going to be okay, because God is in control and in the end He wins. We are learning that when we take risks like this, God will indeed provide the strength for the task just at the right time. Anyone who knows me understands that I am a sinful person prone to selfish tendencies. I’ve met some personal heroes on this trip that leave me lacking much. Somehow in God’s mercy He has placed me in the Son, and that gives us the power & strength to do anything. What is even more stunning is that God tells us that it is He Himself working, not us. There is no room for boasting here. This is God’s doing, God’s work, & God’s goodness. We just happen to have been given a front row seat!

Anthony Schultz – Haiti Adoptive Family

Haiti Program Development Update

Thank you to the donors who provided funds in response to the Haiti Program Development request from August. We are humbled and amazed by the generosity of those who felt led to support the development projects in Haiti. As a result, America World was able to support a few special projects, a sponsorship program to provide education, medical care and food for children in need, the construction of a playground for orphans with special needs, and the installation of windows in an orphanage to protect the children against mosquitoes/malaria. Please join us in praise for the ability to support these projects and in prayer that people will know God’s love through these donations.

Haiti Update

The IBESR held a meeting for Crèche Directors yesterday at the Ministry of Social Affairs. Our Haiti Program Coordinator attended the meeting in Haiti. During the meeting, it was announced that the IBESR is extending the deadline to accept dossiers under the old procedures until November 3rd. This is wonderful news for families that were unable to submit their dossiers by the September 15th deadline. We will continue to work diligently to get families' dossiers prepared and submitted to the IBESR. Praise God for this extension. It is a blessing to many families in the adoption process in Haiti.

For more information, please contact Michelle.Reed@awaa.org.

Orphan Advocacy in Haiti

As you know, orphan advocacy goes well beyond the important work of adoption.  It also encompasses caring for orphans as they wait for their forever families.  As children wait in Haiti, there are several opportunities for you to provide for the needs of orphanages and the children they serve.  One orphanage in need is caring for 16 children with special needs.  Another is in need of sponsorships to provide for over 100 orphans’ public education and medical care.  A third orphanage is in need of support to continue to provide 250 orphans with a child-proofed, secure environment, protected against diseases carried by insects.

The request to care for the needs of these orphans is significant.  To pay for the caregivers and the operating costs for the special needs children, the orphanage needs $40,000.  The 100+ orphaned students need $3,000 a month ($36,000 total) to sponsor their schooling and healthcare.  One of these children, Evens, is 9 years old and has been an orphan since his first birthday.  Evens has significant cognitive and physical delays due to his premature birth and is in need of therapy sessions and physiotherapy equipment to assist him in learning at school.  A simple gift can make all the difference for the rest of his life.

Our adoption program in Haiti is still in its early stages, but there are already over 30 families moving through the process and we anticipate exponential growth in the coming months!  These adopting families will be blessed beyond measure knowing that there are people like you who are caring for Haitian orphans in the same life situations as the children they are working toward bringing home.

Is this an area of orphan advocacy that you have a desire to meet?  Will you be the one to provide hope to a child like Evens as he waits for his adoption?  We would be honored to partner with you in caring for these orphans!

God has blessed us with so much so that we can be a blessing to others.  Thank you for your financial contributions and your continued prayers.  You are making an eternal impact in Haiti!

To contribute online, simply go to America World's donation page, designate your charitable contribution to our Isaiah 1:17 Fund and be sure to include a line about "Haiti Orphan Advocacy" in the Notes section of the form.

To participate by sending a check, print and fill out the Haiti Orphan Advocacy form, and return your check to America World's corporate office (address included within the form).

As always, feel free to contact me to discuss orphan advocacy in Haiti or any other area where you feel drawn to help.

In Him,

Jason West, Director of Development

Haiti Program Updates

The IBESR, the government authority for adoptions in Haiti, has issued a copy of their updated adoption procedures. All America World clients in the Haiti program received an emailed newsletter with details regarding this information. The new post adoption requirements are reflected on the website. Some of the other procedures changed include updating the dossier document lists for both parents and adopted children and requiring adoption agency and lawyer registration with the IBESR. Additionally, independent adoptions are prohibited and the IBESR has strengthened the procedures and policies surrounding orphanage paperwork and orphan relinquishment.

The IBESR is re-opening to accept new dossiers as of August 1, 2012. At this time there is no reported timeline regarding when the Hague adoption procedures will begin. Prospective and current clients should still be advised that this is still an unknown factor that can affect adoption timelines. We remain committed to informing families of all program updates as soon as they are received.

We are confident these changes in procedures are being implemented to continue efforts to protect the children.  Please join us in prayer for Haiti’s orphans and the people working on their behalf. At this time our prayer is specifically from Psalm 136 as we remember God’s mercy, love and provisions for all His people.

Haiti Hague Ratification: A Father's Perspective

Sing to God, sing praises to his name; lift up a song to him who rides through the deserts; his name is the LORD; exult before him! Father of the fatherless and protector of widows is God in his holy habitation. God settles the solitary in a home; he leads out the prisoners to prosperity, but the rebellious dwell in a parched land. Psalm 68:4-6

God is King and still on His throne.  On that throne, He is Father to the fatherless and protector of the widow.  He settles the lonely in homes.  Regardless of what is happening with Hague and the efforts of man, it is God who places the orphans in families and not government agencies.  So we can rest in His perfection.  We can return to verse 4 and worship our King in light of this discouraging news.  I'm also reminded that this is not about us or our timelines.  We are His servants, and will be a family to an orphan as only He can establish.  We pray that His will be done and not ours.  We look to God and not a government.  He cares for our child infinitely more than we ever will. 

Press on! 

Anthony Schultz

Haiti Program Family

Haiti Ratifies the Hague Convention

America World has confirmed that Haiti ratified the Hague Convention on Monday, June 11, 2012.  A joint meeting was held on Monday afternoon between the Senate and the House of Deputies in Haiti.  We received the following press release from the Hague Conference on Private International Law.

“I am pleased to inform you that Mr. Guillaume (Lawyer - Project Manager, IBESR) and UNICEF have confirmed that the Haitian Parliament approved the Decree for the ratification of the Hague Convention of 29 May 1993 on Protection of Children and Co-operation in Respect of Intercountry Adoption yesterday, Monday 11 June 2012. However, for the ratification to take effect at an international level and to consider Haiti as a State Party to the Convention, Haiti must deposit its instrument of ratification before the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Kingdom of the Netherlands (the depository). The date of entry into force of the Convention will be the first day of the month following the expiration of three months after the deposit the instrument of ratification.

The Ministry of Social Affairs and Labour has been designated as the Central Authority.

UNICEF informed the Permanent Bureau that the President of the National Assembly promised the inclusion of the approval of the Draft law on Adoptions into the legislative agenda in the following two weeks. The new challenge will be to ensure that the new Draft law is in accordance with the 1993 Hague Convention.”

*While we do not yet know the implications the ratification of the Hague Convention will have on the future of adoptions from Haiti, we are not discouraged by this news.  We will continue to press on and walk beside our families through this journey.  It is important that we all keep our eyes on the Lord and rest in the knowledge that God is in control.  We are comforted in the fact that the Director of the IBESR is actively restructuring the adoption processes and pray that positive results are forthcoming. We will keep you informed as more information becomes available.

For more information, please contact Michelle Reed, Haiti Family Coordinator at Michelle.Reed@awaa.org