Medical Visa Turns Into Adoption-Haiti Edition

This is a mechanism that we are seeing happen more often as international adoptions decline. People who gain medical visas for children and then after PAPs show that they have bonded with the child, they apply for adoption. This is NOT what medical visas are to be used for. The story below is such a case in Minnesota. What is missing is caring or even thinking about the about the poor birthmother in this situation who relinquished the child to the only place she could to get the child a chance at surgery–the orphanage. That is a major reason that original families relinquish disabled children to orphanages. We have a question:  Now that she is healthy, why not give her back or search for her mother?

Some excerpts:

“FOX 9 News first told you about a little girl from Haiti who literally had a broken heart until a family from Waconia — along with their church — brought her to Minnesota for treatment. One year later, the orphaned girl’s heart has been fixed, but she’s stolen the hearts of that local family.

Just over one year ago, Rose’s sponsors were worried they would have to send her back to Haiti, which would have been a death sentence. Instead, the girl went into surgery to repair her heart. In the process, she and her sponsors found much more than they were looking for.

If you didn’t know her story, Rose Nacheca Joseph would seem like a typical 4-year-old. She’s rambunctious, demanding and sweet — but her short life hasn’t been all fun and games.

Dan Sorenson said just two years ago, Rose was “a lethargic lump of a person who didn’t do anything.” Now, that’s all changed.

“She’s as wild and crazy as the rest of our kids are,” he said. “Making up for lost time.”

Rose’s journey to Minnesota began when her mother surrendered her to an orphanage about 20 miles outside of Port au Prince in Haiti. She was dangerously small for her age, weighing only 11 pounds and close to starvation.”

“Sorensen met Rose through his church, which had adopted the orphanage. Doctors there said they knew something was wrong with the girl’s heart, but they knew they couldn’t fix it until she was brought to the United States.

“My initial attraction to Rose Nacheca was the fact that I suspected my wife’s connections in the medical community could give her a chance she wouldn’t have in Haiti,” Sorenson explained.

So, the Sorensons and Freshwater Church got a 10-day visa to bring her to Minnesota, where local doctors discovered a hole in the girl’s heart but weren’t able to perform the surgery to repair it before the vise ran out.

Sorenson said he knew if they sent her back to Haiti, she would die of congenital heart disease, but even after the U.S. Customs and Border Protection office at the airport extended her visa, she still wasn’t out of the woods.

Doctors had to wait two months until she gained enough weight to allow them to perform the life-saving surgery, but the first operation failed. Next, they performed open heart surgery and found Rose didn’t have just one hole in her heart. She had three.

Since the surgery in March, Rose has blossomed. She’s gained 7 pounds in as many months and is beginning to learn language skills quickly despite suffering from hearing loss.”

“Yet, the biggest blessing for the Sorensons came after the surgery. Instead of sending Rose back to the orphanage in Haiti or finding another family to adopt her in the United States, the family opted to adopt her themselves, making her the youngest of four children in their growing family.”
Rose’s Story: Fixed Heart Steals Others
[Fox Twin Cities 11/21/11 by Maury Glover]

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