National Remember All of the Haiti PostEarthquake Adoption Debacles Day
Periodically throughout National Adoption Month, we will feature a special topic. Today’s topic is PostEarthquake Haiti.
We have mentioned snippets of these debacles in many posts but never have we put them together in one place.
We posted possibly the most comprehensive rundown of the Laura Silsby criminal case (yes, she was convicted despite how the story was whitewashed) last year. The must-read case can be found here. Other Silsby-related posts can be seen here.
Rendell Airlift
An article of a followup on one of the many debacles in post-earthquake Haiti that dealt with adoption or child movement intended for adoption was published just a few weeks ago. This case was the appalling, politically-motivated airlift of children from the Brebis de Saint-Michel de L’Attalaye (BRESMA) orphanage by then-Governor Rendell of Pennsylvania. The children were not all legal orphans.
Background
Two adult sisters, Jamie and Ali McMutrie, were volunteers at the BRESMA orphanage. The orphanage is said to have established in 1999 (see here for that history and how the new BRESMA orphanage is functioning in the 2011 report) but Jamie McMutrie, older than her sister by 9 years, claims to have first helped to establish this orphanage in 2002 with a local woman Margarette Saint Fleur. Pittsburgh Magazine printed a story one year prior to the earthquake that supposedly tells about the first children taken into the orphanage and puts forth this claim of Jamie helping to establish it in 2002:
“[I]t was a chance encounter while waitressing part-time at the Monroeville Denny’s that led her to Haiti. [Jamie] struck up a conversation with a customer, sharing her dream to work in an orphanage. The customer had heard about a need for help in Haiti and a woman, Margarette, trying to start an orphanage there. ”
“In December 2002, McMutrie flew to Haiti to meet Margarette Saint Fleur. “The first trip was eye-opening,” McMutrie says. “A guy heard what we were doing and told us about three kids who needed help. We drove three hours, then walked up a mountain for another three hours and found these kids who were alone in a house, no parents at home, severely malnourished, near death.” McMutrie and Saint Fleur waited for the mother, Miracia, to return. She was gone each day, working from dawn to dusk carrying water to people’s houses. She willingly let McMutrie and Saint Fleur take the children-to save them.
There was no orphanage home yet, so the children, ages 8, 6 and 3, lived in Saint Fleur’s house. ”
So the children had a mother. What about the father? “The children had no father. “The dad was abusive and left for another woman. Usually that’s how we get orphans, the fathers leave,” says McMutrie. “Sometimes the parents die or are too sick. But usually it’s because the fathers leave and want nothing to do with the kids anymore.”
BRESMA Volunteering in the Beginning
Pittsburgh Magazine continues. “Jamie McMutrie’s first trip to Haiti lasted four days, and she was amazed at how attached she became. “Within 12 hours I knew it was where I belonged,” she says. McMutrie returned in March 2003 for a six-month stay, helping Saint Fleur set up the first house, hiring nannies and staff, and, as she says, “making sure things were done the way I wanted them to be done.” Ten children were brought into the orphanage, and BRESMA was established.” [They do not explain the circumstances of why or how the ten children were “brought into” the orphanage.]
“Fastest”
Pittsburgh Magazine says,”Saint Fleur, as a Haitian, is the owner of BRESMA. Any business in Haiti must be owned by Haitians, and an orphanage is officially considered a business, Jamie explains. Saint Fleur handles much of the paperwork and is quite adept at it, which is the reason BRESMA is known for having the fastest adoption process of any Haitian orphanage. “
Ali and her mom Diane
“Ali McMutrie and their mother, Diane, accompanied Jamie on her trip in March 2003, and Ali, 15 at the time, felt the same immediate sense of belonging that Jamie did. “Once you go, you either know you’re never going back or always will. I just knew I was supposed to be there,” Ali says. Like her sister, Ali had always loved working with children, frequently babysitting and helping with child care at church. She was unable to return until she was 17-“the hardest two years of my life,” she remembers-because of her parents’ concerns for her safety. During that time, she watched as Jamie traveled to Haiti every three months, each stay lasting two weeks. “
Ali at age 18 joins Jamie and they set up another house for medically fragile children with just one nurse.
“Ali returned briefly in 2005, and it was in this year that Haiti changed, and so did Jamie and Ali’s involvement with BRESMA. During a time of political upheaval, after Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide went into exile, Jamie says it had become impossible to communicate from the States. “The Internet and cell phones hadn’t really come yet, and we were going crazy wondering what was going on. There was rioting every day. Corrupt police. That’s when we decided someone had to be there full-time.”
They stayed for the month of June 2006 and returned in the fall. At this point there were 80 children in two houses, but some of the infants weren’t doing well. “The babies are born malnourished because the mothers are,” Jamie says. In January 2007 they purchased a third house, where they would live and take care of newborns and the most fragile kids, with the help of nannies and a live-in nurse. Now Jamie and Ali have their routine well-established, with the two of them staying in Haiti most of the time, each one occasionally returning to Pittsburgh, and, rarely, both of them making the trip together.”
Alliance for Children Connection
Pittsburgh Magazine reveals that “Diana Boni is the Haiti and Liberia program coordinator of the nonprofit Alliance for Children adoption agency (allforchildren.org) and adoptive mother of the three children Jamie and Margarette first rescued from the mountain.”
How the Airlift Came About-the Cornucopia of Politicians
Penn Live says Jamie and Ali “took to a stranger’s Blackberry and started using Twitter and Facebook asking for help to evacuate the children. In fact, one of them made a plea for “someone important” to help make it happen.
“If u no anyone important who can give refugee status to all the Bresma U.S. kids. We truly cant keep babys alive, water contaminated. This is our only hope.” They wrote.
Former U.S. Attorney Mary Beth Buchanan, who is said to be considering a run against Altimire, the Blue Dog Democrat, said she was not informed about the plane’s departure.
“I had little prior knowledge of the attempted air rescue mission that departed from Pittsburgh today, though I have since been advised that some of the resources aboard the flight were collected through the efforts of myself and others,” Buchanan said in a statement.
The final arrangements for the flight were done by the U.S. State Department, Department of Homeland Security, and the military, according to Rendell’s spokesman, Gary Tuma.
Tuma said Rendell was on the plane because the Haitian ambassador thought it was important to have “someone of his stature on the plane so if the mission ran into difficulty, he might be able to break down some of the barriers.”
Indeed, there were problems with documentation on the ground in Haiti, which forced Rendell and the children to be left on the ground waiting for another plane, according to reports.” [One of the 54 children was left behind on the tarmac and joined the others the next day. Initial reports were that 7 children were not legal orphans, but in the end it was worse…12 of them were not legal orphans. Considering that the McMutrie sisters were so deeply involved in the orphanage, it is not believable that they didn’t know that those children were not legal orphans.]
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette states “Amid the din of aircraft engines in the darkness at Port-au-Prince airport in Haiti, Jason Altmire watched anxiously as Denis McDonough, a top aide to President Barack Obama, poked away at his BlackBerry.
“All at once he gets this real broad smile on his face,” Mr. Altmire said.
Mr. McDonough thrust the device at an Air Force officer standing on the grass alongside the runway of the shattered airport.
“Read this,” he said.
On the screen was word that after more than five wrenching hours, the governments of the United States and Haiti had cleared 54 Haitian orphans to leave the earthquake-ravaged country for Pittsburgh, on a rescue mission headed by Mr. Altmire, the congressman from McCandless, and Gov. Ed Rendell.
Over the span of a few days, desperation and panic, political gamesmanship and a family’s skillful enlistment of the highest echelons of government had combined to produce a happy ending.
But the euphoria of the moment was quickly drowned by more tension and heartache when a frenzied head count came up one child short, just as their C-17 Air Force cargo plane was preparing to take off.”
“Jamie stayed behind to find 2-year-old Emma, the missing child.” “For the next three hours, on what should have been a triumphant flight to Florida, “there was a pall in the air,” Mr. Altmire said. The C-17 was on the runway in Orlando, still slowing down, when Jamie’s husband, Doug Heckman, phoned her from the plane and learned that she and Emma were OK.'”
“Calling their congressman
On Wednesday, Jan. 13, the morning after a 7.0-magnitude earthquake killed an estimated 200,000 and left much of Haiti in ruins, Jim Ferruchie, a staffer in Mr. Altmire’s Aliquippa office, received a call from Diane McMutrie.
She said she had two daughters in Haiti and wanted to get them out, Mr. Altmire said.
“American citizens can leave anytime,” the congressman noted. But as Mr. Altmire and his staff made inquiries, they learned two things: the sisters were adamant that the children from their orphanage had to come along, and “you can’t just fly a plane into Haiti, pick up some kids and bring them home.”
Mr. Altmire called Rahm Emanuel, Mr. Obama’s chief of staff, who promised to look into the situation. It was the first of countless calls traded by the highest sentinels of government over the next few days. U.S. Sen. Bob Casey, U.S. Rep. Mike Doyle and their staffs also got involved.”
“As lawmakers conferred and the McMutrie family scrambled for help, a competing rescue effort developed, breaking not only along party lines but foreshadowing a potential congressional race.
Mary Beth Buchanan, the former U.S. attorney for Western Pennsylvania, began a bid to extract the sisters and orphans.
Ms. Buchanan, who has mulled a challenge to incumbent Democrat Mr. Altmire, spent four days getting permission to bring out the children, and gathering medical supplies, physicians to escort the children and — the final link that did not fall in place — an airplane cleared to land in Haiti.
At about the same time, a parallel effort was being organized by Leslie Merrill McCombs, senior consultant for UPMC government relations and a close associate of Mr. Rendell.
Ms. Buchanan said Ms. McCombs called her, grilled her for information, obtained a list of the children and ended up shipping medical supplies gathered as part of the Buchanan effort on the plane that carried Mr. Rendell and Mr. Altmire.
“I think there were some people who viewed this as ‘The Amazing Race’ or something,” she said.
Ms. Buchanan lost the race.
While she was waiting for clearance to get a plane to Haiti, Ms. McCombs’ group secured an aircraft, held a clandestine Sunday night meeting — to which Ms. Buchanan wasn’t invited — and prepared to leave the following day.
The meeting occurred at the China Palace Restaurant on Route 19 in McCandless. Ms. McCombs, who had summoned a range of people, including Mr. Altmire, officials from UPMC, Allegheny General Hospital, Allegheny County human services officials and Catholic Charities, presided.
Mr. Altmire, asked if the involvement of a possible political rival influenced his efforts, said Ms. Buchanan “never reached out to us, never contacted any of the [legislators] involved. She never called me, her congressman. She was totally uninvolved in the whole thing.”
Mr. Altmire at first believed the solution was for the sisters to leave with those children who were in the process of being adopted by Americans — about 40 children.
“It become clear over the next couple days that Jamie and Ali were not going to leave until all the kids were accounted for,” he said.
At the family’s urging, Mr. Altmire phoned Jamie McMutrie on Saturday, Jan. 16. She told him supplies were low and she was starting to worry about the possibility of looting.
“An orphanage run by two young women is a pretty inviting target,” Mr. Altmire said. “They were starting to feel unsafe. And kids were getting sick.”
A plan was developed to have the children taken to the airport in a United Nations vehicle with a military escort and placed aboard a transport plane after it had unloaded supplies. No politicians would be on the trip.
Late that night, Mr. Altmire told Mr. Heckman “we have every reason for optimism that this is going to work out.”
The next day, he wasn’t so sure. All of the children hadn’t received clearance to leave, and plans for the military escort had fallen through.
“I thought, well, it’s not going to be so simple,” Mr. Altmire said.
Mr. Rendell’s involvement began on the morning of Thursday, Jan. 14 when Ms. McCombs called to inform him about the children’s plight. He agreed to do whatever he could, and Ms. McCombs started working the phones.
Dr. Alan Russell, director of the McGowan Center for Regenerative Medicine at University of Pittsburgh, had sent her an e-mail earlier that morning. He was in Tampa, Fla., chairing a meeting of the Armed Forces Institute for Regenerative Medicine when the earthquake struck.
One of his associates had sent him a copy of the sisters’ “SOS” e-mail to relatives and friends, which he forwarded to Ms. McCombs.
A prominent researcher in the field of tissue regeneration for wounded soldiers, Dr. Russell had extensive contacts in the upper ranks of the military. They told him that, foremost, any rescue plan must involve an influential name that would open doors.
“The do-gooders try and do things, and all of them fail, these military people told me,” he said. “If something like this works, it’s because there is a direct involvement of a really blunt senior politician.”
On Saturday, Ms. McCombs was watching CNN’s Wolf Blitzer interviewing Raymond Joseph, the Haitian ambassador to the United States — and a light bulb went on.
“Use your CNN contacts to get the ambassador’s number,” she urged the governor. He did.
Once the ambassador returned his call Saturday night, “he started the ball rolling for us,” Mr. Rendell said. “He opened up the Haitian government for our mission. He understood about the orphanage, everything.”
The governor also spoke with Homeland Security officials, using his contacts with Secretary Janet Napolitano and the Joint Chiefs of Staff, who, he said “essentially paved the way for us to get into Haiti.”
Mr. Rendell said he had no intention of going along, but on Sunday, he received another call from the Haitian ambassador.
“He told me, ‘You have to go. So many things can go wrong, sometimes while you’re in the air, and you will need the weight of the governor to get things done.’ ”
Mr. Rendell had six appearances scheduled in Philadelphia for Martin Luther King Jr. Day, but decided to cancel them. “I’d never missed a Martin Luther King event, but I realized it was important to be on that plane.”
He would also bring his wife, Marjorie Rendell, a judge of the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, “for two reasons — one, I thought it would be a great experience for her, and two, it never hurts to have a federal judge around.”
On Sunday afternoon, at 12:34, Ms. McCombs got an e-mail from Don Osmundson, vice president of operations for Indianapolis-based Republic Airways, confirming that a plane was available.
That night, in Philadelphia, the governor made a trip to a discount toy store, Five Below, and bought $457 worth of games, toys and stuffed animals — “61 Beanie Babies, at four bucks each,” he said.
Those going on the mission were warned that plans could change and that failure was a real possibility.
“If we go, we needed to realize that everything that can go wrong will go wrong at the worst possible time,” Dr. Russell said.
The first change: the takeoff time. Originally set for 6 a.m. Monday, it was moved to 11 a.m. because a landing slot wasn’t available in Haiti.
Even before takeoff, snags developed.
Donald Moore, the U.S. consul general in charge at the embassy in Port-au-Prince, called to inform them that the embassy would not permit any of the children to leave — contrary to what they had been told earlier by Mr. Rendell’s contacts.
“My job is to get Americans out of Haiti, not Haitians out of Haiti,” Mr. Moore told them.
After a flurry of phone calls that finally resulted in a go-ahead from higher-ups in the Department of Homeland Security, the donated Embraer 170 commuter jet departed shortly before noon with 31 passengers and a couple tons of medical supplies.
After refueling in Miami, the jet continued to Port-au-Prince.
As the jet approached the island, the captain reported that they were not allowed to land.
Was it all right, a flight attendant asked, if they informed the airport that the governor was on board? Mr. Rendell agreed, and a few minutes later, they were cleared.
“It felt eerie,” Mr. Rendell said. “I remembered the magic words of Ambassador Josephs, saying you’d better be on that plane because it may be useful.”
The airport has a single 10,000-foot runway that once handled three flights a day. Now the U.S. Air Force was trying to cram in hundreds of landings and departures. The control tower and terminal had been wrecked by the earthquake, and operations were centered on a grassy strip next to the runway. The air traffic controller sat at a card table.
At 6:25 p.m., the plane landed. Bonfires provided light at the airport, which was mobbed with people: U.S. military, Haitians, people trying to get in, people trying to get out. It was hot, humid, and the smell of jet exhaust hung thickly in the air. The roar of engines made it almost impossible to talk.
“It was unbelievable, surreal,” Mr. Rendell said.
The plane from Pittsburgh was allotted one hour on the ground.
Its arrival did not go unnoticed by the media in Haiti, some of whom wondered why a nonmilitary mission was allowed in at the expense of the overall relief effort.
“Anderson Cooper bitched about me on the air [on CNN], for no good reason,” Mr. Rendell said. “We were carrying as many medical supplies as the Doctors Without Borders plane was carrying — and we also brought home 53 orphans.”
Once there, they received a frantic text from Jamie McMutrie. The two sisters, with 54 children loaded into three vans and a bus, had been blocked from going into the U.S. embassy and were ready to head back to the orphanage, or what remained of it.
Everyone whipped out cell phones. Mr. Rendell got word to Valerie Jarrett, a top aide to Mr. Obama, and also spoke with Huma Abedin, a close aide to Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton. He’d become friendly with Ms. Abedin during the 2008 presidential primary in Pennsylvania.
The news from the State Department was that all 47 of the children with adoption papers would be processed by the embassy. The bad news? The seven others without papers wouldn’t be allowed to go. [But it was really 12 without papers.]
“[Jamie McMutrie] was going crazy, her husband, Doug [Heckman] was getting emotional,” the governor said. Ms. McMutrie said she had been lied to, “and to some extent, she was right,” he added.
The sisters’ ultimatum: No go without all 54.
By this time, “Governor Rendell had become General Rendell,” said Dr. Russell.
“I was yelling, ‘This is the U.S.! It’s what we do best! We’re a safe haven for people!’ ” Mr. Rendell said. “Huma was telling me that it would be illegal for us to take any children without adoption plans and that if we went ahead we would be subject to arrest.” [Yes it was illegal!]
Meanwhile, Mr. Altmire had called his chief of staff, Sharon Werner, who told him two staffers from the White House’s National Security Council were supposed to meet him at the airport “and walk you through it.” At first, they couldn’t be located.
“We had an hour. It seemed like forever,” Mr. Altmire said.
He found Mr. McDonough, NSC chief of staff and a close adviser to Mr. Obama who had been sent to Haiti to be the president’s point man for disaster relief.
Mr. Emanuel, the White House chief of staff, had instructed Mr. McDonough to make the Pittsburgh mission a top priority, the congressman said.
While Mr. McDonough was being tracked down, Jamie McMutrie texted back with more bad news: now the embassy would process only 28 children.
That’s it, she declared. We’re going back to the orphanage. Ms. McCombs broke down in tears pleading with them not to leave the embassy.
With the hour melting away, Mr. McDonough hustled off to squeeze an additional 90 minutes out of the Air Force. It would not be enough.
It was now clear that the group at the airport would have to go after the sisters and the children, but how to get to the embassy? It was dangerous driving through Port-au-Prince without a military escort.
Ms. McCombs flagged down a United Nations Jeep, but by the time the group had figured out who was to go and who was to stay, the driver of the Jeep had gone.
Then, Lt. Col. Randon Draper arrived from the embassy, a polite Southerner who would provide a steadying presence in the chaotic hours ahead.
Their best chance, Mr. Rendell said, was to have Col. Draper drive Judge Rendell, Ms. McCombs, Dr. Russell, Dr. Tom Doyle, and several other medical and security personnel to the embassy.
Judge Rendell and Ms. McCombs would try to calm and persuade the sisters to allow the 47 documented children to leave for the airport. Their argument would be that everyone would be arrested if they tried to bring the other children, too.
But how to find a car?
“When I was in the Army, you commandeered a car. Just go get the car,” the governor told Ms. McCombs impatiently. She flagged down a sport utility vehicle.
After a hair-raising 10-minute drive at top speed through the darkness, the group arrived at the embassy around 9 p.m. They figured, Dr. Russell said, that they would have to leave the embassy by 9:40 to make it back to the plane and board the children.
Three vans and a bus full of children were parked out front. The sisters and Mr. Heckman were distraught.
“At this point the girls were not very complimentary,” Dr. Russell said. “We told them we were there to try and help, but they didn’t believe a word of it. They knew we were trying to manipulate them.”
Jamie McMutrie refused to budge. The plane is going to leave, Dr. Russell told her. “I said, ‘Look at the sky. See those planes circling? Haiti’s rescue mission can’t go on until our plane is gone.’ ”
It was 9:35. He asked Col. Draper to go get the others in the embassy.
We’re done, Dr. Russell told Jamie. We have to leave.
“Those girls were playing a high-stakes game of poker, and they played their hands fabulously,” he said.
Dr. Russell made one last try. “I asked her, ‘Why don’t you come with us and the 47 children back to the U.S.? We’ll find a physician who can stay with Ali, and we’ll make sure to get you back to Haiti.’ ”
Jamie seemed to bend.
“I can come back to Haiti?” she asked, cautiously.
Wielding a satellite phone, Dr. Russell called a highly placed military friend, who pledged to try to arrange transport back to Haiti for Jamie. She agreed to leave.
When Mr. Heckman, Jamie’s husband, realized she had decided to go to the airport with the children, he lashed out angrily. “Things could have turned physical if it had not become clear that while we were at the embassy Governor Rendell had succeeded in working a miracle,” Dr. Russell said.
Dr. Russell and Jamie’s agreement evaporated when Ali decided she would take a risk and go too, with the remaining children.
Shortly before 10, they pulled up to the airport, with 54 children. Their plane was gone.
“My heart about sank through the floor,” said Dr. Russell.
What they didn’t realize was that the Air Force had raised the possibility that the group could hitch a ride to Florida later on one of its cargo planes after it had dropped off supplies.
“I kept trying to get the [military] to extend the time. But then this major comes up to me, a really great guy, and he apologizes and says, ‘I’m very sorry, but your plane has to leave, or otherwise we are going to have an international incident,’ ” Mr. Rendell said.
“It’s very disconcerting to be standing on the ground in Haiti with everything seeming to fall apart and watching your plane take off,” Mr. Altmire said.
An Air Force C-17 arrived — an enormous plane, with an interior nearly the size of a football field. It, too, was on a firm deadline to depart, and as the minutes ticked away, five or six children still weren’t cleared by the embassy, Mr. Altmire said.
He said Mr. McDonough wanted to put all the children on the plane but the Air Force, going “by the book,” wouldn’t allow it. Then came the message that all had finally been processed. The rescue group had been on the ground for nearly five hours.
“Load ’em all up,” an Air Force officer said.
But as the plane’s door closed, suddenly Mr. Rendell said he heard the sisters shrieking. They had done one last head count, and a child was missing.
“They were trying to open the door to the plane, crying, ‘We don’t have Emma!’ ”
Finally, the women were persuaded to split up. Jamie would stay behind and search for Emma, while Ali would go with the other children.
The plane took off at 11:24 p.m., with Ali still anguished but the children happy and upbeat. Mr. Rendell walked around passing out sodas, coloring books and lollipops, and the toys he and his wife had bought.
While they were in flight, Jamie drove back to the embassy with Lt. Col. Draper. They found Emma asleep in the embassy, where she had been overlooked in the rush. Jamie and Emma flew back to Pittsburgh on Thursday.
Late last week, the mission would draw criticism from an official of the French Doctors Without Borders agency, who in an interview with the New York Times called the decision to allow the rescue plane in and out of Haiti “shocking and crazy.”
“It’s sort of amazing when you look at it. The whole thing could have failed so easily,” Mr. Rendell said, dismissing any criticism of the mission. “There were times when I thought we were going home with nothing. It was an effing miracle.”
Sisters Asked Parents to Adopt in 2008
The sisters were not disinterested parties in this mess. Their parents were PAPs to a child that they requested their parents to adopt. The child has a living mother. Sam and Diane ended up adopting a 4-year-old boy named Fredo .CNN says “The McMutries, who had expected Fredo to arrive later this year, are still working out the details of the adoption process. That doesn’t mean he won’t be able to keep his ties to his family in Haiti, they said.
“We already told his mom that when he’s old enough and if he wants to go back to Haiti, that we would not hold onto him,” Diane McMutrie said. “We’ll do what we can for him and then when the time comes, we’ll let him make his decisions.”
“the McMutries and their son, Chad, 27, started calling local politicians pleading for a humanitarian waiver that would allow the children to come to the United States and be placed with other families across the country.
A week after the earthquake, their calls were answered.
Jamie, Ali, and the 54 kids from the orphanage flew to Pittsburgh on a trip organized by Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell and U.S. Rep. Jason Altmire.”
Finally the Followup for the 12 Children
Philly.com says “”Jamie and Ali McMutrie, sisters who worked at the Haitian orphanage and initiated the airlift, could not be reached for comment.
They no longer are associated with BRESMA. For that, Margarette Saint Fleur, 49, owner of the orphanage, says, “Thank God,” in a phone interview from Haiti. She does not miss the McMutries, who, she says, made decisions on their own about the children.
BRESMA had documents that U.S. immigration officials wanted for the Pittsburgh 12, says Saint Fleur, but the concern over the 12 led Haitian authorities to launch two investigations, including one to determinewhether Saint Fleur was trafficking in children. No charges were filed, she says”
“The dozen were called “the Pittsburgh 12,” for staying a year in limbo until federal officials made sure that in the havoc of post-earthquake Haiti, they had not been pulled away from biological relatives who would have cared for them.
Nearly three years later, most of the 12 live with permanent families across the country. They still feel the tug of missing relatives in Haiti and the pull of finding their place with new families.
One of the adoptive mothers, whose Haitian son keeps a photo of his birth mother on a shelf in his room, comforted him with these words:
“You don’t switch families, you join families.”
‘The Pittsburgh 12’
The 54 children Rendell and others escorted from Haiti arrived in Pittsburgh on a cold, wet January morning, going first to a hospital for examinations and vaccinations, and then to the Holy Family Institute, a Pittsburgh nonprofit children’s home.
It was easier when they were all together at Holy Family, but as adoptive families were found, children left.
“In the [remaining] children’s minds, they were wondering whether they were going to be left behind again,” says Michael Owens, 54, an emergency-medicine physician and adoptive father of Stanley and Kensly.
Stanley wondered what would happen to him, but as much as he missed his family, he didn’t want to return to Haiti.”
One of the APs: “Michael and Carmen Owens and their eight children live in a 6,200-square-foot house.” [That would have required a major waiver to have that many children if they directly adopted from Haiti.]
“Two children are in Illinois. Four live with families in Colorado, who were recommended by the U.S. adoption agency All Blessings International, which worked with the BRESMA orphanage. One child is with a family in Maryland.
The initial placements of two other children failed. One, an 11-year-old boy, was sent to Miami, where a large Haitian American community meant greater support. The boy has just moved in with a foster family as his visa application is pending.
Michelle Abarca, with the Miami-based Americans for Immigrant Justice’s Children’s Legal Project, is his attorney. She doesn’t know for sure what happened.
“It was a very abrupt process,” Abarca says. “Everything was precipitated by the earthquake.”
Adjusting to a new country was hard enough, she says. Then the boy tumbled through a series of homes – Holy Family, an individual family, a shelter in Florida, and now a foster family. All that was on top of living at the BRESMA orphanage in Haiti, where, he said, he was physically abused.
“He’s come a long way,” Abarca says, “going to school and getting better every day.”
Where are The McMutrie Sisters Now?
They, like so many other adoption agents, got into the “family preservation” business and formed Haitian Families First. They say “For almost eight years, Jamie and Ali McMutrie ran an orphanage in Port-au-Prince that was regarded in Haiti and beyond as providing approximately 130 children at a time with an exceptionally high level of care.” [that had 1 nurse for their medically fragile unit.]
Where is Alliance for Children’s Diane Boni Now (and at the time of the earthquake)?
Working for All Blessings International in their Haiti program. See here.
Sources:
[Pittsburgh Magazine 1/09 by Jonathan Wander]
McMutrie sisters recount their ordeal
[Pittsburgh Post-Gazette 1/22/10 by Vivian Nereim]
From empty nesters to new parents
[CNN 7/14/10 by Sarah Hoye]
Anderson Cooper raises question about ‘Democratic governor’ getting kids out of Haiti
[Penn Live 1/19/10 by Laura Vecsey]
Inside the Haiti rescue mission
[Pittsburgh Post-Gazette 3/28/10 by Jon Schmitz]
Haitian brothers and their Pa. family
[Philly.com 10/21/12 by Carolyn Davis]
The Humanitarian Parole Idea
JCICS (Joint Council on International Children’s services, the adoption service provider trade organization), EACH (Equality for Adopted Children) and DOS and USCIS met believed to be a day after the earthquake after learning adoption personnel in Haiti had died in the quake and papers were buried in the rubble or lost) to decide how to process adoptions. No input was solicited from what we refer to as the true stakeholders-adoptive parents or their organizations, original family or their organizations(aka birthfamily) or adult adoptee organizations (or adults that went through Vietnam babylift).
It became clear that some special process was going to occur. We were for uniting as fast as possible clearly identified, relinquished orphans who were matched with eligible, approved, vetted adoptive families. We were immediately concerned about the process that would be decided and newly orphaned children or children not matched.
The DOS issued clear statements for parents to contact them with their case information. We saw that JCICS in particular was trying to take over the whole process and wanted parents to contact them with their personal information, thus inserting themselves in the situation. It is important to note that somewhere between 20 and 33% of people either independently adopt or use agencies that are not members of JCICS. (18 of 58 operating agencies in Haiti were not JCICS members or 31% NOT JCICS). Many of those independently adopting were relative adoptions.
So, for JCICS to demand that all people in process contact them is beyond the pale. They continued to put out statements about no loss of life “at orphanages” That is untrue. There is a case of a US family who lost their 4 year old in the quake (Coq Chant Orphanage http://www.scrippsnews.com/node/50576 ) and an Orphanage Our Lady of the Nativity which has a relationship with a French agency had 58 of the 120 kids died. JCICS continued to care only about orphans of their member agencies. Many orphanage workers have died, but they mention on their site only one 22 year old who got a lot of press. Senator Klobuchar of MN, the state that has the most per capita international adoptions, was quoted in the press to have personally talked with Hillary Clinton. This senator has long relationships with MN agencies. Other stories have stated the Hillary Clinton has personally requested that children that have been matched are sought out in Haiti.
Inflated Number of Children Needing IA/Confusing Restavek with Orphan
See New England Journal of Medicine recent report http://content.nejm.org/cgi/content/full/NEJMp1001820 mentioning 50,000 total children without parents (of 350,000) in orphanages. The restavek estimate varies widely, but those are children with families as well. It is a complicated Haitian Poverty Crisis, not a Haitian Orphan Crisis.
Dillon Revelling in Possible PAPs
Unbelievably, their salivating blog post is STILL available here talking about 882 people contacting them to adopt even though the possibility to adopt after the earthquake was extremely uncertain. They didn’t want this tragedy to be wasted by losing possible clients. Recall that Buckner/ Dillon executives make the most money of adoption agency executives.See here.
BridgeStone halted airlift
This church ministry attempted to get medical visas for Haitian children that did NOT have medical issues. The goal was to have PAPs bond with them in the US and then apply for Humanitarian Parole. The US Embassy in Haiti did stop this from occurring after several requests were sent to the US DOS. The goal as stated in this blog post was to replicate this scheme “over and over” in Haiti and Ukraine!
A cached blog post follows
http://bridgesoffaith.net/blog/?p=94
Haitian Orphan Update, Thursday, March 11
I thank God that He has chosen us to help with Haitian orphans. Children are the heritage of the Lord! And He has called us – you and me – to make a real difference in children’s lives.
Our mission – to airlift 50+ Haitian orphans to BridgeStone, our 140 acre retreat facility in Central Alabama. They will stay with us for 90 days, receiving nutrition, education, activities, safety, and love. We will share the Love of God in Word and Deed to forever shape their understanding of our Lord and His purpose. While here, we will introduce these kids to families interested in adoption, incubating forever homes for children in desperate need of parents and family.
The mission moves forward on several fronts. First, for BridgeStone to provide the nest for these precious kids, we need some improvements.
Groups staying a day or two or three don’t stress the facility in the same way as fifty children – plus caregivers – living there for three months! Our courageous volunteers have begun laying almost two miles of new water pipes throughout BridgeStone! (It looks like we were attacked by a hoard of mutant moles!) This renews our water supply for this project and for many more years of fruitful ministry.
After that project began, Dad asked me why we did not choose to bury the electrical service in the front cabin area. Well, the answer simply lay in resources. I chatted with Central Alabama Electric Coop; they sent an engineer! To cut to the chase, CAEC has committed to providing all the wire to accomplish this great goal. Not only will we remove the wires from the view, but this gift enables us to SAFELY provide twice as much electricity to each cabin, preparing for future improvements! We thank our friends at CAEC and we thank God!
In order to make this project a reality, we also need more housing for volunteer staff. One house stands with renovation almost complete!
Again, generous and hardworking team members have made this a cozy home for those who serve others. Another house has received, along with other improvements, new central heat and air, but still has a little more to go. As you may know, we also have begun building three log cabins for staff. Larissa, Dad and I plan to live there and also other staff. Yesterday, Roger Vines’ people poured the concrete floor of the first basement! Construction is under way!
The physical plant still needs additional work. Teams will assemble tomorrow (Friday), Saturday, and throughout the next couple of weeks. We thank God for these amazing servants of the Lord! We would welcome you, too!Through what seems like ‘many dangers, toils, and snares,’ we see real progress on the Haitian legal front. Pastor John Beaucejour in Les Cayes told me yesterday that documents would arrive in my office today for at least 26 Haitian orphans. This means that – FINALLY – the Haitian Consulate can prepare the children’s passports. Pastor John indicated that his connections should expedite the process.
At the same time, a great friend of Bridges of Faith and of mine has spent time inside the State Department in Washington DC. When he returned home this past weekend, he assured me that our documents will move along post haste. Along with letters from our elected officials and other influential people, we are standing, as they say, in tall cotton!
I have also connected with another organization doing great work with Haitian orphans. After a long conversation yesterday, I believe that we have a potentially powerful partnership with devoted people who have a great deal more experience in Haiti than we have!
Of course, the ninety day program is not the end. After the children go home, we will ask the adoptive families to support their potential child on a monthly basis while the adoption progresses. With this money, Pastor John and Bridges of Faith will establish a home for these kids while they wait. The best part of all? As this program succeeds, we can replicate it over and over with other orphans from Haiti and also from Ukraine! Think of how many orphans will find forever homes!
While all of these wheels turn, we stand asking for your prayer. I covet your support before the Lord. “Unless the Lord builds the house, those who build it labor in vain.” Psalm 127:1 ESV
Yes, there are financial needs. We have a fundraising event scheduled this Saturday at BridgeStone! After a great camp stew dinner, two fabulous Christian groups will sing! Canaanland, a Southern Gospel group from Clanton will join Clemency, a talented group from Millbrook. We will have a great time – and proceeds will go to support orphans! Please let me know your plans. If you can’t come, but still want to help, you can donate through the mail at the address below or online through PayPal (link below)! The needs are great.
Thank you so much for taking time to read this epistle. May the Lord pour His grace and love on you and your family without measure.”
REFORM Puzzle Piece
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