Liberian Kids Stuck in Adoption Debacle
Kids Wait in Orphanages While Families Wait at Home
Sep 24, 2009
Emmanuel does not know that though. He lays in a crib barely able to move, his eyes are crossed, his muscles and limbs stiff. No one knows for sure how old he is, estimates are he could be about four. He weighs 10 pounds and probably has Cerebral Palsy, but he's never seen a specialist to be sure. The agency that runs the foster home he is in, took him fairly certain they wouldnotfind a family for him. But the director of Americans for African Adoptions in Indianapolis didn't want to abandon him on the street either.
Life Goes On, Things Stay the Same
Two years later, Emmanuel is still in the foster home. Amazingly, he does have a family waiting for him. They've been waiting for a year and a half. In his latest picture he is propped up, now 24 pounds probably around six years old. Americans for African Adoptions found the Millers who are already parents to special needs children and were thrilled to accept a referral for him.
After a long wait on paperwork, everything was in order for Emmanuel to be adopted. His new mother, Denise was planning to travel in late January to bring her new son home. Her bags were packed sitting on her bedroom floor when she heard the news, Liberia was stopping all adoptions indefinitely.
Temporary Moratorium
Adoptions were temporarily stopped on January 26th. The government wanted to investigate the process, everything from the agencies placing the kids in foreign countries to the birth families of the orphans in question.
In late January President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf said, "We have discovered that many of these children in these orphanages are not in fact orphans but children taken from their living parents on the promise of support and a good life in America." "Moreover we found that some of the children were being sexually abused at the orphanages....."
But nine months later there are no inklings of what that investigation has found or even if it is going on.
Just last week the State Department released a statement saying they are in constant contact with adoption officials in Liberia, but there is no indication when the ban may be lifted.
Write Your Senator
Parents and fellow parents of adoptive families feel helpless. Pleas have been sent out over the internet for everyone to write their congressperson to get something done.
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton traveled to Liberia in mid August but there was no talk of adoption and no one could figure out why.
Americans for African Adoptions sent out an e-mail to their members saying, "When I spoke to the Office of Children's Issues this week-they said there is absolutely nothing we can do. They are waiting on President Sirleaf to give the OK to the Embassy to allow already processed children to leave Liberia."
The Other Side of the Coin
Liberia has good reason to be concerned about where they are sending their children and the family members they are leaving. An agency run by a native Liberian in Eden Prairie, Minnesota was shut down because of standards at the orphanage they ran in Liberia. No charges have come from that investigation.
Another agency outside of Monrovia was shut down in 2007 and every child had a birth family to return.
And it's not just Liberia, countries all over the world are closing their doors to international adoptions, deciding a life of poverty with loved ones is better than a life of opportunity with strangers.
The Future
No one seems to know how this will all turn out. Calls and e-mails to those in power go unanswered. Liberians who used to be polite and helpful have disappeared and so far there have been no adoption petitions filed in Liberian courts to create a uniform adoption law.
President Sirleaf is back in the states for a meeting at the UN this week, but its unlikely adoption will be on the agenda
Meanwhile Emmanuel sits in his crib while hope is running out for the Millers. They had planned to rename their son Jaxson. On Wednesday, Denise wrote, "I am so depressed about not being able to get our Jaxson home. This is pure ridiculous. Three babies that had families committed have died in Liberia during this wait to come home. This is killing me thinking that something like this could happen to Jaxson."
 |
