Haitian children are finding safer homes through adoption. Are they losing their culture in the process?
From Kansas to France, Haitian children are leaving one earthquake-devastated country and heading toward the welcoming arms of new places they will call home.
Their second chance at life is shown especially through the shy smiles and giggles of two newly adopted girls — Bettania, 7, and Dieunette, 2, who now live in Nebraska with their adoptive family, according to a recent New York Times article. These two little girls were among the many Haitian adopted children rescued from dusty places of crumbled concrete and sent to the United States and other countries.
In France, 33 Haitian children were adopted by families and were welcomed in Paris last Friday, according to The Syndney Morning Herald. In Kansas, 7 Haitian children were adopted recently into several different homes, according to a Kansas City news article.
What does this adoption process mean for these families? These young children (especially those who will have no firsthand recollection of their land and language) will grow up and learn about this earthquake that shook their homes. But will they also remember the most important part of their own Haiti — their homes?
In this case, only time can tell.
It is great that eager families all over the world are adopting these precious children who have witnesses so much in their little lives. I admire the resilience in these children who have left the only worlds they have known and entered into foreign lands that will raise them. I commend every single adoptive family because this will not be an easy journey. Every day is a challenge enough for the older children dealing with their own struggles of overcoming images of family members rattling their last breath as a collapsed building suffocated them, and their stuffed animals trampled in dirt because they became homeless, too.
One of my concerns, among many, in this adoption process are the families’ ability to maintain the children’s identity, heritage and history. I know in the process of adopting, there is another layer that must be remembered and instilled in the children — their culture.
I am sure many families will instill in these children their rich cultural backgrounds because, who else will? It will inevitably be up to the parents to mold these little ones with a source of pride that they can identify so, when they grow up, they will never forget they are Haitian.
