Continued from Part Four...

The question posed:

If adopting from Haiti, particularly in the case of an older child, should parental visits to Haiti be allowed or encouraged before the adoption is finalized? I have heard the pros (early bonding) and cons (feelings of abandonment when you leave without the child) on this subject.

And one last response:

Agency 10

I would have to say YES, I believe parents should be allowed to visit prior to the adoption being finalized. I do not believe it is essential for families... more

Continued from Part Three…

If adopting from Haiti, particularly in the case of an older child, should parental visits to Haiti be allowed or encouraged before the adoption is finalized? I have heard the pros (early bonding) and cons (feelings of abandonment when you leave without the child) on this subject.

And more responses:

Agency 5

It is a matter of opinion.......about half of our parents do and the others do not. I myself from a personal stand point think it would be very difficult to leave the child once I held... more

Continued from Part Two…

The question posed:

If adopting from Haiti, particularly in the case of an older child, should parental visits to Haiti be allowed or encouraged before the adoption is finalized? I have heard the pros (early bonding) and cons (feelings of abandonment when you leave without the child) on this subject.

And another response:

Agency 4

Here is my opinion. One visit would definitely be great. You can take a photo album to your child, you can take him/her some special items. S/he can meet... more

Continued from Part One…

This was the question posed by a friend of a friend to a handful of adoption agencies:

If adopting from Haiti, particularly in the case of an older child, should parental visits to Haiti be allowed or encouraged before the adoption is finalized? I have heard the pros (early bonding) and cons (feelings of abandonment when you leave without the child) on this subject.

And here are the various responses (both pro and con, and somewhere in between) she received:

Agency 1

You are correct -... more

My husband and I have visited our girls in Haiti twice now … once in July of 2006 and then again in September of 2006. I was fully prepared to go on the next Parent Trip to Haiti this last January with our agency, but once the travel dates were announced; I realized that I should not go to Haiti again. There were many reasons behind this—financial, the stress of getting ready for a trip, the stress of the trip, leaving our other kids behind, leaving our daughters in Haiti. I wanted to see them, and yet I also knew that it was not the right decision to go.

Our agency just announced a new policy for their Parent Trips. Up until recently, they had Parent Trips every three months.... more

Every so often, I’d like to share a little about what it is like to be in Haiti from my personal perspective. The other day, I was answering the question about why it takes so long for an adoption to be completed in Haiti. One of my responses was “the Haitian Attitude”. I used dining in a restaurant as an example. After I was finished sharing a snippet about that, I had to chuckle to myself. There is nothing quite like dining in Haiti. It’s not that the food is so unusual (though chicken spaghetti or hotdog spaghetti are a little... more

Flights to Haiti just got cheaper:

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti - Discount carrier Spirit Airlines will offer flights between Fort Lauderdale, Florida, and Haiti's capital beginning in March, the airline said.

The Fort Lauderdale-based airline will have three flights per week to Port-au-Prince starting March 22 and will offer daily flights starting in May, Spirit said in a statement. Spirit's one-way fares between Fort Lauderdale and Port-au-Prince will start at US$93, according to its Web site, compared to US$255 for American Airlines flights. Barry Biffle, the airline's chief marketing officer, said in a statement that the new service would give the 250,000 people of... more

If you’re trying to decide whether or not to bring your child or children with you to their new sibling’s country of birth, you might find this list helpful:

The Pros

• Your child will get to see his sibling’s country of birth. He/she will be able to tell his/her sibling about their country from personal experience. • Your child will be able to bond with his/her new sibling without the distractions of regular life. • He/she will be able to understand exactly where their new sibling is coming from. It may enable them to treat them with more love and patience, and possibly feel less threatened by their arrival in the family. • Your child will... more

If you’re trying to decide whether or not to bring your child or children with you to their new sibling’s country of birth, you might find this list helpful:

The Cons

• Traveling might be too intense for your child. • Your child might get sick (Ryland did. We gave him Cipro, and thankfully he recovered quickly. However, it was worrisome for us at the time). • Your child will most likely be bored on the trip. This can be draining; trying to keep him/her entertained when you are busy with your new child and adoption arrangements, too. • You quite possibly will have to deal with siblingitis much sooner than you’d care to. This could make a stressful... more

Continued from Part One...

Last July (2006), my husband and I went to Haiti to meet our two new daughters. While we were there, we decided that it would be great for our older children to experience Haiti. Haiti is like nothing I have ever personally seen before. It is the perfect description for extreme poverty. Around the same time we went to Haiti for the first time, our son, Ryland was constantly complaining about his “rough”... more