Wasatch Adoptions

Newsletter Update
Monday, February 22, 2010

Adoption Class

We are pleased to announce that Wasatch Adoptions is presenting an adult continuing education class about adoption for the Granite School District.  The class will be held at the Hunter High School and you can find information about these classes by going to  www.granitepeaks.org and look for the courses for Spring.  You can find information about this class by going to the “Relationship” link under the HOME section.  You can sign up on line and there is room for 30 people in each class.  If you would rather contact the school directly you can call the school at 385-646-5366 and register over the phone. The cost of the class is nominal and we will be discussing domestic adoption, birth mother support, and international adoption.  We look forward to seeing lots of people attend this class and also hope that you will help us spread the word about this great opportunity.  If you know anyone interested in finding out more about any aspect of the adoption process, please help us spread the word about this class.

Haiti Update

Donation Project

Wasatch is teaming up with For Every Child, another Utah agency, as well as with Haitian Roots, a Utah based an education program,  to send a 40 foot container to Haiti with desperately needed supplies to Guesno and Marjorie Mardy, the directors of Foyer de Sion orphanage, Harry Mardy, director of the Hope for the Little Angles of Haiti orphanage, and the children involved in the education program sponsored by Haitian Roots.   This is a huge project and one that we are asking for help so we can get the supplies collected that we need for the shipment.  The supplies needed are as follows:

As many of you know, our Haiti coordinator, Chareyl Moyes, traveled to Haiti right after the big earthquake to see if she could help the children and perhaps get them out of Haiti and home to their families.  She was tremendously successful and after spending 11 days in Port au Price she was able to work miracles for our families and for families adopting from other agencies.  We owe a huge debt of gratitude to so many people.  We are especially grateful to the Utah Hospital Task force and Stephen Studdert for flying the children home, and to Lori Rosenlof who kept all of our families in the loop with what was happening with Chareyl while she was in Haiti.  Anna Belle Illien from Illien Adoptions in Atlanta sent $2500 to Chareyl while she was in Haiti so she could buy food and water for all the children she was trying to get out of the country.  We are also grateful to all those who held fund raisers and who donated money to help the orphanages in Haiti.  Recovering from the earthquake is going to take years and we plan to be involved in helping the people of Haiti for many years in the future.   Here is Chareyl’s story – we hope you enjoy reading about her experience.

Well as most of you know I have recently returned from Haiti. There really are hardly words to describe
my experience, sleeping at the orphanage and seeing the strength of so many Haitians on a daily basis was not only humbling, but life changing. We set out to bring 70 children home from two orphanages Hope for the Little Angels of Haiti and Foyer de Sion.  We went to not only bring the Wasatch children home but all the children that were being adopted from these two orphanages. With the help of both orphanages non-profit organizations we were able to prepare individual packets on every adoptive family showing that they were indeed in the adoption process and that they had an established relationship with their children.  Many of our families had been in the adoption process for well over two years so we had plenty of documentation that these families were truly adopting these children. After spending over a week at the embassy pushing for approvals for each child and family it was looking like we may miss our ride on a plane that had been very generously donated to come and pick us up from Haiti. But because of the courageous acts of many people the airplane was allowed to stay on the ground over night while one of our generous donors met with the prime minister of Haiti to get our paperwork signed.   We were finally able to load 54 of the children on to a plane headed for Miami.  Although it was extremely difficult to leave 16 children behind that day I am happy to report that all but one child has now come home and joined their forever families.  We are hoping to have our one remaining child home this coming weekend.  I know that there will be lots of questions over the next month or so about how to complete adoptions of children who received humanitarian parole.   As soon as there are announcements made we will pass the information on to families. But for now I hope that all the families will take time to enjoy their children and help them adjust to their new lives here in the US!  I don’t know what the future holds for Haiti but I pray that it will not take long for the Haitian government of the US government to make decisions regarding resumption of the adoption process.   I know that family reunification is important but also believe that it should not take years to accomplish. There are now more orphans than ever in Haiti and they deserve the right to grow up in a family! Hopefully the future will be bright for Haitian adoptions and as soon as we have more information we will pass it on to all those who have showed an interest in adopting a child from Haiti!

I don’t think that I will ever fully know all those who helped to bring me and the children home from Haiti but I will forever be grateful!

Chareyl Moyes

Conclusion:

Thank you, everyone, who can participate in our project to ship the container of supplies to Haiti.  We appreciate your donations and promise they will all be used to help the people of Haiti. 

Also, for those of you living in Utah, don’t forget to sign up for those adoption classes at Hunter High School.  If you have question about this class, just let us know.

**Note: Upon request, WIA will disclose the following: Service policy Contracts, the number of adoption placements per year for the prior 3 calendar years, the number of placements that remain intact, the number of families who apply to adopt each year, and the number of waiting children eligible for adoption. To obtain this information please call our office.