Village Bible Church || Aurora | Indian Creek | Sugar Grove | IL

At the moment, adoptions from Haiti are closed. While it is true that many children have lost their families due to the earthquake, it will be a long and complicated process to determine whether children orphaned by the earthquake have surviving family members who may be able to care for them. Many Children’s Welfare organizations such as UNICEF and JCICS, as well as the U.S. State Department are strongly recommending holding off on any adoptions to Haiti until a proper legal process can be reestablished to prevent any unethical adoptions from occurring.

If any members of your congregation are interested in adoption, were the program to reopen, I would suggest to them to first look over the information on the Holt International website regarding the adoption process in Haiti. It might help to review the current adoption criteria to see if they would be applicable. We have no way to know whether or not these regulations will change in the future to address the need in Haiti. I would also recommend visiting the general Inter-country Adoption page of the Department of State’s website (www.adoption.state.gov) for updates on any future changes to that may occur. Lastly, there are children around the world that are in need of loving families, so I would also suggest looking into alternative programs to anyone who is interested in adoption internationally.