Family Ties

I have just watched on the news the horrible events in Haiti. I cannot imagine the lengths of suffering that a country which has so little to start with, reduced to a pile of rubble. The sad and desperate faces of many men,women and children. The after shock that ripped through Haiti this morning set many screaming with terror into the streets. I have also heard on the news that the government of Canada and Haiti are working on getting orphans to Canada and into homes without all the usual long wait times and red tape. I am sure that there is a long list of people waiting to adopt these children. I remember when a good friend of mine went to Romania to adopt two children. The politics and government officials were corrupt to the ninth degree. The only way to move up the long line was to have plenty of cash, cigarettes and liquor on hand. The corruption even went as far as to the testing of the available children for H.I.V. My friend said that you wouldn't dare have a possible candidate (child for adoption) tested in Romania. The blood sample would be sent to France and the results would be anxiously awaited. If the result was positive you would either have the choice of taking the child anyway, or going to the back of the line and going through the whole process of search and rescue all over again. My friend and her husband were lucky, they only had to go to the back of the line once. The first child that they tried to adopt came back with a positive result for his blood test. The next two were both negative, their Romanian adoptees are now almost 20 years old. A happy, healthy family. One would wonder what would have happened to these two children if they had not been adopted, I also wonder what happened to the one who tested positive and was not adopted. There are so many sad tales in this world. Sometimes a catastrophe can turn into a blessing. Haiti has the attention of the whole world, in it's darkest hours the light of caring humanity has shone through. I say a little prayer for all that died in Haiti, also a prayer for the ones that have survived.
Yours in light,
Cat x