NEW YORK - The debate over international adoption, already a bitter one, has intensified in the aftermath of Haiti's earthquake and the arrest of 10 Americans for trying to take children out of the devastated country without permission.
"It was a critical mistake — the Haitian government has been very clear they did not want any children leaving without its express permission," Johnson said Monday. "Maybe the Americans thought they were helping 33 kids, but now there's going to be a much slower process and maybe even a ban on future adoptions — and that would be a tragedy."
Five of the ten people arrested come from a church not far from me. I have passed it hundreds of times on the way to see my kids. I watched it being built on a empty land, brick by brick. I saw its parking lot full and empty. Like most churches, it is only used a few hours a week. You wonder how much trouble they could really get into. Now we know.
When the news first broke, I remember reading an article asking one of the ladies if they had the permission of the Haitian government to take the 33 kids out of the country and her answer was...God told me to do it. Personally, I took that as a NO. When someone feels that God told them to do Something, it can look like Nothing matters but that very fact. It has made more than one do crazy things because of their belief that what God told them to do, no matter what - was the right course of action.
What is the truth? Did God tell them to take 33 kids illegally out of the country to save their physical souls? At least 2 of the kids told them they had parents and they were told they were going to some kind of camp, so they went with them. What does God tell us and when do we do it? When do we start to bend the rules, whether they be those of a country or of a child. When does lying seem to be justified. When was it left to us to cure the world, at any cost? When is stepping out of bounds for God, ok?
My prayers for these 10 people are not to be successful in Haiti. Nor that they are allowed to be martyrs for adoption rights. My prayers for them is to come home, get their heads out of their assumed cause and understand they can't save everybody. Child trafficking is child trafficking. Haiti has enough issues right now without having to deal with child trafficking whether intentions are good or sinister, which they are both having to deal with. We are an impatient people and that has goteen us into trouble, more than once. Justice moves too slow so we take matters into our own hands. God's time is not our time may be one of the hardest concepts for us to grasp. We see so much that needs to be done. The truth is, this side of heaven it will always, always be this way. If you need something to accept and pray about, pray about that...
