Saturday, September 12, 2009

Issues

There have been many issues involved with the Orphanage I have worked with in Haiti. Accusations of abuse, both sexual and physical. While I do not know the whole story, I have heard MUCH of it from both sides. I have learned that one of my children had been physically abused by their caretaker, and still shows the mental scars today.
I do not pretend that Haiti is perfect, the Orphanage I work with has been perfect, or the man whom I help is perfect. What I do know is that in Haiti many say 'T.I.H." This is Haiti...

This last week there was a HUGE blow-up on a yahoo group that is full of families that have adopted, are adopting, or otherwise support this orphanage. I myself, became involved with the angry banter, not that I am proud of it, but I had said some not so nice things. We have had one or two on the group that even though they are well versed in the Bible, tend to live their life higher than others and point it out in full force while quoting the Bible as the backup to their nastiness.
Now, I am usually not one to judge peoples relationships with Christ. I, myself, stumble every day and know that I am not in the right place with God as I wish I was. I see to many things in life that out weigh my ability to serve him in full.
I also want to note that while adopting our 2 youngest, I had to take a Psychological Evaluation test that pulls out your characteristics of your personality......I scored CLINICAL on Social Justice. What that means is that if I feel like someone is being treated unfairly, I tend to respond 100% to the extreme to redeem that person or thing and will not rest until I feel like I have been heard.
Now, I am not trying to use this as an excuse, but when I hear people say something that they state is 100% truth about someone, not knowing that persons 100% truth, motives etc. about the situation, I will go off like a grenade. (I have to say it is nice to know there is some technical/psychological thing for this since my family always thought I just liked to start fights..hehe)
Anyway, I responded to someone angrier than I should have and feel bad that the others involved may have missed the point I was making. I hope that people begin to realize that we are dealing with sensitive issues such as children's lives and the reputation of a man who has given his life to these orphans.
I hope all that are involved are healed, find themselves right with God and do not tarnish one mans life to so-called heal another.

1 comment:

Julie said...

LeAnne, I didn't think your response was out of line at all. I think if someone says adoption from NLL are illegal that someone has the right to say why this isn't true. There is a difference in culture that from an American standpoint could be perceived odd (ie., home births not being registered and getting birth certificates only after the child is placed, not listing a living father on a birth certificate because he has not accepted responsibility to parent the child, the language used in relinquishment documents that is supposedly required by US law but is illegal in Haiti...)

I think the thing that got me so annoyed was that the conversation seemed to be going down the path of all children adopted from NLL/HFC are flawed and damaged. That is simply not true... but, I don't get attachment/therapeutic parenting anyway.