Haiti, and other happenings

What's going on in Haiti is heart-breaking, and I am really concerned about the more recent fervor over wanting to adopt children who have been harmed and/or orphaned as a result of the earthquake. 15 children just went missing from a children's home today. This is really worrisome to me - the thought that children and families that have been completely traumatized may be further traumatized by being brought to another country to live with another family - albeit out of altruistic intentions. Even while I see the images of the children that have been left by this earthquake and my heart aches for them and I feel helpless, I just worry that through one's wish to remedy a situation by adopting a child, one could actually be further pulling a family apart. All of this in the middle of chaos when we don't really know where anyone's family is. I am worried about adoptions happening before all of the dust has actually settled and other family member might be located. I should say that I don't know squat about adoptions from Haiti, and not much more about international adoption in general. It's quite horrifying and I'm scared thinking about the consequences of this earthquake that will be felt for generations.

In other happenings (since I haven't written her in months, there have been quite a few) - we did finalize little A's adoption. All went well and we are now awaiting an amended birth certificate, which will allow us to get a ssn. In the meantime, we were able to renew her passport, which was of the most immediate concern to us. The lawyer who was with us at her finalization is an adoptive mom (through open adoption) as well, with a daughter the same age at little A, so it was nice to chat with her while we waited. And there was lots of waiting, since our judge was ill and informed us after we had already arrived that she couldn't see the case, and then we had to find another judge who would do it.

We switched little A from the home-based daycare provider to a daycare center with more kids (12 kids, 4 adults), and we LOVE it. And she loves it too, as evidenced by the fact that she never wants to leave when I arrive to pick her up each day. It's an amazing place with amazing and caring people looking after her, and lots of fun stuff to play with and explore.

Life with a toddler is much, much different than life with an infant. :) Our little toddler continues to grow and change every day, and each day brings new developments. As time goes on, I find myself more and more amazed that she is in our life. It really blows me away.