Monday, February 8, 2010

Brother and sister from Haiti find a home in Canada


Carmen Lynne will never forget 12 January, the day the devastating earthquake struck Haiti.

Mrs Lynne, who lives near Edmonton in the Canadian province of Alberta, was hovering by the phone waiting for a call to tell her to fly to Haiti to pick up her newly adopted children when news of the quake broke.

"When I first found out that my kids were okay, then my second question was, if the paperwork is lost what does this mean for me?" Mrs Lynne said.

"I didn't want to have to start from scratch all over again. My new daughter is nine years old, I was thinking if we have to start again she could be a teenager before she gets home."



Luckily for Mrs Lynne and her husband, Steve, their adoptive children were among 150 cases fast-tracked by the Canadian government because the adoption process was in the final stage when the earthquake happened.

It was a process that began three years ago to allow the Lynnes to adopt Jael, 9, and Johnny who is 6, from the Bresma orphanage in Port-au-Prince.

It involved the Christian Adoption Services in Alberta coming to check their home and interview them to see if they would be suitable parents. They also had to gain permission from the Alberta government to adopt the brother and sister, and then the Bresma orphanage in Haiti had to give its final approval.

The orphanage then paired Mrs Lynne and her family with the two children but they still had to wait for the paperwork to go through.

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