ORPHAN CHILDREN OF HAITI

It is the understanding of The Children’s Home & Lemieux Family Center that most of the children who have been brought to Pittsburgh from Haiti are already matched with adoptive families. The few others will likely be placed in pre-approved foster or adoptive homes that have had the required training necessary to help the children deal with the trauma they have experienced.

If you are still interested in learning more about the orphan children of Haiti, please refer to the following Web sites.

The National Council for Adoption (NCFA) has as Adoption Information Network called Heart to Haiti, www.adoptioncouncil.org/hearttohaiti, which is designed to keep prospective adoptive families and other friends of adoption informed of the adoption developments in Haiti.

Joint Council on International Children’s Services, www.jcics.org/Haiti.htm, has updated information about the status of the orphans in Haiti.

Families can also visit the Haiti page at www.adoption.state.gov for additional information.

Interested in learning more about domestic adoption?

It is admirable that so many families have called our agency in an effort to reach out to these orphan children in need of homes. Since everyone who is interested cannot adopt these particular children, this may be an opportunity for families to begin thinking about other types of adoption. In particular, The Children’s Home is always in need of families to adopt African American infants and would welcome interested families to call 412-441-4884 during normal business hours.

There are currently over 1,800 children in temporary foster care in Allegheny County. To find out more about the adoption of a child currently in foster care, call Three Rivers Adoption Council at 412- 471-8722 or the State Wide Adoption Network at 800-585-7926.