Haiti

After already suffering a magnitude-7 earthquake last week, Haiti was hit again with a lesser 6.1 aftershock this morning. More than a million people are already homeless and tens of thousands are injured, but there is one layer of this tragedy that I can't shake from my brain.

Haiti is a country from where many American families adopt, and since the earthquake, all the parents and children who've been waiting to be placed together will now have to wait even longer - that is, if the children are still alive and if the paperwork can be sorted out. As an adoptive mother, I cannot imagine the pain and anxiety I'd feel if I were sitting stateside knowing my child was in Haiti. Is she in the hands of a caregiver, or is she even alive? Phone calls, news reports and photos from the disaster zone would haunt me.

As adoption agencies sort through the mess of the aftermath, my hope is that the heartache of this earthquake will be lessened by the uniting of adoptive families. In the meantime, remember them in your thoughts and prayers.

--Jennie