A Happy Family

The Lee family (pictured above) of South Dakota has recently added three young children from Haiti to their lives. Their story appeared in this article from a local news source in Flandreau, South Dakota. The children joined the Lee family last Tuesday (Feb. 16) and, according to the article, are doing well with their new family. This adoption is one of the numerous Haitian adoptions cases that were in process prior to the earthquake and have subsequently been sped up by the disaster.

The Lee family began the adoption process for the two older children months ago and were not expecting to have the children join their family any sooner than this summer. However, in the aftermath of the earthquake the children were sent to the U.S. on refugee status and the youngest child, Mikano- whose adoption was not scheduled to occur for at least another year- unexpectedly was able to join his two older siblings, Christopher and Daniella.

The tone of  the article is uniformly light and optimistic. Scenes of the Lee children- adopted and biological, white and black- coloring together or the new adoptive father rocking his newly adopted son are described by the author. An anecdote about 8-year-old Amanda's prayers for a baby being answered by Mikano is included. And mother Sandra is lightly quoted noting the similarities between her biological children and adopted children saying "it's all typical toddler-hood", despite the fact that the children do not speak english and come from a notably different background than do her biological children. The author even quietly praises the Lee's hopes to keep the children connected with their Haitian heritage by mentioning their desired future trip to visit Haiti.

Not surprisingly, the article ends on a quasi-religious note with a section entitled "God's Call for Us." Adoptive father, Chad, speaking for the Lee family- members of the First Assembly of God church in Brookings- states that "we thought it [this adoption] was God's call for us from the very beginning." Religion is, yet again connected to the Haitian adoption situation. But, if the family is as happy as they look in this picture and are described to be in this article, this story stands as a definite beacon of hope amidst the anxiety found in the news about Haitian adoption today.