LilMtnCbn
02-19-2004, 08:38 AM
http://www.gomemphis.com/mca/news_columnists/article/0,1426,MCA_646_266611
3,00.html
Adoption without 'either/or'
By Wendi C. Thomas
Contact
February 19, 2004
I like being persuaded to change my mind.
The last person to do that was Phil Bryant on the issue of international
adoption.
I'd always seen it as an either/or. Either foreign children would get homes, or
American children would.
And I was on the side of the 542,000 kids in the U.S. foster care system.
But a week ago, Bryant asked me to write about Summer Miracles, an effort by
Kidsave International to bring older orphaned children to the U.S. for six
weeks to live with host families.
Ninety-five percent of the 1,045 children who have come through the
five-year-old program were adopted.
I told Bryant I'd never understood why a white couple would go all the way to
say, China, to adopt a child who didn't look like them, when there are black
children in Memphis who need homes.
For Bryant, a local restaurant owner, his passion for orphans overseas stems
from how he sees his world.
"For one person, their community might be the city, state or county,'' he said.
"For me, I believe that my community is the world in which I live," he wrote,
"a world where, when it really matters, and you are trying to help a fellow
human being... there really are no borders."
That same thinking was behind the decision of Scott and Virginia Haight to
foster two older boys from Russia.
The couple had decided to add to their family and were exploring domestic
adoption when they learned about Kidsave.
Vladimir, now 17, and Aleks, now 15, came from a Russian orphanage to spend the
summer of 2000 with the Haights.
The language barrier led to a lot of communication by pointing, and an
electronic translator got plenty of use.
The family, which includes Betsey, 16, and Drew, 15, learned basic Russian
phrases, and the boys picked up English quickly.
"It just kind of worked out from the beginning,'' said Scott Haight. And in
December 2000, the Haights adopted the brothers.
Virginia Haight died of ovarian cancer in December 2002, leaving Scott to raise
four children, and forcing Vladmir and Aleks to relive the loss of their birth
mother.
But at the sprawling Haight home in Germantown, there's no hint of sadness.
Three dogs romp around, and the boys tease each other in English and Russian.
The family now includes another Russian teen, Vas, 17, whom Haight is
fostering.
This summer, Kidsave will launch Weekend Miracles, which will pair U.S.
children in foster care with host families and to my newly changed mind, that
will turn my either/or dilemma of international vs. domestic adoption into a
happy "and."
To learn how you can volunteer, make a donation or host a child, go to the
Summer Miracles orientation meeting 4-5 p.m. Saturday at Bryant's Breakfast and
Bar-b-q, 3965 Summer Ave. A $10 barbecue dinner fund-raiser is planned there
from 4 to 8 p.m. Feb. 28.
-------------------------
A good friend will come and bail you out of jail . . . but, a true friend will
be sitting next to you saying, "Damn . . . that was fun!"
-----Unknown
3,00.html
Adoption without 'either/or'
By Wendi C. Thomas
Contact
February 19, 2004
I like being persuaded to change my mind.
The last person to do that was Phil Bryant on the issue of international
adoption.
I'd always seen it as an either/or. Either foreign children would get homes, or
American children would.
And I was on the side of the 542,000 kids in the U.S. foster care system.
But a week ago, Bryant asked me to write about Summer Miracles, an effort by
Kidsave International to bring older orphaned children to the U.S. for six
weeks to live with host families.
Ninety-five percent of the 1,045 children who have come through the
five-year-old program were adopted.
I told Bryant I'd never understood why a white couple would go all the way to
say, China, to adopt a child who didn't look like them, when there are black
children in Memphis who need homes.
For Bryant, a local restaurant owner, his passion for orphans overseas stems
from how he sees his world.
"For one person, their community might be the city, state or county,'' he said.
"For me, I believe that my community is the world in which I live," he wrote,
"a world where, when it really matters, and you are trying to help a fellow
human being... there really are no borders."
That same thinking was behind the decision of Scott and Virginia Haight to
foster two older boys from Russia.
The couple had decided to add to their family and were exploring domestic
adoption when they learned about Kidsave.
Vladimir, now 17, and Aleks, now 15, came from a Russian orphanage to spend the
summer of 2000 with the Haights.
The language barrier led to a lot of communication by pointing, and an
electronic translator got plenty of use.
The family, which includes Betsey, 16, and Drew, 15, learned basic Russian
phrases, and the boys picked up English quickly.
"It just kind of worked out from the beginning,'' said Scott Haight. And in
December 2000, the Haights adopted the brothers.
Virginia Haight died of ovarian cancer in December 2002, leaving Scott to raise
four children, and forcing Vladmir and Aleks to relive the loss of their birth
mother.
But at the sprawling Haight home in Germantown, there's no hint of sadness.
Three dogs romp around, and the boys tease each other in English and Russian.
The family now includes another Russian teen, Vas, 17, whom Haight is
fostering.
This summer, Kidsave will launch Weekend Miracles, which will pair U.S.
children in foster care with host families and to my newly changed mind, that
will turn my either/or dilemma of international vs. domestic adoption into a
happy "and."
To learn how you can volunteer, make a donation or host a child, go to the
Summer Miracles orientation meeting 4-5 p.m. Saturday at Bryant's Breakfast and
Bar-b-q, 3965 Summer Ave. A $10 barbecue dinner fund-raiser is planned there
from 4 to 8 p.m. Feb. 28.
-------------------------
A good friend will come and bail you out of jail . . . but, a true friend will
be sitting next to you saying, "Damn . . . that was fun!"
-----Unknown
