Children of the Tsunami
By Lorraine Allen Rose

(Originally printed in The Townelaker magazine, January 2005. This is part of Lorraine's ongoing series on adoption in The Townelaker.)

Tsunami – n. A very large ocean wave caused by an underwater earthquake or volcanic eruption.¹

We saw the footage.  We read the headlines.  We followed the FoxNews.com mortality totals.  We watched as Oprah’s sweetheart interior designer, Nate Berkus, recounted his story of survival and loss.  We know about the Tsunami that hit Asia and eastern Africa. 

Now we’re sending checks to the Red Cross, dropping change in cups at the gas station and adding a “Dollar for Support” at the store.  We’ve gone to pancake breakfast benefits, had our cars washed by teens in parking lots and watched Tsunami Aid on TV.  But, still there’s a buzz.  A buzz that just won’t go away – “what about the children?” 

Daily I hear it – in the grocery store, at the gym and over coffee – people want to help the kids.  It’s natural.  We’re cosmically programmed to do it.  It’s our job as adults to take care of kids.  And, when they’re hurting like these kids in India, Malaysia, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Somalia and Kenya are, we feel like we need to go over there and take care of them.  So, is it possible to adopt the kids that are now left as orphans by this great wave?  Well, yes and no.

While there will undoubtedly be hundreds and potentially thousands of orphans from this latest natural disaster, right now, there is no plan in place to make these children available for adoption.  However, considering the Tsunami’s effects on the government, the people and the infrastructure, it should come as no real surprise.  There is an exhaustive effort underway to reunite children with their parents or other family members who may be able to care for them.

According to UNICEF the top priorities are:  “Keeping children alive.  Caring for separated and orphaned children. Protecting vulnerable children from trafficking and exploitation. Getting children back in school as quickly as possible.”   Finding homes for them in the U.S. is very far down the list.  In some of the countries, such as Indonesia and Bangladesh, adoption by foreigners isn’t even permissible by current law.  And in other countries, such as Malaysia the current adoption laws require up to a two-year in-country stay.  Only India has an existing, extensive international adoption program.

So, while it may not be possible to adopt one of these orphans for some time (estimates are up to two years), there are available children who are victims of huge destructive waves of a different nature.  Hard numbers are difficult to find, but most estimates show that there are as many as 34 million children across the globe awaiting a “forever family.”  These are the children who are victims of waves of poverty, addiction, war, famine and parental death.  Many of these are children who are victims of disasters from years ago and have just now become available for adoption.

Right here in the U.S. there are 126,000 children currently awaiting adoption in the state systems – and that doesn’t take into consideration the children who are currently in the process of adoption or simply in Foster Care and not yet cleared for adoption, or the infants born each day and placed for adoption.  The total number of children already available for adoption here in the U.S. nearly equals the total number of casualties in this latest natural disaster. 

After the fall of communism in the early 1990’s there was a rash of attention given to orphans in the formerly Soviet-occupied countries, some of which are only now processing international adoptions.  In the small Baltic nation of Latvia -- a country approximately the size of West Virginia -- there are more than 4,000 orphans.  Russia and Ukraine both have many children waiting.  There now exists a situation like what we may see again in a few years – while a disaster remains in the news, people experience an overwhelming desire to help, to adopt the children left in the wake of the disaster.  But when the news subsides and all of the legal red-tape has been cut away, people forget about the passion they once felt.  And the children are left to live on the streets or in institutions – forgotten.

Each one of the children awaiting adoption has a hope for a “forever family.”  They hope to find a family who won’t pity them but rather love them.  Someone to raise them and to nurture them.  They hope to have a family to call their own – not just now, but as they grow older and need a support system, a family to share holidays and grandparents for their own children. 

Interested in adoption?  Find a reliable, reputable agency (public or private) and begin to ask questions.  Can’t adopt a kid?  Hey, that’s okay, you can help others who have the heart but not the wallet by making a donation to an adoption assistance program like the Stevey Joy Club which is part of Shaohannah’s Hope Foundation run by Christian rocker Steven Curtis Chapman at http://www.shaohannahshope.org/ ,  to The Gift of Adoption fund at http://www.giftofadoption.org/ or at most reputable adoption agencies.  

¹The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition