by: Licia

These two lovely ladies brought Levizier to the clinic at the beginning of 2010.  He was very small.  He weighted under 5 pounds.  We still had all the kids living under a shelter as we were preparing a new facility for them.  We called Dixie at GLA and she was happy, as she always is, to take little Levizier and help him to gain some weight.  Days turn into weeks, weeks turned into months, and then a year since Levizier has been at GLA.   One of the biggest goals for me (Licia) is to keep as many families together as I can.  I am not against adoption.  But I believe that each case needs to be looked at before being rushed into a decision.  I have many families that come to RHFH and tell me they have looked for help at other places.  But they want them to sign the children over to them for adoption or they will not offer care.  This is sad.  This hurts me.  This hurts them.  In all the years that I have lived here (16) I have only had a few people come to the clinic and say “I cannot care for my child I want to put it up for adoption”.  It just does not happen.  They love their kids, they have heard about adoption.  They know what it is and many do not agree with it.  That is hard.  It is hard in our minds to see children suffer from malnutrition and sickness.  But we as foreigners must remember we are visitors here.  We must respect those that we are here in love.  We should not force them into a decision that they are not ready to make and a decision that many do not agree with in their heart.  Ouch, that is a difficult one to swallow at times.  But one that we have to accept.  GLA, RHFH and a handful of other places here in Haiti offer a place for kids to stay and recover from illness, malnutrition or other problems for a short peroid of time.  This is a blessing to many, many families and gives them an option for their child or family member.

This is Levizier and his papa.  Together again.  He has mourned the loss of his wife and will begin the journey with his youngest son.  This makes me happy.  This makes Levizier’s papa happy.