[MarMema]

When you adopt internationally you pay a fee to the "finder" of the child. Currently Bethany is listing the Haitian incountry fee as 12 grand per child.

The younger and healthier the child, the higher the fee in many cases.

That busload of children was a gold mine if you knew you had evangelical connections back home to parents willing to make the second mortgage to help a child.

The media hype about kids in Haiti was just gravy for this woman.

That said I think most of the group were innocent and I don't know the specifics for Haiti, but wow, we had to climb through ten million hoops to bring a child into the US, medical too.
So I don't know where she was going to get the documents, or maybe she was planning to solicit donations forever.....

But you don't go into a disaster zone and solicit for children to place overseas. It's not ethical.

[CaribouCrossing]

You’ve got experience and insight into this situation that I don’t have, MarMema, and I do thank you for sharing it. It sounds like you know of what you speak, and hopefully others will find it as educational as I did.

God bless the children and keep them safe from those who would trade their lives for riches. Amen.

[Abby4116]

I read another article where the mother of the head of this group from the US was interviewed. Yes, I think she was in over her head on this mission, but I think she meant well. She was not trying to bring the kids to the US - there was hope for their survival in the Dominican Republic, and, yes, the parents signed the forms giving her custody of the children. It promised them a better life than they had in Haiti. Seems that one form was missing - and that started the whole mess.

I think she was young and idealistic. If she was thinking of a gold-mine" I would hope that she would have thought it out better.

[chilltherats]

“....but wow, we had to climb through ten million hoops to bring a child into the US, medical too.”

Perhaps the adoption authorities you dealt with had serious questions about your competency to be an adoptive parent.