'If this doesn't expedite the adoption, I'll be crushed'
EUGENE, Ore. -- Alicia Swaringen has spent every day glued to her computer and the television set, phone in hand, watching the news from Haiti. After days filled with anxiety, she finally received encouraging news.
The United States government is easing adoptions restrictions for Haitian orphans, which could speed the way for Swaringen to finally bring her 4-year-old son, Sthainder, home.
"I can hardly stand it," said Swaringen, a Eugene resident. "The thought that he could get here, soon, is just unbelievable."
The Department of Homeland Security and the Department of State have issued a humanitarian parole policy that allows some orphaned children from Haiti in the process of being adopted before the Jan. 12 earthquake to enter the U.S.
Swaringen was placed with Sthainder in October 2007 through Holt International. She is in the final steps of the adoption process, waiting for a signature from Haiti's Minister of the Interior to clear the way for Sthainder to get his passport. The Ministry of the Interior building was destroyed in the earthquake.
Swaringen, who initially thought Sthainder's adoption would be finalized in June, feared it would be years before the adoption would happen.
Now, the adoption appears to qualify for the humanitarian parole.
Including Swaringen and Sthainder, there are 17 American families waiting to adopt 21 children from Holt Interntional's center in Haiti, according to Susan Soon Keum Cox, Vice President of Policy and External Affairs.
"All at various stages of process but many of them were just at the final stretch," said Cox. "We're hopeful they'll be among the children allowed to come home."
The Holt Fontana Village is a 30 minute drive from Port-au-Prince. It was not damaged in the earthquake.
Cox said all adoption paperwork in Haiti was destroyed, but Holt International has copies. Staff members are gathering that documents to submit to the federal government.
"One of the things that the State Department and certainly Holt is very committed to is that we don't make any shortcuts," said Cox. "Adoption is a lifelong process and even though this a process that is coming under incredible, unusual circumstances we have to make sure everything's been done properly."
Swaringen is trying to temper her excitement, in case the government decides her adoption does not qualify.
"I feel very excited and nervous," she said. "I know if this doesn't expedite the adoption, I'll be crushed. But it's look pretty good."
