Kenson sighting a la Kathy

Another adoptive mom was in Haiti at the beginning of July and took these pictures of Kenson. Thanks Kathy! We just came back from an adoption training that we were mandated to attend. At that training, there was a whole session devoted to orphanage care. This included video of various orphanages, lists of things you might observe in an orphanage, and how orphanage care affects children. Most of the orphanages featured were Eastern European. I've been in two orphanages in Romanian and saw essentially the same things that the videos showed. In general, D and I walked away feeling good about the care Kenson is receiving. First, Kenson is being fed by the nannies, not feeding himself. This is important because it is creating a child who is dependent upon adults to meet his needs and not allowing a child to become prematurely independent. Second, Kenson is interacting with other children and adults. In many of the orphanages we viewed and in the Romanian orphanage I was in that housed babies and toddlers, there was little interaction between babies and other people. Workers did not talk to the babies. Children did not talk to each other or babble at each other. Starkly quiet is how I would describe it. The orphanage in Haiti is not that. Yes, there are inappropriate interactions where kids hit, push, pull and bully but there are also opportunities for children to be together and for them to be with adults in positive ways.