By Melinda Williams
Published in the Davis County Clipper
WEST BOUNTIFUL — Little Mia Carroll stands in front of the open refrigerator in awe of what’s there. She runs her fingers through the running water from the kitchen faucet and took five baths in one day.
After an adoption process that began in 2004, 8-year-old Mia is finally home with a family who loves her and is providing comforts she never would have dreamed of even a week ago.
Mia is one of 52 orphans brought out of Haiti late last week, children who had adoptive parents waiting for them, like Roger and Carol Carroll of West Bountiful.
The Carrolls returned home early Monday afternoon, after picking Mia up in Florida last Saturday.
Since they picked her up, Mia’s been astounded at things Americans take for granted. Carroll said that even before the devastating earthquake, the people of Haiti had next to nothing. The children at the Foyer de Sion orphanage, where Mia lived, received only two meals a day, mainly rice and beans. They slept on mattresses on a floor in a room the size of a “good-sized master bedroom” with 40 other children. They bathed by standing in a wash-tub type tub. In spite of the conditions, children who make it into orphanages are the luckiest, she said.
Carroll said that since they picked Mia up, she’s hardly stopped eating. “One night in the hotel in Florida, Mia came back to bed with peanut butter and a spoon.” She said some of the children being adopted don’t even know what fruits and vegetables are except bananas.
The Carrolls previously visited Haiti and found that even prior to the earthquake, the poverty was so bad children would eat cookies made of dirt, a special dirt which had calming properties to ease hunger pains. “It’s heartbreaking to think we have so much and to know there are these little people with parents who can’t feed them,” she said.
She said it’s been hard for her to know the conditions in Haiti. “My heart can’t take it. My heart weeps,” Carroll said.
The Carroll’s didn’t travel to Haiti to pick Mia up. Instead, the children were brought to the United States. “There’s only enough room on flights going into Haiti for those offering humanitarian aid,” Carroll said. “They didn’t want room on the planes being taken up with parents.”
Mia’s adoption was finalized a year and a half ago, Carroll said, and the family has just been waiting to get a visa for the little girl, who is so tiny, she’s been mistaken for a 3-year-old.
“We didn’t know for two days if she was alive,” Carroll said. She said that just because Mia had never lived with the family, didn’t mean she was any less their child. “We’d already adopted her and it was very stressful circumstances to not know if she was alive.”
Mia is the family’s second adoption from Haiti. She joins 4-year-old Taciana, who was adopted as an infant, and joined the Carroll household in 2008. The family also has four biological children, including a son, who left to serve an LDS mission in New Hampshire on Wednesday.
Carroll said that once their biological children had grown to a point they could be somewhat independent, they decided they could adopt.
Mia speaks only a few words of English. Carroll said she and her husband speak Creole, and so can communicate with Mia, but even Taciana has forgotten much of her Creole.
To help her learn English, and adjust to American culture, Mia will be homeschooled with Carroll for a year or so.
In addition to her fascination with food and running water, Carroll said she had to move the telephone out of the kitchen, because Mia would pick it up and say “hello,” but couldn’t say more.
Carroll said, “We just completed a long journey, but we have a long journey ahead. We’ll just take it slow.”
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