Dorothy Grant

Dr. Colleen O’Connell will never forget Aug. 19, 2006. It was her husband Jeff Campbell’s birthday, but that wasn’t what made it special. It was the day the couple returned to Canada with Samuel and Vénel, two young boys they had adopted from Haiti.

“It was a big change overnight,” says Dr. O’Connell, a specialist in rehabilitation medicine who practises in Fredericton. “Before, there was no rush to get home after work and if you wanted to go shopping or go to a movie, we could do that. Now, we have to constantly think about the kids.”

Considering the family’s ongoing commitment to helping developing countries, perhaps the adoptions are not such a big surprise.

“I went into medicine because of my work in Third World countries,” says Dr. O’Connell. “My first volunteer work was in Kenya in 1986, with the Red Cross. I’ve also been in Asia and Jeff and I spent three months working on a project in Mozambique.”

Dr. O’Connell’s work and her specialty caught the attention of the American organization Healing Hands for Haiti.

“In 2002, they approached me looking to get Canadians involved because they were having a hard time finding enough doctors and volunteers to go to Haiti. It’s purely a rehabilitation initiative, with a strong focus on training and education, We’re not trying to go and see thousands of patients. We’re trying to teach Haitian health-care workers how to perform rehab medicine and, more important, how to prevent a lot of injuries and illnesses before they get to the point that will result in severe disability.”

Her Canadian team made its first visit in early 2003, and has been going back to Haiti two or three times a year since. “We’ve now created our own organization—Team Canada Healing Hands.”

Enjoying the snow in New Brunswick.

Dr. O’Connell is clearly proud when asked to describe the project’s achievements.

“It’s working extremely well—the clinic runs every day even when we aren’t there. We have technicians who have learned how to do marvellous prosthetics, a wheelchair technician, therapists and nurses doing rehab medicine, so when we go there we are really refining and advancing their skills. We will now be able to work in other areas of the country. On our next trip, we’ll be working with another group that runs a school and outreach program for disabled children.”

It was during a visit Dr. O’Connell’s team made to a Haitian hospital’s abandoned children’s ward that she discovered a two-year-old-boy who captured her heart.

“He had been brought there by a member of his family who never returned. They all agreed there was something special about him. He was a bright child with lots of energy and potential. When they came back to our clinic, they insisted we should do something to help him.”

“Jeff and I talked about Samuel and decided we’d adopt him, especially since having worked in several developing countries, we had always considered that some day we might adopt a child from the developing world that needed a family.”

She immediately spoke with the Haitian woman who served as the clinic’s director. “She has lots of connections in the country and can get anything done.”

Little Samuel was soon transferred to a well-run orphanage, and Colleen and Jeff began the challenge of adopting him. She insists that this proved to be reasonable and an appropriate process. “It was just like you were adopting a child in this country but it . . . took about a year and a half.”

Without a hint of hesitation, she adds: “It was while we were going through this necessary procedure that we decided, if we were going to adopt one child, we might as well adopt another one.”

Enter Vénel, a young boy whose family had left him with a priest and who ended up in the orphanage where Samuel lived. He and Samuel were destined to share new parents.

During the waiting period, whenever Dr. O’Connell and her husband were in Haiti, they spent as much time as they could with the two boys. “We would go see them and they would stay with us in the guest house, where they got to know most of the members of our team.”

Today, Colleen and Jeff live a busy but exhilarating life. Fortunately, because she speaks a little French, there’s been no real language barrier communicating with her sons.

She says she and her husband were especially delighted when Keswick Ridge, the community where they live, had its first snowfall of the year. “Vénel and Samuel spent the whole day outside and had a wonderful time eating snow!”

The couple is now intent on ensuring their sons’ Haitian heritage remains a part of their lives. “When they’re old enough, we plan to bring them with us to Haiti. If you are ever in our house, you will see we have lots of Haitian artwork and pictures that will be a constant reminder of the country where they were born.”

For Colleen and Jeff, the adoptions have been about creating a family and not saving a child.

“We believe everyone deserves a loving home and security. This is something we can provide these two children. If anyone should ask us why we didn’t adopt two children here in New Brunswick, we would tell them, we would do that, too. But . . . these two dear little boys, who we now truly love, came into our lives and have created a real family.”

Dorothy Grant is a freelance writer in Halifax.