Jonathan Smith loves popcorn and drive-in movies, can eat an entire steak himself and ride a tricycle.
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He's got a mommy and daddy, shares a bedroom with a sister and says, "I love you" in perfect English.
These are some of the new experiences in the 4-year-old's life since he left Haiti in the first days after an earthquake ravaged his country Jan. 12.
What a journey it has been -- from the cement floor of a homeless shelter to a cash-strapped orphanage to the comforts of a Canadian home.
Jonathan is one of 203 Haitian orphans adopted by Canadian families -- many like the Smiths who had been working for years within the maddeningly slow Haiti system -- since the earthquake. Only 10 came to Ontario, with the largest number going to Quebec.
Vincenza Smith first set eyes on Jonathan at a medical clinic in Port-au-Prince in 2007. "His skin looked like he'd been chewed by rats."
Smith had gone to Haiti with a Niagara Falls Brethren in Christ church group to build homes and community buildings. Working in the clinic where she helped a pharmacist distribute medication, she met Jonathan and his 12-year-old mother.
They lived in a homeless shelter where they slept on a cement floor. There was no running water or plumbing and Jonathan had a skin infection from lying naked on the dirty floor, says Smith.
Although he was provided with new clothes, they soon disappeared, says Smith, "probably sold to buy food.
Smith hadn't the slightest intention of adopting when she embarked on her two-week mission. "I went down there wanting to help," she recalls tearing in her Port Colborne living room.
"I thought maybe I'll build a house, give someone a quality of life, "she says. "We have so much in Canada that we take for granted."
But when she learned that Jonathan was being given up for adoption by his young mother, herself a child with no home or supports, Smith thought "I want that child."
(Jonathan's mother lived in the charity-run homeless shelter until it was destroyed by the earthquake and hasn't been heard from since.)
The chef, who is married to real estate agent Michael and mother to Nicholas, 19, Carlie, 16 and Julia, 7, got the her family's approval before moving ahead to get Jonathan.
Michael got an email that said, "I found our fourth child if God is willing and you are."
He talked it over with the two older children and they were all in favour.
What followed was three years of waiting, paperwork, home studies and the collapse of the agency they'd been using for the international adoption. The orphanage asked them to send $100 a month to feed Jonathan as more and more children kept arriving and the adoptions were few.
Sometimes Smith agonized "it was not meant to be." She didn't go on a subsequent trip to Haiti with her church group because she couldn't handle the pain of seeing the child who might never be hers.
Their case had just been revived when the earthquake struck and suddenly what was a slow-moving process jumped ahead at warp speed. It's ironic that the earthquake had some "good," says the family.
Although the Canadian government initiated Operation Stork to fast-track the adoptions of Haitian orphans already matched with parents and approved for adoption, Jonathan left Haiti in an evacuation by the American military that landed him in Florida.
Once the mix-up was discovered, the Smiths received approval to pick up Jonathan in the U.S. where they were on holiday with Julia and Nicholas.
There are signs of his difficult early years including a fear of military-style uniforms, being alone and abandonment.
One of Jonathan's first North American experiences was a trip to Disneyland where he loved the attractions but reacted strongly to security guards or "anything that appears to be military," says Smith. They presume this is a result of having been taken from the orphanage by military personnel.
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SOURCE: The Star
