Apparently, it is possible to care too much.

In the wake of the earthquake that devastated Haiti, there have been heartwarming stories of Americans volunteering time, energy and money to help the Caribbean nation. But recently, a confusing, tragic story has captured the attention of many. Ten volunteers from Idaho have been arrested on charges of child kidnapping.

The 10 volunteers were on a mission trip, representing an Idaho-based Baptist church and a nonprofit organization known as New Life Children's Refuge. The missionaries were arrested after attempting to take a busload of 33 Haitian children over the Haiti-Dominican Republic border.

The missionaries claim they were taking the children to an orphanage in the Dominican Republic where they would be cared for and educated. However, the group lacked the proper documentation allowing them to cross the border with the children.

Many of the children are not orphans, which further complicates the issue. Residents of the town of Callebas say they willingly handed over their children. The parents feared they would be unable to adequately care for their children following the earthquake’s destruction.

The trip was organized by Laura Silsby, and she is receiving most of the blame in this kidnapping case. Other group members said they thought everything was in order, and had no idea they were breaking the law. Silsby, on the other hand, has admitted to knowing she lacked the proper legal documentation. She hoped good intentions would allow her group to get over the border with the children.

Rarely are good intentions enough to break the law. Although Silsby and her group had the best of intentions, taking children away from their rightful parents is a tricky situation. There is a strong argument to be made that the children would be better off in the Dominican orphanage they were allegedly being taken to. For me, however, there is an equally strong argument that says families should never be torn apart.

If you ask people who truly know me, they will tell you family means a lot to me. Family is right behind baseball, a good cheeseburger and Bruce Springsteen in my pantheon of importance. The only reason family should ever be torn apart is cases of abuse. Part of me argues it is better for a family to starve together than risk being separated forever, particularly if torn apart by foreign hands.

There were better ways to handle this situation. Find local authorities to gain the proper documentation. Take entire families. Do not separate family members. Perhaps most importantly, help rebuild their village. Do not further destroy the community.

Silsby and her group were willing to spend time raising and teaching Haitian children in the Dominican Republic, but will not do the same in Haiti. Haiti is clearly not the land of milk and honey, but neither is the Dominican Republic.

If you want to help Haiti, help rebuild the country from within. Do not take away its future adults and raise them somewhere else.

As activist and guitarist Steven Van Zandt recently said, “Haiti doesn’t need to be rebuilt. Haiti needs to be re-imagined.” It cannot be re-imagined by displacing its future.