September 1st...3 days before we left for Haiti we received long awaited news on our adoption progress! We are out of IBESR! IBESR (also referred to as "the black hole") is the place that our paperwork had been "processing" for the past 4 1/2 months. No other progress can happen on adoptions until the paperwork comes out of IBESR. Once it goes into IBESR you have no choice but to wait and pray that everything will be approved and that eventually it will come out! So excited we are out...so what is next?
Well when I look at this list things are looking really great. I crossed out what already has been accomplished so you can feel the triumph with us!
BASIC OVERVIEW OF HAITI ADOPTION PROCESS
1.Get your homestudy done.
2.Notarize documents for your adoption package to be sent to Haiti.
3.Send notarized documents to Secretary of State to be authenticated.
4.Get notarized, authenticated documents translated into French.
5.Send I-600A and supporting documents to USCIS.
6.Send French and English documents (adoption package) to Haitian Consulate to be legalized.
7.Send your adoption package to Haiti.
8.Send first payment of Haiti adoption fee to Haiti to begin adoption process of a particular child.
9.Orphanage director compiles child’s documents.
10.Haitian lawyer reviews adoptive parents’ and child’s file.
11.File enters IBESR (the social services dept of Haiti).
12.IBESR director approves this adoption.
13. Orphanage director works to attain child’s Haitian passport.
14.You file more USCIS forms.
15.USCIS approves this adoption.
16. Child gets U.S. VISA.
Ok so this looks like we are twelve steps down and only 2 more to go...right?
Moredetailed confusing steps are below.
IBESR approves the adoption. That's where we are at now.
Dossier goes to Parquet Office. (or Commissary)
a. Homologation
b. Parquet
c. Justice Palace
d. Exequature
e. Civil Register
f. Authorization for signature of Adoption Decree
g. Parquet Legalization (This is the second “First Legalization”)
7. Courts
a. Ministry of Justice (Second Legalization)
b. Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Third Legalization)
c. Attestation of Signatures on Adoption Decree
Archives
Immigration submits papers to Minister of Interior to get approval to make child’s Haitian passport.
Minister of Interior gives passport authorization to Immigration.
Immigration prints passport.
DHS
a. Adoptive Parent files I-600
b. DHS interviews birth parents
c. US Embassy approves visa application.
US Embassy prints child’s US visa.
We are now waiting to get our Haitian and U.S. (at the U.S. Embassy in Haiti) interviews. We should be able to get these done in the next 6 weeks here in Haiti once our orphanage director schedules them. These court appointments will cover some of the items in the longer list above. We made sure to bring all the necessary paperwork from the states needed for these appointments, but please pray that our move to Haiti will be seen as a positive thing and that no major changes will be asked of us in our paperwork that would lengthen the process further. Most of the changes we need to make are requirements on the U.S. side of the adoption process (USCIS), but we will be asked in Haitian court if there are any recent changes to our job and residence. Please pray for wisdom in answering questions and for gracious court officials in these proceedings that are favorable of adoptions and who will be able to see how much we love our girls and that we can provide for them.
Now we wait some more. Sigh. We are here in Haiti! If only our girls were with us here in Haiti! Please pray that will become a reality for us soon! We haven't seen them yet and they don't know we are moving here...just that we are coming! We have been waiting to visit them on a day when we can spend more time (Lord willing that will be on Sat. Sept. 10th) and not confuse them by having to leave them after only a few hours. We want the boys to have plenty of time the first day they meet their sisters and we want to be able to have time to talk to our orphanage director about our next steps in the process. Please pray for all this to happen soon and that it will all go really well! Our hearts are full of anticipation! Ethan said, "I am meeting all these new people and I like them alot...but all I really want is to go meet my sisters!" Evan said the prayer last night at the dinner table. I choked back tears as he prayed, "And please help us to find our girls so we can see them". I guess he thinks we don't know where they are since we haven't gone to see them yet. This whole situation is very confusing to all of us. It is even more confusing to the people that are just now meeting us in Haiti and can't figure out why we just don't go get the girls. It is complicated. That's about all we are able to share. And they usually understand because on some level they understand Haiti. At least that Haiti is complicated. But we love Haiti! And we are loving living in Haiti!
Urgent need and prayer request! Once we exited IBESR (last week) we were notified that the 2nd half of our adoption fee (final payment) is now due. Our orphanage director must have the money in order for our adoptions to progress to the next stage. There are several fees he has to pay in order for the paperwork (done by the lawyer) to be completed for us to go to our court appointments and for the final stages of the adoption process. We owe $6,000 at this time. We have requested and received the grant dispursement letter for our $5,000 Abba Fund grant. Praise the Lord for this provision! We recently sent another sum of $1,400 for the final remaining "care fees" for our girls (which we owed for up to one year while in the adoption process and we were a few months late in getting those sent). We now have $28 in our adoption fund and with our move (and support needed for our family in Haiti) we are not able to come up with the remaining $1,000 on our own. We do have more funds raised through the 2011 Chosen Marathon for Adoption (needed to cover passport, visas, and immigration fees at the end of the process), but we will not be able to receive this money until November at the earliest. If God leads you to help with this needed expense of $1,000 (should be the last!), please donate to our Paypal on this blog (which deposits into our separate adoption fund account) or you can send a check to our home address at 2035 Club Crossing, New Braunfels, TX 78130 (which we currently have a forwarding address on that will be sent to us in Haiti).
Thank you so much for your continued prayers for our family! Updates and pics from our move to Haiti are posted at: reamteaminternational.blogspot.com.
Well when I look at this list things are looking really great. I crossed out what already has been accomplished so you can feel the triumph with us!
BASIC OVERVIEW OF HAITI ADOPTION PROCESS
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
13. Orphanage director works to attain child’s Haitian passport.
14.
15.
16. Child gets U.S. VISA.
Ok so this looks like we are twelve steps down and only 2 more to go...right?
Wrong.
More
IBESR approves the adoption. That's where we are at now.
Dossier goes to Parquet Office. (or Commissary)
a. Homologation
b. Parquet
c. Justice Palace
d. Exequature
e. Civil Register
f. Authorization for signature of Adoption Decree
g. Parquet Legalization (This is the second “First Legalization”)
7. Courts
a. Ministry of Justice (Second Legalization)
b. Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Third Legalization)
c. Attestation of Signatures on Adoption Decree
Archives
Immigration submits papers to Minister of Interior to get approval to make child’s Haitian passport.
Minister of Interior gives passport authorization to Immigration.
Immigration prints passport.
DHS
a. Adoptive Parent files I-600
b. DHS interviews birth parents
c. US Embassy approves visa application.
US Embassy prints child’s US visa.
We are now waiting to get our Haitian and U.S. (at the U.S. Embassy in Haiti) interviews. We should be able to get these done in the next 6 weeks here in Haiti once our orphanage director schedules them. These court appointments will cover some of the items in the longer list above. We made sure to bring all the necessary paperwork from the states needed for these appointments, but please pray that our move to Haiti will be seen as a positive thing and that no major changes will be asked of us in our paperwork that would lengthen the process further. Most of the changes we need to make are requirements on the U.S. side of the adoption process (USCIS), but we will be asked in Haitian court if there are any recent changes to our job and residence. Please pray for wisdom in answering questions and for gracious court officials in these proceedings that are favorable of adoptions and who will be able to see how much we love our girls and that we can provide for them.
Now we wait some more. Sigh. We are here in Haiti! If only our girls were with us here in Haiti! Please pray that will become a reality for us soon! We haven't seen them yet and they don't know we are moving here...just that we are coming! We have been waiting to visit them on a day when we can spend more time (Lord willing that will be on Sat. Sept. 10th) and not confuse them by having to leave them after only a few hours. We want the boys to have plenty of time the first day they meet their sisters and we want to be able to have time to talk to our orphanage director about our next steps in the process. Please pray for all this to happen soon and that it will all go really well! Our hearts are full of anticipation! Ethan said, "I am meeting all these new people and I like them alot...but all I really want is to go meet my sisters!" Evan said the prayer last night at the dinner table. I choked back tears as he prayed, "And please help us to find our girls so we can see them". I guess he thinks we don't know where they are since we haven't gone to see them yet. This whole situation is very confusing to all of us. It is even more confusing to the people that are just now meeting us in Haiti and can't figure out why we just don't go get the girls. It is complicated. That's about all we are able to share. And they usually understand because on some level they understand Haiti. At least that Haiti is complicated. But we love Haiti! And we are loving living in Haiti!
 |
| Ethan and Evan (us and our stuff) finally arrive in Haiti! |
Urgent need and prayer request! Once we exited IBESR (last week) we were notified that the 2nd half of our adoption fee (final payment) is now due. Our orphanage director must have the money in order for our adoptions to progress to the next stage. There are several fees he has to pay in order for the paperwork (done by the lawyer) to be completed for us to go to our court appointments and for the final stages of the adoption process. We owe $6,000 at this time. We have requested and received the grant dispursement letter for our $5,000 Abba Fund grant. Praise the Lord for this provision! We recently sent another sum of $1,400 for the final remaining "care fees" for our girls (which we owed for up to one year while in the adoption process and we were a few months late in getting those sent). We now have $28 in our adoption fund and with our move (and support needed for our family in Haiti) we are not able to come up with the remaining $1,000 on our own. We do have more funds raised through the 2011 Chosen Marathon for Adoption (needed to cover passport, visas, and immigration fees at the end of the process), but we will not be able to receive this money until November at the earliest. If God leads you to help with this needed expense of $1,000 (should be the last!), please donate to our Paypal on this blog (which deposits into our separate adoption fund account) or you can send a check to our home address at 2035 Club Crossing, New Braunfels, TX 78130 (which we currently have a forwarding address on that will be sent to us in Haiti).
Thank you so much for your continued prayers for our family! Updates and pics from our move to Haiti are posted at: reamteaminternational.blogspot.com.
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