Surprise!!

Today a large white envelope appeared at our front door containing our second level application and dossier paperwork.

Do not know when it arrived in Haiti as today is not a flight day and our mail normally comes to Haiti on Tuesdays or why really John Pierre decided to check for additional mail in Cap other than he knows I was waiting for this one but it arrived.

Anyone who's been through the adoption process knows it consists of lots of paperwork. We now need to gather together 25 different sets of documents covering: agreements, applications, health, family, finances, background checks, photos, homework...

Prayer Request:  That we can figure out starting next week with the help of our agency, the US embassy how to get the paperwork done correctly [the first time] and in a timely fashion. At this point not sure what can be done here vs. having to return to the USA.

This 'step' can take 4 weeks to 6 months+ for folks in the USA.

Most missionaries prior to the recent changes to the adoption process in Haiti adopted independently while their children lived with them. We pray that someone knows how the process will work now for Americans who are residents of Haiti. Someone needs to go first right?

On Monday we will start to try to figure out with the agency and the US embassy how we can complete the mountain of required paperwork.

Can we do the home study in Haiti? Who, when, where, how??
Fingerprints. Here or not?

Just one more example: "Local police clearance letter."  Well that could be interesting as the local police station burnt down last week during the protests.

Step 1-Make sure that this can be done in Haiti and not the USA.
2. Appointment.
3. Go
4. Assuming the letter from our local police wouldn't be in English. So translated.
5. Would likely have to travel with the police chief to Cap Haitian to have it signed in front of a notary.
6. All the paperwork needs to be notarized.
 7. Certification. Then a paper from the 'State' that says the notary is in good standing.  Then how do we get the certification that the notary is in good standing if we do this in Haiti?
8. After that the whole thing needs to be translated into French if the first copy was not in French.
9. Then needs to be legalized by the Haitian Consulate/Embassy.
10. Copies made- most 4 each.
11. Mailed.

Repeat 25 times. Likely we'll need notaries in at least 2 States and maybe in Haiti as well and the certification process can be different for each location.

The paperwork needs to be done in a 'timely' fashion as adoptions in Haiti can take years which means different parts of this paperwork can expire and need to be updated during the process.

YES we need your prayers. We know the Lord asked us to start this journey. Now we need the knowledge, help, hope, strength and patience to take this step one paper at a time.