Transition to Hague.

A bit late for Valentine's but heart shaped. 

“Joint Council extends it congratulations to Haiti on achieving what few developing countries have; an uninterrupted transition to the Hague Convention. We also applaud both DOS and USCIS for their positive approach and efforts regarding Haiti’s transition to Convention adoptions.

Again, our congratulations to Haiti for this unprecedented achievement.”

This means that the meeting went well and the USA will not put adoptions on hold from Haiti.

Many agencies sent out the good news yesterday, reporting that the U.S. government 'expects to confirm the Haitian Adoption Authority as compliant with Hague adoption standards'. 

So after April 1st a different form will need to be filed for parents adopting from Haiti.

Also at this meeting they announced that the U.S. worked with the Haitian officials to create a plan for the transitional cases that are currently in process.

 That would be us as we received our I-600A approval last fall.

The last part of the announcement was that the U.S. Department of State, USCIS and the Haitian adoption authorities formed a working group to 'evaluate and improve their working relationship'.

All sounds good and the intentions of blocking child trafficking, improving adoptions and hopefully speeding up the process are good goals but it remains to be seen how things will work.

IBESR reportedly has over 460 'old process' charts waiting to move. They will now have 'transitional cases' like ours and after April 1st, Hague process charts. Lots to keep straight.

Prayers:

• Thankful for the process without a shutdown.
• Praying about our referral. Some guess it will be 6-8 months on average for a referral.
• Praying for IBESR staff. 
• Praying for our children. Heard reports from Port and Cap areas about chicken pox in a couple of crèches/orphanages.