Waiting.

Andy Stanley " Your greatest contribution to the Kingdom of God may not be something you do but someone you raise."

A year ago today we learned of our dossier's arrival in Haiti.

Bud Irish wrote a letter home during WWII to his sweetheart "It would be so different if a fellow knew he just had a certain length of time to be here in the army. He could say "Well, just X days to go." Instead it's just another day gone by and a lot more coming up. June 27, 1943 page 134 from the book A THOUSAND LETTERS HOME.

I echo Bud's sentiments but substitute the adoption for the army. Some days I really wish I knew how much longer. Even if it turned out to be a long time one could then easier push things to the back of one's mind I think. I'd add countdown lists to our computers, to our calendars and have other ways to show us visibly where we were in the countdown.

But although we cannot see the referral date, the Lord can so we fix our eyes on Him.

But maybe then the intensity of my prayers would fade. Perhaps I would fall victim to procrastination. The willingness to work to improve may weaken. My reliance may shift to man and away from the Lord.

I've changed up my prayers a bit of late. No longer 'Lord open the doors of IBESR to start referrals and getting folks out of IBESR. Now my prayers sound more like "LORD blast the doors off so that they cannot be closed again. Let referrals start and CONTINUE. Fight for your children!

[At least one family in the Facebook group was released from IBESR this week and one family entered and exited MOI [Ministry of Interior] in 17 days!!]

Praying that we learn the lessons we need to learn during the wait. May I wait well! Singing His praises while focusing on His love, power and plan.

Why the long referral wait?

Adoption consists of a complicated process that produces a lot of paperwork. [and just telling of this one step...a long blog]

Times of transition generally mean backlogs of charts and delays with the discussion and implementation of proposed changes. Haiti's transitional delays we pray result in a smoother system with reduced possibilities of abuse.

One of the big changes in Haiti's adoption process involves declaring a child's adaptability status prior to referral. This should prevent referral of children not meeting 'adoptable requirements' of Haitian and American governments.

In theory: A Haitian family meets with the social service team and makes an adoption plan. If after every possible effort to keep the family together, including education, and counseling the family stand firm on the decision to place the child up for adoption and IBESR agrees it is in the child's best interest, a one-month waiting period starts. After a full month, consent can be granted.

Abandoned children remain in an orphanage for at least 6 months while the family is looked for after which time IBESR can decide to make a referral for adoption. The mayor of the area where the child was found will need to appear in Children's court.

Child's Dossier - after IBESR declares the child adoptable these items need to be collected:

1. Passport Pictures
2. Birth Certificate
3. Attestation of signature on Birth Certificate or a copy from the National Archives
4. Legal relinquishment of custody by family/mayor if abandoned in family Court [this step can take 2-3 visits]
5. Death certificates and extracts from archives of biological parents if applies
6. Parent's marriage certificate if applies
7. Psychological evaluation
8. Medical evaluation
9. Laboratory tests
10. Social history

Now a referral can be proposed. The orphanage/creche directors will be asked to review the charts of waiting families. Once IBESR approves a potential match  the adoption agency will be given an official letter, and the family notified. After notification, the family will have 15 days to consider the match and accept or decline the referral. 

At this time, no one knows what will happen should a family not feel able to accept a proposed referral. 

As you can see there are many steps in the process and many potential areas for delays and problems. Praying for protection for everyone, every step, every paper, and every signature.   

Pray for us to be patient, wait well, and for our children while they wait too. Yesterday marked our 9th month in IBESR.  

No families without a 'soft' or 'pre-matched' admission to IBESR along with a proposed child have yet reported a match by IBESR on the Facebook group.  

We know that generally a child's development becomes more delayed for every month they live in an institutionalized setting, but we're praying our children will miraculously thrive.   

IBESR Update

Thankful again for Dixie from God's Littlest Angel's for sharing what she knows about Haiti's adoption process. Her long detailed blog can be found here. Lots to pray about!

Without flash. 

Summary- Dixie does not want to be passing along rumors so waited to hear confirmed news from a meeting between the Joint Council Haiti Caucus Meeting and IBESR. The basics:

1. NO changes in the procedure to declare a child adoptable. Total of 3-4 trips for family members to IBESR. 
2. Family will also need to sign away parental rights in front of the Children's Judge.
3. IBESR prepares the child's chart. Then the creche staff pick it up, bring to court staff, then when ready to sign bring the family to sign before the judge. [Detailed and time consuming]
4. No details yet if the US consult will do away with parent interviews currently needed at the end of the process before a visa is issued. 
5. IBESR will do all the matching of all children. Creches to be involved but no one knows what this looks like yet.
6. Multi-disciplinary team at IBESR to be formed by early 2015 to make the matches.
7. Starting with dossiers accepted after Oct. 1st 2015 the referral can come from any creche accredited by IBESR.
8. IBESR currently working on the backlog of dossiers and intend to start with those that were submitted first and been waiting the longest.
9. A family/agency will be able to submit a letter of intent for a specific child with special needs.
10.  Fees given to a creche to care for child is being reduced. IBESR says the creche will need to make up the difference in funds in other ways. Each creche will receive the same amount of funding per child regardless of the level of staff, food, education, medical care given.

With flash. 

Many creches are hurting financially because of the lack of matches in the last year. IBESR set the fees without input from the creches about services provided or current budgets. Some creches are already talking about closing to adoptions. 

"Please keep all of the creches and children in your prayers.  We will see less and less children adopted out of Haiti and there will be some that die waiting for a family.  I agree with all of the articles about economical orphans but unfortunately I've seen severely malnourished "economical" orphans on the point of death whose parents just could not care for the child even with a little help!  To save the life of those children, yes, I believe adoption is a better option than long term orphanage care in Haiti!  I agree there are some children that need to go back home with their parents and thankfully, the new IBESR process will weed some of these children out of the creche and return them back to the parents." - See more: here [same link as above]

Please continue to pray for Haitian families. Please continue to pray for our adoption and our family. Pray for the children of Haiti. 

New month....New Hope.

Although there are 1,426 current members in the 'Adopting from Haiti' Facebook group not everyone
in the group is active in the adoption process.

Likely many folks adopting do not belong to the group... but some good news from September's 'catch up' time at IBESR.

Five new referrals-all I believe had already seen charts on their children but were not guarantied to be allowed by IBESR to match with those children under the new process.

At least one family finally exited IBESR after a wait of more than 1.5 years.

At one of the other steps after IBESR, both lawyers were gone for September...so October brings new hope.

A member posted this today on the Facebook group "my program director is on the Joint Council and she told me yesterday on the phone that IBESR was (as of yesterday) planning to reopen today for dossier submissions, again, yes.

They have been frying big fish: standardizing matching practices, crèche fees, partnerships, etc (many things) so that's likely why things have still not APPEARED like a flood gate but rather just lots of behind-the-scenes items to be overhauled. Still." 

Praying that IBESR made good progress in September as we continue to wait for our referral. 

Praying for the bottle-neck areas to widen, the chaos to become calm, no more distractions or inefficiency, reduced errors, for truth to overcome any deceptions, the blocked paths to open with all Praise and Honor to our heavenly Father.

Praying for our children to thrive where they are, for healing to begin, that they will not fall back every month they remain in the orphanage but will advance.

Praying for the cases before the Children's Court judges. That the mayors and family members will make their court dates and that the paperwork can be completed. 

Praying that we can wait well. Wait in joy, patience and hope knowing that the Lord continues to work His plan and in His timing.