Still waiting....

Our American agency talked with the Haitian creche last week, and then sent us a nice E-mail.

Deadline for hearing about the agency re-accreditation was yesterday. Since they did not let us know we're assuming that the deadline moved into December. Still praying that the agencies receive their approvals.

Our file remains in IBESR. The in-country representative visits every two weeks to check and keep our name/file active in the staff's minds. They now know the representative and we look at that as a good sign. [Hear stories of files sliding behind desks or file cabinets and being lost for a while!!]

Confirmed that our file/dossier did complete all needed review steps and now waits for the child/children that match our home study approval to be declared legally free for adoption and then we will match.

Reasons for the long wait that were listed: "process has been very long due to the number of children being processed, insufficient man power, massive flooding in CAP, etc" and we know it's a complicated process with many people and signatures involved.

The creche did get their first referral since IBESR started the new process!! Praise the Lord and open the gates!!

Still waiting to hear from the Embassy about renewing our fingerprints. After waiting our 7 business days without word after the first E-mail we resent and now count down the second 7 business days.

Praying for all involved in the process. Rejoicing to hear about parents meeting children and 5 this week going 'home' from a orphanage near Port.

10 months in IBESR. No personal news.

Keeping busy with the book translation and school helps fill up the time between prayers and keeps me from pondering too deeply the process as we continue to wait.

Our file passed the 10 month mark in IBESR without any news.

I knew that we needed to renew our fingerprints sometime in January so early November I pulled the information to review it. The form can be used for different steps and confused me for a while. Thankfully the part that needs the updated home study will not be due until after late February and not in 2 weeks as we initially thought.

The two week deadline was only for contacting USCIS for an appointment to update our prints. They responded by e-mail the same day and directed us to the Haiti branch. That E-mail was not responded to in the ‘7 business days’ so we resent it today.

Not worried about it at this point as we started the ‘paper trail’ that proves we did start more than two months before expiration working to get the renewal done.

Praise! Heard of one mayor going to sign chart of an abandoned child. Pray for the mayor of the area served by God's Littlest Angles to go and sign off on 17 of their children's charts so that they can match with their families and get one step closer to home.

A recent meeting at the US Embassy on International Adoption and the Hague occurred. According to Dixie from God’s Littlest Angles it was very informative and interesting.

Main Points: [Full blog here and the previous blog]

Visa approval may now take 4-8 weeks after the USCIS approval of I-604 [used to be just days] as they look into the validity of the documents.

Looks like the director of the orphanage where the child is may get to sit in on the matching committee and have a voice in the match.

Children’s court: Sounds like Judge Gabard understands the process but Judge Marlene is not.

Family dossiers entered into IBESR after Oct. 1st will be treated as Hague Cases. These will not have the US Immigration Service doing Orphan Investigations as they will be done by the State Department and Adoption Section of the US Consulate.

Folks to pray for:
Adoption Chief [3 years] Ms. Chinwe Obianwu
USCIS field office Director Mr. Richard Polny [starts in Dec.]
Children’s Court Judges Judge Gabard, Judge Marlene
        Local mayors to sign off on abandonment cases.


Staff in Government departments: Justice [courts both Civil and Children’s] Immigration, Social Services [IBESR], Archives, and Mayor’s offices.

Referrals have started!!

Rejoicing with each family who's received a referral in the last couple of months.

In September at least one family a day from the Facebook group fasted and prayed for the process but disappointment hit at the end of the month with news of only 5 referrals.

October passed with only a couple at the end of the month. But already in November there is news of 10!!! Yeah! Praise the Lord.

Apparently the director had been gone for a couple weeks in October but is now back at work. Praying for many families to move up a step in the process before the holiday slow down next month.

Just read of the first Italian family getting a match!

No news from our agency. So we pray and wait.

Folks with other agencies report that they heard that IBESR will not be matching anyone with children until some time next year when they have a committee in place to do so. If this is true then we would be in that group. It could be possible that our agency submitted our chart with a suggestion of children without telling us-then we could match earlier.

Praying that if waiting children have all their paperwork in place they do NOT need to wait until some time next year for a committee to form and do matches. Especially those with medical issues, sibling groups, older children or abandoned children.

Ultimately the Lord controls when we match, with whom we match and with what orphanage. Trusting in Him!

Praying that we can wait well, praising Him, trusting Him. Praying that we're becoming the family our little ones need us to be. Praying we don't miss the lessons we should be learning during the wait.