Embassy Visit

Yesterday morning we prayed as a family, before Cory and I headed to the truck at 4:30 a.m.

We arrived at the Embassy without any problems shortly after 6 a.m. and joined the line by 6:30 a.m. Far better to be early and not stressing than to arrive late in our opinions.

As we waited, we looked around now and then expecting a worker from the orphanage to come up and introduce himself, but this did not happen. I prayed for him not knowing where he was.

With our appointment letter, we smoothly entered through the security check points and did not wait more than 10 minutes before being called up to the widow to turn in our documents.

The lady who accepted the papers told us with a smile that she was from Port Margot! And she knew the Wesleyan campus and hospital. She helped us complete our I-600 form by answering the few questions we had about our situation.

Then we sat for a longer wait, before being called up again to a window for our interview. Smiles greeted us from this employee as well as she learned how long we'd lived in Haiti, and that we could converse in Creole. Soon we received our paperwork and were on our way.

As soon as we exited the Embassy, we noticed a young man waiting beyond the barrier. He had been told our appointment was at 10 a.m. not 7 a.m.

We talked a bit and noted a couple of things that needed to be looked into or changed. He plans to turn in some of his paperwork today at the Embassy.

On June 30th, F and his mom or aunt have an appointment at the Embassy for his visa. By August 25, if possible, 15 different documents need to be submitted on F's behalf. This includes the paperwork proving that we've adopted F in Haiti.

 If the adoption is not yet complete, then we will need to file an extension. Easy to do we're told, most often several extension periods are needed due to the slowness of the process, but we're praying that F can come home as soon as possible.

At the top of this page under the tab labeled 'Steps' you can find the process as we understand it. Now both phase two [Haitian adoption] and phase three [USA visa] are in progress.

How long?? Only the Lord knows. The very fastest we've heard from someone in the Facebook group is 3 months from socialization to visa...but most people continue to exit IBESR for many months before even starting the adoption process in Haitian courts, so it is possible that we may wait for another year or more.

Keep praying!