Application II, part 2.

Praise the Lord as we finish up preparing a second set of documents to mail to the USA.

Yesterday we completed a couple big steps for dossier documents and our secondary application. Cory and I traveled to Cap Haitian to have medical testing and visit the notary office. Cap trip.

We prepared 3 non-notarized documents as well as filling in, signing and notarized 5 additional documents. I finished reading the second book of required reading and Cory completed one book and almost the second in the last couple of weeks. 

We located someone in Cap Haitian who can translate legal documents into French.

We continue to search for the best way to complete the home study and background checks needed for our dossier. 

Hoping this picture does NOT change. 

We rejoice that several of the reference letters including employer, physiology, bank, and some personal reference have been completed, notarized and mailed.

Once we receive our medical test results we will mail them to the doctors who only need these results to finish out medical paperwork. I had a false positive TB skin test last year and am praying that my body does not repeat the mistake.  A positive test would mean that I need a chest x-ray. 

The only thing that remains for us personally to work on at this stage is some required on-line study. As we hope to figure out soon which agency to work with for our home study we will hold off on this a bit realizing that the home study agency may have a preference to which on-line study we do.

Praising the Lord for the progress.

Praying for the final steps and timing to become clear.

Praying the lab results return within a month.

Dossier Prayer Requests

So after the big dossier push early last week we slowed down a bit.

The letters arrived to our references so we know they will be going out soon. [Thank you!]

I organized the next to-do list and wrote E-mails looking for information. We continue to fill out some of the papers that will need to be notarized and read the required books.

Things to pray about for this next stage:

1. We find a way to have our home study done soon. We located a social worker recently moved to Haiti who's willing to come up and do it but would require an agency to approve her and be OK with giving us a copy of their license. Or maybe a Haitian social worker or psychologist? Or the expensive way of flying in someone from the USA. Some one in Haiti would be nice because of the limited travel and then they could also do the post-adoption visits later. 
2. Getting our medical labs done-looking for a spot in Cap Haitian so we can do them soon.
3. Getting our background checks. Have an E-mail into the US embassy looking for information for an appointment. Think it would be nice if it could fit in with Cory's short planned trip to LaGonave late next week.
4. That we find someone who knows if/how one gets a certificate of authenticity for a Haitian notary.
5. That we find out how to do the local police letter in Haiti. 

Praises: How much we did get done last week and for the information that is starting to come back from my E-mail inquires. That our agency will do one step for us at cost, saving us extra weeks needed mailing letters back and forth from the USA as well as the increased risk of something getting lost. 

Paper Work Sprint

After Friday's surprise arrival of our level II application and dossier paperwork I let the agency know by e-mail and then sat down and read through the papers.

On Saturday I divided the paper stack into 4 colored folders: blue-information, green-papers we could deal with now, yellow-deal with later, and red-need additional information.

Then I read closely each paper while constructing a large organizational chart to help us keep track of the paperwork, document tracking process.

Cory then read through the papers with the chart in hand to correct or add any information I missed.

Now the instructions acknowledge that the paperwork can be 'overwhelming' and advised breaking it into 'manageable' pieces. We read it, understood it, throughout about it and buckled down to get a big piece done in only two days.

Why the rush? Why the sprint? Well because Scott our visitor would be leaving on Wednesday [today] and he was willing to carry our documents to the USA, and send them registered mail on to the agency.

As the paperwork included financial records, birth certificates, copies of passports and driver's licenses we decided to work hard to complete as much as we could of the paperwork that did not require a notary. 

By the end of the day on Tuesday [yes, we did stay up past our normal bed time] we had prepared over two pounds of mail for Scott to bring to the USA.

Now we will slow down a bit and take things one step, one document, one page at a time while we wait to hear from the agency how to produce in a couple of areas. 

We will also read the two required books and set up a time to do our on-line studies.

Please continue to pray that we can find the answers we need to complete our dossier in a timely fashion. Pray that the mail does not get lost or delayed. [18 documents to our agency and 8 letters for references or information.]

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.