Visa appointment and more waiting.

Tuesday F's appointment at the USA Embassy for his visa should occur.

He will be flying to Port-au-Prince with a staff member from the crèche for the visit. Not sure if his mother or aunt will also attend.

No news yet about where our papers are concerning IBESR.

I think that after our visit the social worker needed to complete a report and that now we're waiting for 'Authorization to Adopt' [a document needing 4 signatures] and then we could exit IBESR and enter the lower courts.

 New law states this should occur 10 days after the socialization visit but...some families remain in IBESR more than one year after their socialization visit at this time.

Heard that IBESR hired 10 new people to work with the adoption paperwork. Praying that they learn their jobs well and fast.

 Last week F's foster family of two years returned to the USA and his new foster family moved into the house.

Many people are waiting to exit following their socialization visits as well as folks who continue to wait for a referral.

Also heard that the IBESR director plans to be away for the month of August.

Praying we can exit before but knowing that the Lord remains in control.

Please pray:

• The transition to a new family in the house. 
• The new family's adjustment to Haiti as well as to their foster children and the other staff.
• The adjustment of his first family back to the USA.
• F's visa appointment on June 30th and travel.
• The charts [now ours and F's] to exit IBESR with our authorization to adopt.
• New IBESR workers adjustment to the job.
• Political stability with senate elections to be held in August.

One Year, IBESR

One year ago our chart entered IBESR. Number 43.

We received the news January 29th...and nothing since.

Our chart could be sitting on the same desk where it arrived a year ago.

But we pray many steps occurred in the last year.

We pray that it may be sitting on a desk along with the charts of our children just waiting for someone to pick up the phone, or hit send on an e-mail to let our agency know about the match.

We pray for the Lord's plan, His will, His choice of children, His choice of crèche, His timing...but our hearts long to know names, ages, faces, where, when, who...

We start to think about updating our chart and shutter to hear stories of families updating for the 4th time during the adoption process. Please, no Lord.

Please move the blockades. Please pour out pity and compassion. Please work miracles.

But if not....still we will praise Him.

Lord, help us to wait well. Help shape us into the family our children need us to be. Help us to learn the lessons well while we wait. Increase our faith.

Thank You! Thank you Lord, for being with our charts and children. Thank You for interceding on our behalf when we can do nothing. Thank You for leading us on this journey every step, every day, every prayer.

New Year, new hope, more waiting..

Been thinking for a while about the first post of 2015. Considered focusing on our fingerprints 'refreshing' which no one has contacted us about since we visited the Embassy on Dec. 10.

Or reviewing that if we don't get a match before the end of February will need to seriously start exploring how we will renew our home study, which will expire on May 21.

A year ago we waited for news that our case entered into IBESR. Our case entered on January 14 as number 43. We received the information on January 29th, 2014 the day that my parents arrived in Haiti for a visit.

I prayed last year to receive our referral during my parents visit. So many major family events we've shared over the last 17 years by short phone calls or E-mails. I cherish the major family moments that we can share in person. They plan to leave Haiti on January 21st.

Since January 29th no news on our case. We pray that our children's charts moved through many steps last year. We pray for our referral to occur in His timing. We pray for the committee that will be matching children with family under the new process.

Knowing that little would be occurring over the holidays gave us a bit of a break from the normal 'Wonder if we will hear anything today?' thought that frequently crosses my mind during the work week.

During the last few days already thoughts about the start of a new year, a new week, a new day have started to increase in frequency. The 'what if's'....of 2015.

Pastor's sermon today hit the mark with me. Psalm 37:7-8. "Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for him; do not fret when people succeed in their ways..."

My notes: Confidence in God. Hope in God. Stay bound to Him. Sit quietly. Not for us to act, He will act. [Read sea parting] Calm and confident in all circumstances. God dominates all. Victory in Him.  Verse 25..'I have never seen the righteous forsaken' God never let's us go. He hears those who walk straight when they call for help and He will deliver you. Guarantied. When we don't have hope-God gives us hope. Don't get worried, worked up about your needs. Wait calmly before God. Answers, successes, healing, deliverance, victory, all in the Hand of God. 

Goals for the year.....waiting well. Confidence in Him. His plan. His timing. His will.

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.

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. 

September prayers.

Tiny flowers on a weed in the yard. 

IBESR closed their doors to new dossiers for the month of September to have a chance to 'catch up on all the current cases'.  Praying they get a miraculous amount of work done!!

A Haitian lawyer commented on a Facebook group that the new procedure is so complicated 'a web' that IBESR would likely not be giving referrals for months yet.

But we serve a big, all-powerful God and pray for His compassion, pity, grace and mercy for the orphans knowing He can bring order and efficiency out of chaos.

We rejoice this morning with a women who after 18 months in IBESR waiting for a referral for a girl received it yesterday!!

Praying for families now in the process for 4-7 years. Praying for the truth to be known if they will not be able to complete the process or if they can for rapid movement. 

While we would love to pray specifically for our children by name, their families by name, know ages and location, look at pictures, we're honored to be praying for the Lord's will and His timing.

Praying for the USA adoption agencies working in Haiti. They had to resubmit their paperwork for licenses in August and may learn in October which agencies licenses were renewed. 

Blogged some specific requests in more detail on our family blog: September Challenge

IBESR Update / Prayer Requests

Very thankful to Dixie at God's Littlest Angels for sharing information she learns from IBESR.

Link to her full blog about last week's visit found here.

Points in the blog that I found to pray specifically about:

• Felyne is the IBESR representative putting together matches. Praying for wisdom, health, resources, protection, and efficiency for Felyne.

• Proposals in small batches going to the Children's Judge.  Praying for wisdom and efficiency!! Praying for the judge and staff not to be overwhelmed but motivated!

• Praying that even doing small batches that the batches are big enough to start catching up on the backlog of charts now sitting in IBESR, some for years waiting for a match. 

• Rather confusing, still being changed and multi-step procedure for the birth families. Praying this gets worked out to be as simply, with the least amount of hassle and expense. 

• Praying that the families who already signed off do not need to repeat the 30-day wait and can be exceptions to the new change. 

• Praying that the steps one and two can and will take place in the same visit. 

• Praying for the organization of the visits to the judge and that the families can make their appointments without problems.

• Praying for the Mayors who need to sign for the abandoned children to make the effort. That IBESR will get the lists together so the Mayors can sign in a timely manor all the children from their area.

• Praying for the process to get the trouble spots worked out so the system can stabilize and stop changing. This will also start a timeline which would help folks get an idea of the time frame.

• Praying for patience for all involved.

• Praying for the children and families waiting like us.

Thank you for supporting us on this journey and for your prayers. 

IBESR News.

Dragon fruit flower bud

My dad once called me an opportunist and I guess I am.

With the conferences on campus this summer with representatives from all 25 northern churches and a few additional churches outside the district we could not pass on the opportunity.

The opportunity to let them know about the lack of referrals the last 7 months delaying providing needy children with families.

We reminded them that while we pray that families can stay together there will always be some children who need a new family and right now many creches are full and needing to turn away children.

We asked them to join us in praying for the children of Haiti. Praying for the adoption process to improve and move forward. Praying for our children. Praying to defeat the devil's delays and blocks.

Together we join in prayer for progress to be made at every step for hundreds of waiting children and families.

Some folks report that over 900+ dossiers currently wait in IBESR.

Our chart joined the numbers 6 months ago and no word since then about our referral.

Some news this week from a meeting held by IBESR.

The short version boils down to some encouraging news:

• Biological families are being helped to understand their options of keeping their children and getting help with schooling and jobs.
• If IBESR feels that a couple over the age of 50 would be a good fit they will make exceptions to the age limit of 50 years. 
• The lawyer in charge of adoptions hopes to see matches starting by the end of July.
• If a foreigner holds a residential visa and lived in Haiti more than 5 years they will qualify for a National adoption. 

GLA full blog The blog also notes that many of the creches are struggling financially to feed their children as the delay in referrals means that adoption funds cannot be used.

After reading this we contacted our USA agency to remind them that we qualify for a national adoption and to ask them to ask about this when their representative next inquires about our dossier.

We resent the copies of our residential visas when it was expressed that the previous copy was too faint to read easily. National adoptions would be prioritized over international.

Encouraging to hear that referrals will start soon but not so on hearing that one family is at the 3 year mark waiting for a referral.

Keep praying.

Riding the coster with no lights.

YEAH!!!! We possess an IBESR number. I know I already told you that but continuing to celebrate. Today makes week 8 in IBESR.

Next time we hear from someone should be with a possible referral! Very exciting and scary. I think of it like riding a big roller coster in the dark.

Climbing a little hill or is it a big hill. Click. Click. You can tell you are heading up hill..higher and higher. Maybe a small swerve to the right. Now left. Did the sounds change?

Is a big drop right ahead or a series of twists and turns?
The suspense grows with each second.

You strain all your senses trying to see the top or get a clue to where you are.

You know a drop is coming but how to prepare yourself when you cannot see the top?!?!

Each day clicks. The clock moves forward. The days add up.

 Each morning starts with the thought "Will today be the day?" Each night ends with "Maybe tomorrow?"  Then in rapid succession follow: Wonder who are they? What ages? What stories? What details? Will they be ours? What do they look like? 

Click.

Click.

Tick.

Tock.
Tick.

We know days, weeks or months could stand before us and our referral mountain top moment.

Trusting in Him. Looking for verses and devotionals about waiting well.

Lower expectations during Carnival season as we did not expect much work going on in government offices. But heard on Friday that IBESR started matching again [although one of the workers who matches was out sick that day-praying for health].

Heard that parent interviews also starting.

Studying for boards helps to limit my pondering as I focus on all the medical information that could be on the test. Passing now would be great so I can focus on life and not retaking the test in November. 

Waiting to crest the top and open that exciting E-mail.

In addition to the prayer requests on the last post and found on the side bar. Some families who waited months to over a year for Presidential dispensation [no longer needed] find their dossiers in limbo as one group says no dispensation is now needed but the group responsible for the next step thinks they need something more?

43 Days in IBESR for file 43.

Today makes day 43 days in IBESR, entering in as file # 43.

 A report yesterday stated that in March the IBESR plans to meet with crèches for 3 days in March and until that time will not be referring  children for matching or scheduling birth parent interviews.

Know some people now marking the 1 year mark in IBESR waiting to match.

Praying for patience. Praying for the mountains of paperwork to move!!

Praising the Lord for protection and guidance.

We also heard this week that one family who had pre-matched with a non-sibling set were told by IBESR that they can only match with one of the children as non-sibling adoptions will not be allowed in the same process.

We thank the Lord for protecting us from being in a similar situation.

When we started the process we were open to adopting non-siblings and knew that our crèche did not often have sibling sets available to adopt.

Then we looked and asked around for a agency willing to travel to Haiti to perform our home study. During our study while we talked about siblings we did not realize that our approval would be for siblings only.

Because of being open to non-siblings we wrote back asking about this restriction and learned that the agency would not make any exceptions.

Believing that the Lord controls our lives and had led us to this agency we remained at peace that He would either send siblings to the crèche or open a door for us if His plan included non-siblings.

Because of our advancing ages we feel the Lord wants us to get our children at the same time.

We praise Him that we did not travel down that path only to find out that the new procedures would not allow it.

Prayers:

• Praying for the IBESR meeting with the crèches so that referrals and parent interviews can start.
• Praying for the staff to focus on their work despite the Carnival season and holidays.
• Praying for our children and their family.
• Praying that the Lord will continue to prepare us for our children.
• Praying for the time table and needed steps.
• Praying for those stuck and loosing hope.
• Praising the Lord for His guidance, wisdom and protection in situations when we don't even realize the dangers.

Prayers during IBESR wait.

Our dossier now sits in the hands of someone in IBESR and we received our number, [43]!

Now someone from that office will read our dossier and hopefully our children will pop into their mind and they will make a recommendation, also known as a referral. [See below-then apparently a meeting with our crèche director and the crèche director where the children live along with IBESR staff]

Assuming agreement between all parties, our agency in Haiti would communicate with our USA agency who will then contact us with the information about our potential children.

At some time a clock starts because within a two week time frame we need to agree to the referral or decline [not real sure when the clock starts?].

Declining means we wait for a second referral. Accepting means we agree to adopt the children offered and then will start to talk about dates for the two week bonding visit.

A few changes with the new process as we understand them, mean that during the bonding time a social worker will observe our interactions with the children and write a report up. The parents no longer need to travel to court as this report replaces that step in the process.

A time of mixed emotions as the excitement builds toward 'meeting' our children for the first time balanced with the knowledge that other families have waited over to a year for a referral as well as the fear that our referral may not be children that we would be comfortable accepting and we may need to decline the referral.

Last week agents from the USA met with IBESR staff to review the new procedures for the April 1st decision about being Hauge compliant. I have not seen anything yet about how it went.

A Haitian lawyer who works closely with IBESR wrote on Facebook yesterday that IBESR plans to work 'to sign and release some 460 dossiers in the next weeks'.  Do not know if this will slow new process people or not.

On a agency blog who visited IBESR in January they note that the head attorney told them that regular referrals should start in February.

While the IBESR needs to approve the referrals/matches they plan to work closely with the crèche directors who know the families and the children being matched. So sounds like the directors will met with the IBESR folks before a referral is made assuring better matches.

His staff reportedly would have an inventory of dossiers completed by Jan. 16th to start setting up meetings with the crèche directors.

Keep praying!

• IBESR staff as they process many dossiers both old and new process. Work efficiently [we hear that the support staff visit/chat and spend a lot of time on Facebook during work hours]. Work carefully so no mistakes. Health. 
• Crèche directors and IBESR working closely together for referrals and matches. 
• For our specific referral and match [again hoping for a younger boy and girl [OK with stable special needs] but open to the Lord's will]
• Two week time frame? That we will have enough time to pray, ask questions and respond. [Hear of one family's referral arriving more than two weeks after IBESR referred-no one yet knows how this works]

IBESR # 43!

IBESR file number 43 under Haiti's new adoption procedure!!!!!

January 14, 2014 IBESR accepted our adoption dossier.

Being a new process no one really knows how long each phase will be but as we understand things the next step is for the new person in charge of matching to review our chart and refer to us the child/children he believes fit the specifications that our home study approves us to accept.

Once we receive 'the referral' we will have two weeks to think and pray about accepting or declining the match suggested to us.

Please join us in praying for this very important step. On the last blog we listed some specific requests to pray for the person in IBESR, new to the job, who's in charge of referrals.

Pray for us as well as we wait to meet our children. Patience. Wisdom. [We're hoping for a boy and girl and were unable to specifically state this in the dossier]

Sibling groups automatically fall under 'special needs.'

We agreed to be open to limited special needs [like a stable medical condition not needing intensive ongoing therapy-because of our rural location. Also we would not feel comfortable with medical issues that can be serious rapidly like asthma or seizures because of our limited medical care here.

Because we're looking for a sibling group the age range approved for us is up to 8 years. With home schooling being an important part of our lives we think it would be best for preschoolers but the Lord knows better than us so we pray for His leading.

So: patience, wisdom, and more patience. Thank you for your interest in our journey and your prayers.

IBESR procedure update

As you know we currently wait to hear that the US approved our I-600a form. Then we will scan the form and send it to our agency and our dossier will be sent to Haiti.

Haiti's social services, IBESR now takes the responsibility to match us with adoptable children. This procedure remains very new with many people wondering how it will work. Right now on a Facebook group for people adopting from Haiti I've only heard of folks who were already matched being rematched by IBESR.

IBESR Procedure Explained is a blog written by the folks at a creche near Port-au-Prince.

The big changes come from wanting only children who meet the criteria for adoption to be matched with new families. The Haitian families will meet more than once with the authorities along with a psychologist to make sure they understand and agree to place their children for adoption.  New changes for children who's family abandon them, mothers disappear or are mentally handicapped.

What I think this would mean for our family [keeping in mind that things can change rapidly and that ultimately the Lord remains in charge]:

• We will need to receive dispensation [Once the new law is published in the Moniteur Journal then dispensation will no longer be required.] before matching with our children. As noted in the blog hundreds if not thousands of charts remain to be signed by the president for dispensation-some have been waiting for over a year at this stage. 
• While this may increase our waiting time prior to receiving a refurral it should shorten up the time between matching and our children coming home. From what I understand from adoptive parents the wait becomes much harder once you have a name and face so this will be better. 

• Our children may come from other locations from Haiti not just the creche that our agency works with in Northern Haiti. They did say that if we do not have a family who is a match for the children we bring to IBESR, then IBESR will notify other agencies to ask if they have families who are matches for the children.

• Good matches being a priority not how long a dossier has been waiting: this may speed up our process. They asked us to please bring all handicapped children, children with medical needs, older children, sibling groups, and abandoned children.  They want to try to place these children first. 

• Once we agree to referral we will need to spend a couple weeks at the creche getting to know our children including a few hours being observed by a social worker. They are working to try to connect this visit with the first civil court visit. 

Encouraged with these comments about the IBESR staff "They seem to have a handle on how to implement the new procedure."  "very organized and I was very impressed."  " I was very happy that they are willing to approve matches already made by the agencies and the crèches.  They said since this is the transition period, they are being more lenient." "Over all, we came away feeling, like after a year of trying to find out how the new procedure will work, we now have some idea of the actual procedure and how we can work with IBESR to make the matches go quicker and smoother. "

Specific Prayers

• Dispensations to be signed or the new law published. [If the new law is signed and means that all the old cases no longer need the president to sign a huge load of dossiers will become active cases all at once!]
• IBESR staff. Not only implementing the new procedure but also working on all of the cases already in the system. 
• Legal staff as they decide new procedures for abandoned children. IBESR has changed some requirements for children whose mothers have disappeared or are mentally handicapped and they can not sign for the child to be adopted.  The adoption lawyers and the IBESR lawyers are arguing over the correct procedures and the interpretation of the law.
• Additional staff responsibilities with home visits, education of parents, observing families/children during the 2 week visits.....
• Communication with the creches. Making the 'good' matches with new families. 
• Those still stuck in the system or adjusting to failed adoptions.
• For our children and their family as they meet with the social workers, sign away their rights and work through these hard, life changing discussions. For the creche and staff who will provide the initial care for our children.