OUT!!!!!

After 1,333 days we excitedly received the long awaited news that our case EXITED IBESR!

Thank you for the thousands of prayers.

In the clouds colored pink by Irma sunset.  The reflection is the camera flash off the window as we didn't see the sun.

We celebrated Friday with some cheesecake for our case finally moving forward and the Lord's protection over Haiti during Hurricane Irma!

What now?  Good question.

Monday the paperwork should reach the hands of our agency's laywer in Port-au-Prince.

We are praying that the case can go into courts for the Haitian adoption and be completed without a 30 day waiting period.

We hope to find out this week from our social worker what the next steps really consist of and what kind of time line they 'guess' we could be looking at for the next steps.

You can find the 'Steps' as we currently understand them under the tab at the top of the page.

[But considering some people exited after their socialization visit in less than 2 months and it took us 2 years, 3 1/2 months we will not be holding our breath for speedy progress.]

From watching other people ahead of us it looks like it could be 6-8 months before we complete the adoption and visa steps and will be able to travel with F to the USA.

F starts his 1st grade school year tomorrow.

We thank everyone for praying and hope that everyone continues to hold up our case and many others in Haiti's adoption system.

Many transition families continue to wait for their referrals after years of waiting.

Please pray as well for stablitiy in Haiti as we hear that there could be protests this week due to proposed tax increases.

Also, hurricane season will not be officially end for 2017 until the end of November.

One step forward!

African Desert Rose mid May '16

While we remain unclear about what happened or did not happen in family court in November we do know that F's mom and aunt traveled to Port-au-Prince this week to meet with some special doctors.

Apparently the doctors refused to come north.

This took a lot of coordination and prayers. Our social worker called it a miracle!  Several families needed to travel together with the adoption coordinator who had to locate all the families and make sure that they all could travel and make it to the appointment at the same time.

Thank you Lord!

So as we understand the next few steps:

February 3 '17

• Doctors report: 'should be finishing up their reports this week' [Praying that they can focus, go to work, and not get distracted by the presidential inauguration on Feb. 7th]
• Reports travel north to the judge
• Judge finishes up the extra paperwork that IBESR requested back late spring
• Paperwork goes to IBESR [praying it can make our file the first time it is submitted]
• ?? Once again we wait for signature(s) to exit
• Exit!!!!!!!!

Praying hard we can finally get out of IBESR and that they do not come up with something else that they need.

Day 1115 in IBESR.

Early in our adoption journey I blogged it was liking putting a small boat in the river not knowing if it would get stuck or enjoy smooth sailing.

It feels like our boat got caught in a deep freeze with no movement during the last year or so. Now new hope feels like hearing the ice cracking and popping after a long, hard winter. 

Will the spring thaw come releasing our small boat to continue on its journey or will another cold wind come and silence our hopes?

The Lord knows. He sustains us. He holds us. He guides us. He loves us!