Medical and Embassy visits.

Medical visit went OK once everyone who needed to be there arrived. A communication misstep had us waiting for 3 hours at the doctor's office before everything came together: us, embassy letter, staff member, Fritzlin's passport, and most improtant Fritzlin.

Then the actual visit took about one hour. Fritz enjoyed a sucker but not the TB skin test placement. It was great to see and personally hold his Haitian passport for a bit and read Frtizlin Thede, all spelled correctly!

Then a needed second errand came to light as photos were needed for the next day's Embassy visit and for IBESR. So off to the photo studio we all went...and more waiting.

Tuesday morning in front of the US Embassy, adoption cordniator for COTP joined us, the first (Port au Prince based) staff person, and Fritz with all the needed paperwork for the final visa interview. I stayed in the truck and prayed, and prayed, and prayed some more.

Praise the Lord ! No further information was requested...because Fritz had already seen the doctor they kept his passport. The first staff member will bring the medical report when it is completed and then we should hear in 3-5 business days.

Moringa tree where I waited for them at the Embassy.

Wednesday morning we did a return trip to the doctor for the skin test to be read. Then once the report is completed and placed in an envelope it can be/was picked up and delivered to the Embassy.

Results were not shared with us and should the envelope be opened before reaching the Embassy the process would be delayed.

Not sure when or if the report has been delivered so we continue to pray for favorable results and the issuing of Fritz's visa so we can travel.

Once the visa is issued we will return to Port-au-Prince to personally pick up Fritz's passport complete with visa in it for travel to the USA, along with a sealed packet of papers for entry into the USA.

Waiting is hard at this point...you'd think after 5 years, 3 weeks, and 5 days that we would be at professional patience levels but seems we are running thin. Thank you for the prayers-we know that the Lord has used each prayer to get us to this point!

Passport Picked Up !

Thankful to receive news today that the staff have Fritzlin's passport in hand.

Next step will be travel to Port-au-Prince for Fritz's medical exam.

Because of the TB skin test that will need to be read two days after placement it will likely mean two nights in Port and a day of shopping in between.

We are now at the half-way point for the estimated time for the review of his visa application.

No request for further evidence yet so that is good news....no word at all so we continue to wait and pray.

Our 'paper pregnancy' now stands at 4 years 11 months 1 week and 2 days...since the day our first paperwork was in the mail.

So really a bit longer than that as we had to fill in all the forms before mailing them.

Passport done but not picked up.

After asking a couple times this week about any passport news, as we've been waiting for seven weeks,  we heard today that Fritz's passport is done.

The lawyer who went again to ask about it and received the news could not pick it up as she did not have the original receipt.

So the one staff member who can pick it up, Ivinge, with the receipt in hand will go to try.

Once he has the passport in his possession, he will tell our social worker who will relay the information to us.

Will be very exciting to see that cute face in a passport-representing one more step toward being able to travel together as a family.

The agency tells us that sometimes when Ivinge goes to pick up passports he's turned away, being told that the requested passport is not ready.

So praying that we hear soon that the passport has been turned over to the agency.

So far no word from USCIS office about our visa. We are 1/3 done with the 'estimated 6 week processing time'.

Praying that the review is going well. So far no request for additional evidence or information.

Merry Christmas.

E-mail from yesterday let us know that Fritzlin's passport paperwork should have been submitted today.

So we assume that the needed correction happened and that the adoption paperwork exited MOI for the second time and was accepted by Immigration.

As those of you who have followed our adoption journey know one cannot depend on other people's time lines....but recently passports have been taking around 2-5 weeks.

With the next couple of weeks being holidays we do not expect to hear anything about the passport until mid to late January at the earliest.

In the past know that significant delays occured in passports because they ran out of offical passport books and the paper has to be ordered and come from Europe.

No word on Kris' fingerprints or spelling corrections of her or Fritz's name.

Eli and Kris' folks flew to Haiti on Tuesday so we are enjoying family time for the holidays.

We are looking forward to traveling with Fritz in 2018! Happy New Year!
Thank you for the prayers.