Prayers for progress.

We passed the 5 month wait in IBESR with no news this week. Please continue to pray for Haiti's adoption process as delays cause hundreds of children to live without parents and siblings to love them.

For a full report from God's Littlest Angels founder Dixie go here. Dixie recently returned to Haiti after a trip and visited IBESR, June 13.

Condensed points:

1. No official referrals have been given since December.
2. Lots of indecision at IBESR in her opinion. Working on the families stuck because of the change of status for dispensation cases under old law. When the President closed the office after the new law passed, the charts under old law there could not officially be finished.
3. Secretary was working on getting dossiers ready for biological families to release their children for adoption. Families being told their children would be adopted soon.
4. Lawyer in charge of adoption unit has a 'history of indecision or accepts changes slowly' and is busy with other duties. Hague representative been working for 2 months now.
5. GLA has a long list of pre-matched suggestions. Hoping to get quicker matches.
6. Fee increase. "Everyone says this will not affect dossiers already in IBESR before they raise the fees.'

She also noted staff out sick with Chikungunya fever which is sweeping the country right now. She remarks how all the checks and agencies will remain in limbo until decisions are made and then acted on.

Prayer Requests:

• Madame Arielle Villedroin as the director of IBESR. Health. Wisdom to improve the system and make needed changes to get adoptions moving again.
• Lawyers will find a way to finish up the old dispensation cases.
• Parents giving up their children. That many will find ways to remain a family.
• Creches waiting for movement. Having to turn away new children because of limited space, staff, and resources.
• That the devil's delays and distractions will be overcome and progress can be made on getting children home to loving, Christian families.
• That those suffering from Chikungunya fever will recover rapidly without lingering effects. Protection on those not yet infected by this new mosquito transmitted virus.
• Patience, hope, and preparation for the waiting families like ours. 

Please let your praying friends and prayer chains know of this important prayer need. We feel this is a spiritual battle and every prayer counts. Please fight with us for these precious children. Thank you. 

P.S. Maybe as a reminder to pray you can pray when you wait…. When you wait to pick up your children at an event pray for this of us waiting to pick up our children at an orphanage. Waiting at a stop light, in a line or on the phone just send out a quick prayer for the process and those involved at each level. 

Adoption process like boating.

I think that a good word picture for the adoption process in Haiti is to liken it to placing a small toy boat in a creek.

We prepare the boat the best we can [putting together one's dossier] and then release.

Some boats remain in the middle of the stream making steady progress with no problems.

Many bump from shore to shore hitting small snags now and then but still make pretty good time to the finish line.

Winds may help or may push boats off course.

Other boats capsize at the start. They run into obstacle after obstacle or hit a major blockage and sit there...for months or even years. Hope grows thin.

At the beginning all hope and pray that they will make it through without problems. Maybe they will be the family with the miracle time frames.

They think they can do this, they have the strength, the patience, the courage!

Even the strong grow weary with the struggles and fighting in time.

Please pray for the families who now count their journey by years not months.
             Those loosing hope.
             Those longing to see the finish line and finally take their children home.
             Those missing another birthday, holiday or developmental milestone.

Pray for:

•  those like us just starting the journey but already counting the wait in months.
•  those with charts at the Haitian Ministry of the Interior who learned today it will be closed for a while.
• the 2 families in the last post who now both finally get to enjoy their new daughters living at home but still transitioning.
• the crèches trying to get parents to show up for their IBESR interviews.
• the IBESR staff as they learn new ways to do things.
• the court process as they try to improve things as well, find a new lawyer, a office location and new staff.
•  Haitian families making the heart breaking decisions to give up their children and that once they decide they can arrive on time for the meetings they need to attend.
• that most Haitian families can find the means to keep and provide well for their children.

Pray for:

•  our little ones. That they can know soon that a family wants them and that they can stay together.
•  them to feel God's love and care for them as He provides and protects them.
• patience as the days and weeks go by without word. We want as much time as a whole family as possible before Eli heads to college, fall of 2015.
• us while we wait that we stay close to the Lord, trusting in Him and not becoming discouraged.
• our dossier. That it does not become lost.

Thank you.

Waiting and Prayer

I may need to give up reading adoption blogs. Way to many stories of excited families celebrating short timeframes in Haiti only to be still in the process months or years past when they hoped to bring their children home.

This shows that even in the past how unwise looking at other people's time frames and trying to guess the whens could become. So many heartbreaking stories of delays [for errors or unknown reasons] even when using the timeframes from their agencies.

Now no one knows as the new process really does not have any 'time frames' yet. I'm sure that if I took a time frame and doubled or tripled it knowing how things can go a tiny part of my brain would insist on reminding me of the shortest possible one.

While many of these blogs believed as we do that the Lord can do great and mighty things very often reality looks way different than what we would like to hope and dream. But we must believe that He knows best, while praying against the delays of the devil.

Is a delay good or bad…only the Lord with His infanate wisdom and knowledge of the future can know that so we dare not speculate.

Would it not be 'nice' to turn off that small counter in our minds and therefore be pleasantly surprised when the next step's completion becomes known to us. But would that lessen the frequency and intensity of my prayers?

 If so then that price I would not pay, for the power of prayer remains our strongest tool against evil.

One need not read very much about adoptions to realize that that battle for children needing good stable families is intense. The realities of evil and abuse stand in the way of healing in forever families.

Prayers:

• Praising the Lord for 2 families we know who now have tickets to go home.
• Praying for the IBESR staff working on old cases, transition cases and new.
• April 1st change to the Hague
• Praying for our referral, the time frame, crèches involved, staff 
• Praying for our children

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.

Transition to Hague.

A bit late for Valentine's but heart shaped. 

“Joint Council extends it congratulations to Haiti on achieving what few developing countries have; an uninterrupted transition to the Hague Convention. We also applaud both DOS and USCIS for their positive approach and efforts regarding Haiti’s transition to Convention adoptions.

Again, our congratulations to Haiti for this unprecedented achievement.”

This means that the meeting went well and the USA will not put adoptions on hold from Haiti.

Many agencies sent out the good news yesterday, reporting that the U.S. government 'expects to confirm the Haitian Adoption Authority as compliant with Hague adoption standards'. 

So after April 1st a different form will need to be filed for parents adopting from Haiti.

Also at this meeting they announced that the U.S. worked with the Haitian officials to create a plan for the transitional cases that are currently in process.

 That would be us as we received our I-600A approval last fall.

The last part of the announcement was that the U.S. Department of State, USCIS and the Haitian adoption authorities formed a working group to 'evaluate and improve their working relationship'.

All sounds good and the intentions of blocking child trafficking, improving adoptions and hopefully speeding up the process are good goals but it remains to be seen how things will work.

IBESR reportedly has over 460 'old process' charts waiting to move. They will now have 'transitional cases' like ours and after April 1st, Hague process charts. Lots to keep straight.

Prayers:

• Thankful for the process without a shutdown.
• Praying about our referral. Some guess it will be 6-8 months on average for a referral.
• Praying for IBESR staff. 
• Praying for our children. Heard reports from Port and Cap areas about chicken pox in a couple of crèches/orphanages. 

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]