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.

Help Us Move Mountains!

Matthew 17:20 b "If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place; and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible unto you."

Matthew 18:20 "For where two or three gather in my name, there am I with them."

Many families pray for us and other's when in small groups or churches. And the Lord hears us when we pray solo too.

Sometimes I wonder how much faith I have?

I know that together our faith adds up to more.

This week a couple blogs encouraged me. Both from large families who moved outside their comfort zones and adopted lots of children including those with special needs.

One reminded me that the Lord continues to work on our behalf even when we cannot see movement or progress.

He remains faithful. He is moving.

Praying earnestly for the mountains blocking the referral process and other steps in the Haiti adoption process to crumble into the sea so that children can be placed in loving families.

Praying that the delays mean that once the process starts up again it will move faster and smoother than in the past.

Even if we still wait for our referral would be hopeful to see other families getting referrals and moving though the system.

Prayer Requests

• Movement in referrals and other steps in the process
• IBESR staff to work hard, stay healthy, be careful/efficient  and have all the resources they need to complete their work well
• That our chart and the kid's charts do not get lost or have mistakes in them
• That our US agency finds the perfect person to be the International Adoption Coordinator
• That the creche our children are at will allow Eli and Anna to come on the bonding trip
• That the creche has all the staff and resources needed to take care of the children well so that they can thrive during the wait. 
• That the trip would work with our ministry schedule without delays
• For the Lord's will and timing.
• To defeat any of the Devil's plans for delays or derailments
• Patience, hope, faith and gratitude during the process.

Dispensation cases and need for new coordinator.

Lalow seed pod. 

Heads Up Old Law Families Without Dispensation Prior to New Law Taking Effect:

From IBESR:

"Gives notice, furthermore, that the Act of August 29, 2013 repealing the decree of April 4, 1974 puts an end to the presidential waiver authorizing adoption for prospective adoptive parents who already have biological children. Cases for which the presidential waiver was not solicited or granted as of November 15, 2013, are exempt from this formality, but will be processed in accordance with section 37, 36, 76, 78 of the Act of august 29, 2013;"

This sounds like the families who needed presidential dispensation when the office closed will be able to move out of IBESR soon. Keep praying as they wait for a letter and files to move to courts.

New law folks like us no longer need dispensation.

For our case we learned from our USA agency that our International Adoption Coordinator left her job and the position will now need to be filled. We pray that the Lord will put the perfect person in that job.

If we were looking to hire this person we'd be looking for someone with the following:

• A passion to help families unite in a timely fashion through international adoption.
• Willing to go a second mile to help families living overseas find the answers to unique questions due to their locations.
• Willing to occasionally work on weekends or nights when occasion warrants so that situations can be dealt with in a timely fashion.
• Willing to touch base once a month on families during the waiting process even if there's no new news or to update on Country adoption news.
• A praying person.

Today we talked to someone in the home office as requested by phone. A visit from staff to Haiti in April did not find out any new news. Our file remains fine. Nothing much for us to do until late January when our fingerprints will need renewal for the US government to update our I-600a.

Praying for movement across all the different levels of this process. Looking forward to getting our referral and learning names, faces, facts. Praying for patience, hope and peace.

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?