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 Prayers. No personal news..

No new news on our dossier which waits to be accepted into IBESR. Once accepted I think our dossier would arrive on desk of the lawyer referred to below.

News from God's Littlest Angels near Port. Best source for news from IBESR we have found.

We had so hoped that the new process would be quicker.  We knew the interview process with the biological parents would take time, but once it was finished and the children were declared adoptable, we expected quick referrals of the children to adoptive families.  It started out well and then the person who was in the position to make those referrals and started the new program quit on December 31st! 

Now a new lawyer is in charge but he has other jobs at IBESR.  So now we wait.  I think he is trying to review the files and get a handle on what needs to be done but because he has so much work, it is hard to do!  Please, we need to say a special prayer for referrals and that children will not have to stay any longer in the orphanage than necessary. -

Dixie also wrote: The people who have the authority to sign dossiers or give proposals are so busy they do not have the time to do these important things!  They must learn to delegate, to hire qualified staff for giving proposals, and to stop making our babies wait!

 See more at: GLA's blog

In other news. Haiti should know by April 1st if they met the requirements for Hague adoptions. Knowing that this was the goal our dossier and documents already met Hague requirements. Notice
Thankful that so far Haiti did not need to close down adoptions.

We know the power of prayer. We do that Satan does not want children to be accepted into loving Christian homes. Please join us in this spiritual battle.

Please Pray for:

• Our acceptance into IBESR
• For the referral lawyer to learn his job [rapidly and learn to work efficiently and without errors], that he gets help, for health, that he does GREAT at matching children with the families who wait. 
• That the IBESR folks learn to delegate, and find the qualified staff [and $ to pay them] to cut down wait times.
• For the new process as folks continue to learn and improve things.
• Thankful for the families moving through the process after being stuck for months.
• That the government remains stable.
• That families going through the process of giving up their children understand, stay together if at all possible and that they can find comfort and hope from the Lord-meeting Him in the mist of their trials. 

Pre-IBESR

This week marks the three month mark of our dossier being in Haiti.

Response to an E-mail from us today from our social worker:

We have received everything and your dossier and all important documents are in Haiti in what we call pre-IBESR.  This is basically making sure that everything is being reviewed and waiting to be accepted by IBESR.  We are all in a wait and see situation as we have no idea about timelines and what each step is going to look like with the "new process."  In fact many of us are wondering if IBESR is sure of what the new process is going to entail.  There is not suppose to be the need for dispensation any longer, but we are not sure of exactly when that is going to be in effect.

I am sorry that I don't have anymore clear answers, but we just don't at this point in time.

I clarified with her what pre-IBESR means:

If I am understanding the process correctly pre-IBESR means that someone there (IBESR) is looking at the dossier and once accepted you get your number for submission.

As with any international adoption things are likely to change on a dime and most often times do.

So we continue to pray and wait. Praying that any 'changing on a dime' will speed up or simplify the process.

Cory presented a letter to the district pastors at their last meeting asking them and their church families to join us in prayer.

In Facebook group about  adopting from Haiti very few 'new process' folks share their time lines: one family entered IBESR after 1 month and as of today the longest has been waiting for over 12 months. Only 18 on the list including us so a small sample of adopting families. Ten families already through pre-IBESR with 2 entering in November. 

With the holidays we assume not much work occurred in IBESR mid-December through the first week of the New Year. But of the  5 families listed that IBESR match with their children 1 approval occurred in November, and 2 in December. Recent activity! Two of these families will have bonding trips this month. 

I moved some steps down into 'phase two' [under the Steps tab at the top of this page] to make it more logical as the referral and match now fall more under the Haitian IBESR than our US agency's control. 

So while we remain at the same step it now shows we completed phase one!

Thankfully I have my studies and Cory can work on the agriculture book while we wait.

Praying for the social worker who holds our papers. Praying for nothing to get lost or misplaced. Praying everything is in order. Praying for health of the workers. Praying for wisdom and a good work ethic and morals. Praying for political stability. Praying for the children that the Lord has for us. Praying for His timing and the patience to wait with a good attitude.

Keep praying!

Praying through the Steps, in the New Year!

Happy New Year!

If you already read the post on choices you know I started praying regularly for my future husband in high school. It did not take long for me to weary of 'my future husband' so I named him.

Soon after we became aware of our pregnancies we discussed and picked nicknames for our children while we prayed and waited for their physical arrivals in our lives.

So ever since the Lord opened the adoption door we started praying and continue to pray each step of the journey.

Now while we wait to hear that IBESR holds our dossier and  for them to refer children to us we pray.

Early in 2012 I felt called to pray for a little girl. I called her Grace. I 'named' the baby girl that was brought to our front door step Grace and continue to pray for her and her caregivers even now.

I also pray for a Gracie to join our family someday. Since Elijah and Anna set the pattern for Biblical names I also pray for a Daniel, the little boy we hope to add to our family at the end of this journey.

 Until we know more all I can only pray generally. We hope you'll join us in praying for our kids and the process.

Lord protect our children. Protect them spiritually, physically, emotionally, and mentally. Provide for their needs in each of these areas as well. If one or two of our children are being knit by you yet in their mother's womb I ask that you protect each life, each day from damaging events. Provide each need for development and health.

 Be with their family in a special way because I know times must be tough or going to get tough or they would not put their children up for adoption. Provide for their needs as only You can. Comfort them. Lift them up. May they feel Your Love in the midst of this storm of life.

 Strengthen the faith of the family members and their walk with you [or open the doors for them to know You if they do not already]. Provide them wisdom and strength to make the hard choices they must make and comfort them.

Lord be with the government workers who influence the policies in Haiti. Keep things moving smoothly and prevent delays. Provide Christian staff to influence and impact the process. Stabilize the government and help the corruption to be removed. 

Thank you for increasing the awareness of the North American Christians of some of the issues concerning adoptions and giving many of them the burden to pray and push for change.

Guide the social worker who will read our chart and match us with the children You plan to place in our home. You know we think we want younger and a boy /girl mix but we trust You know the best children for our family and we trust You. 

 Bless those working for adoptions in the home agency offices. Thank you for their dedication and faithfulness. Encourage them. Help them to work effectively. Help them to understand the new process.

 Provide the right people in the lives of our children to love them and help them until we can be a family. Provide for the needs of the crèche as they strive to provide the best temporary home environment while assisting families like ours to be complete. 

You know the best timing for our family. The best time for the required two week bonding trip to the creche. The best time for our children to physically join our family. The best time for us to travel to the USA.

 Grow and expand our faith, patience, love and courage for this journey. Thank you for this opportunity to expand our hearts and family. Thank you for the life changing experience You placed before us. Thank You for loving our kids and watching over them. 

Change us. Improve us. Enlarge our faith and patience.  Prepare us to be the best family possible for our children. To help them adjust, heal and thrive in Your and our love. All this we ask in Your, precious, holy name Lord Jesus. Amen

I-171H

Today we returned home from a week long visit to LaGonave to find  our I-171H letter in the mail.

The I-171H, the official name for our I-600a approval, will allow our children to enter the USA once the adoptions are completed in Haiti.

This indicates that the Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration after an investigation of Cory and I [home study review, fingerprint check by FBI and the application] approve us to adopt internationally.

They then contact the Embassy who will eventually process our children's exit visas.

As we also picked up our renewed Haitian visas from Irvine's home during this trip we scanned them along with our approval letter and sent the information off to our agency social worker and the gal working with the creche in Haiti.

So now we pray and wait. Wait and pray.

Today IBESR held a meeting with some of the creche leaders in Haiti to talk about the new procedures.

No word yet on how the meeting went but we continue to pray for the process, changes, and workers involved.

Being First…..

Do you like to be first? First seat on a roller coster? First for something good? What about first for something bad-do you like to just get it over with? Enjoy the unexpected? Adventuresome? What about first in line for the unknown?

Generally in life I do not push to be first. I did not even do so as a school child but would hang back a bit. Middle of the line was OK. Let me see how the other's accomplished a task.

In medical school often my evaluations read 'not aggressive enough'. True enough. I prefer to learn from other's mistakes than be the first to mess up, especially in front of a group.

With all the changes in the adoption process in Haiti we find ourselves one of the first families in line with our agency to go through the new process. In addition everyone else we know living in Haiti going through the adoption process already have their children living in their homes.

Our dossier arrived in Haiti the end of October and may be the very first one our agency submits to IBESR. Being first means no one can share their experience, time frames or give us an idea on what to expect.

Having lived in Haiti for 15 years I suspect that we will be called upon to use the flexibility and patience that we have developed living here as we move through the new process and the unknowns.

We will depend on our support team to partner with us in prayer during this journey especially when waiting for our referral, waiting to learn which children the Lord has chosen to join our family and afterward as we wait for the process to bring them home.

We 'hear' that the new law passed but as of yet still not printed in the paper.

Through a Facebook group we know that some people continue to wait for a referral more than 10 months after their dossier submission to IBESR under the new system.

So far have not heard of any new process families matched who did NOT already have a 'soft match' meaning that their agency already located a child.

Know that hundreds of charts, cases, representing families and children exist in the system each needing attention, time and action to move forward. PLEASE PRAY.

Faith can move mountains. God is in charge. His way. His timing. No delays outside of His will.

I-600a Approval

Cory called the number give and spoke to a nice man who let us know that we needed to wait 45 days to check on our I-600a.

Counting the days we noted that would be only 2 days from the deadline given on the letter about needing to pay the fee that we did not think we needed to pay. So we sent a second E-mail to the agent who helped us the first time.

He wrote from 'training' giving us an E-mail to write our question to and in less than 1 business day we learned:
 1.we were correct that we do not need to pay the fee,
 2. that our fingerprints arrived and we should hear 'in the next couple days' the final decision on our I-600a.
 3. a new phone number / e-mail and agent if we need help.

Today we received an E-mail requesting additional information if we were OK with sending it by E-mail. Cory came in and in about 1 hour sent the information off to Ashely. Just over 1 hour later we received the E-mail letting us know that the "I have processed the approval and we will send that to your mailing address listed on your home study " [This would be our Florida MFI mailing address]

Monday after receiving the E-mail about our I-600a we wrote our agency to make sure they received the E-mail letting them know that we do have residency visas in Haiti. The processing of our dossier continues and 'we'll see what happens'.

A blog from an agency in Port who talked with the IBESR last week indicated that the newly changed adoption law was sent to be printed on Friday, November 15th. Therefore, theoretically, it should be printed in the paper this week.