Good news/Icky news

For anyone who knew how crazy we were to get all of our immigration paperwork in this month- we have great news! We were told that it could take a few months to process and approve our application. Our goal was to get our I-600 A (application to adopt internationally) approved and get our I-797C (basically your approval letter) back in time for our trip. We have an appointment scheduled in Port Au Prince on December 16th to file another round of paperwork but we needed this form back. Well... in an amazing feet of U.S. government efficiency, we received teh I-797C last week! We noticed that the original had been sent to the central processing center in New Hampshire, not Port Au Prince, as we requested. Ah hah! This is where it goes wrong, right? Well, a few quick phone calls later and we find out that the form has indeed been forwarded to PAP and in record time!

As for the dossier that is being translated to be sent to Haiti- that is taking much longer than we anticipated. Apparently, the translator was backed up- not exactly a great sign. Hopefully, the documents will be sent to PAP next week and the Haitian part of the process can begin.

We've had lots of questions about "why this takes so long" so we figured we'd try to give everyone an idea-

The Adoption Process
Minister of Foreign Affairs (MFA)
2-14 weeks
First Legalization (1st Legal). This is where all of the papers are authenticated.

File prepared for IBESR (Concurrent with MFA)
1-4 weeks
When the paperwork is at Foreign Affairs, the lawyers prepare your file for IBESR. IBESR requires that the paperwork be in a certain order. The child's social history and psychological examination required by IBESR for your child must be made during this period. It involves putting the child's social information into a home study format with your home study information.

IBESR
2-6 months
Your child's paperwork is put together with your documents and the file is then presented to IBESR (Haiti's Social Service Department) where a social worker will look over all of your documents and decide whether to approve your adoption request.The director of IBESR, the IBESR lawyer, the head of adoption services at IBESR, and the IBESR social worker must all sign off on your dossier. This is four stages of approval.

Parquet
2-12 weeks
This step involves asking all of the birth parents to come for interviews to make sure that they understand that there children are being adopted. Apparently there was some fraudulent activity going on and he wants to protect the birth parents interests. i.e. make sure they are in agreement.

Civil Court Legalization
2-8 weeks
The adoption is finalized. After this point, the children are legally yours. (2nd Legal)

Minister of Interior Affairs (MOI)/Haitian Immigration
5-20 weeks
The file is submitted to three levels of approval and reviewed for accuracy. Upon completion, the file is submitted to the passport process. The passports are printed in the adopting parents last name.

DHS Processing (U.S. Parents)
1-3 weeks
I-600 is filed by adopting parents. File is reviewed and approved by DHS

DNA Testing
0-6 weeks
May or may not be necessary. Depends on DHS' opinion.

Consulate/Visa Appointment
1 week lead
Child receives visa in preparation for travel to their new home
time

Dossier complete!

Another major milestone! After an insane few weeks, we are officially finished our dossier and filed our immigration paperwork. A dossier is basically a big application package that we send to Haiti's social services. We had to collect medical/psychological reports, criminal background checks, CPS clearances, reference letters, bank statements, employment verifications, etc. All of these documents had to be notarized and then authenticated twice- once in the county in which the respective notary was commissioned and then again in Annapolis by the office of Secretary of the State. The process was not without a few hiccups. Our bank refused to generate a notarized letter in the state of Maryland so we had to figure out how to get the Texas notarized document to a circuit court in Austin... Somehow, amazingly, family friends who live in Austin were coming to town this past week so, after chasing the FedEx truck down I-95 because we missed the last drop box, the letter was overnighted to their house in Austin. Thank you to Chuck and Dianna for running this very important errand for us! We are grateful to the Francis family (Pat, Ray, and Alyssa) who took scenic tours of Maryland trying to hit each of the circuit courts. Thanks to our resourceful and connected friends Terry and Leslie for working to make sure our documents were tracked down and fast tracked. Brenda and Wim- thank you for meeting with us on such short notice! Thank you to Angie, Debbie, Leslie, and Christine for the beautiful letters of recommendation. And lastly, Gary, thanks for letting me take your car when at the last minute ours wouldn't start with an hour to go before the documents were due in Annapolis!

We never imagined that our path to parenthood would include so much paperwork, a car chase on 95, a dead car battery, so many tears, or such a team effort. Stanley is a lucky little man.

We're going to Haiti!!!

It's official! Tonight we booked our flights to/from Haiti in December. We flight out of Fort Lauderdale on the 12th and return on the 16th. We will only have 3 1/2 days to spend with Stanley but we CAN'T wait! Here is an excerpt from the email from Stephanie (our coordinator) about our plans for the weekend...

We will be going down on December 12th and returning on the 16th. This trip will serve a few different purposes. First, many of you adoptive families will be signing your I600’s while we are in Haiti... Our schedule will look something like this: December 12th—arrive in Haiti in the AM. Get to van waiting for us and drive straight to Les Caye... Arrive in Les Caye on that Friday afternoon. December 13th—spend time with the children. Take children swimming. Visit city center, etc. December 14th—more amazing time with the children....We will be having a Christmas celebration with the kids over the weekend. We’ll talk more about that as it gets closer. How fun right?

I'm sure as the trip gets closer, we'll have more details to share! Check out the new pictures we received...