Since our last update so much has changed with our adoption process, and yet at the same time very little seems to have changed. At the beginning of September we sent our documents to be translated into French, the final step in gathering the dossier. It was a huge blessing to find the translator we used. He was able to completely translate all of the documents within two weeks, much faster than the original translator suggested to us. After we received the documents and made seven copies of all the pages I took the difficult step of shipping the dossier to Bethany's Global office. {If that box was lost we would be starting the process over again.} Thankfully it arrived in a timely manner with no hiccups!
After the worker at Bethany reviewed the documents it was shipped to the Haitian Consulate in Chicago for another round of authentication. {This makes round three, frist the notaries, then the state seals, and now the Haitian consulate approval.} It took about a week for them to approve the documents and then the next stop for the dossier was Haiti! It was shipped down to the Bethany worker who is in Haiti, and he took the dossier to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. They legalize the document. {Round four for approving the documents.}
It took the MAE three and a half weeks to legalize the documents and from there the documents are submitted to IBESR. Think of IBESR as the social services for Haiti. This is where it really all happens, and where the real waiting begins. IBESR workers will be the ones to match us with our future son our daughter. To answer your questions about this match:
> We are approved for either a boy or girl.
> The child can be from newborn to age 4.
> As far as special needs, medically or other, those are unknowns to us. Many needs cannot be identified until stateside and they are home.
The biggest question is how long will we wait for a match? We honestly do not know. There are some who have waitied six months and there are even some families who have waitied twenty months for a match. After the match is made and we accept it can still take up to 18 months to bring the child home. There have been a lot of changes in the way Haiti runs their adoptions in the last year, changes that took place after we were already in the process. And a lot of the changes force me to give up a feeling of some control over the situation. But I'm going to look at this as a reminder that this adoption is not about us being in control and selecting our family. It is about loving another child, bringing them into our home. It is about us acting upon how we feel the Lord has called our family. And He is not calling for me to be in control. He wants us to let Him be in control.
Specific prayer requests:
> Wisdom for those who are in charge of referring a child to us for adoption.
> Peace, lots and lots and lots of peace for us as we enter a peirod of waiting with no known end time.
> Preparing the hearts and minds of Loren and I, as well as our children, for the change that lies ahead of us.
> Pray for our future son or daughter. If he or she is unborn, that the mother would remain healthy and safe. And if he or she is already born, that they would be in a safe location. That they would be fed well, given good health care, nurturing from nannies, and be growing healthy and strong.
Thank you for all of your encouragement throughout this process. There may be no new progress to share for a while, but I will share when there are updates.
{If you haven't seen our adoption announcement video head over and check it out!}
Missy says
Prayers… lots of prayers and anticipation. 🙂
Becky says
thanks so much Missy! Â xoxo
Sybil Brun says
This warms my heart and makes me smile! Will most definitely keep you all in our thoughts and prayers. Just a thought, as I was reading it tonight – you may like my friend Becky's blog, "The Adoption Cottage" You can find it here: https://www.facebook.com/theadoptioncottage
Becky says
Thanks for the resource Sybil! Â Checking it out now!