Passport in hand

Well, clearly David is not going to be home in time for Halloween. So his Halloween costume will remain in the closet :-(

I've been waiting to post until I got the official word that our orphanage director had his passport in her hand. We've noticed that 'next week' doesn't always mean 'next week', which was true again in this situation. There were a few delays, but I just received an e-mail letting me know that she DOES have his passport in her possession.

Next week she's supposed to be at the embassy to hand in the necessary documents for his visa. Once that's done, then we can start a countdown of 1-4 weeks until Jay will be on a plane to go pick him up.

I'll post again once I get word that all necessary paperwork is at the embassy. Cross your fingers that 'next week' really will mean 'this coming Monday'!

Passport?

I just got an e-mail saying that our orphanage director should have David's passport in hand next week!!!! Getting his visa should hopefully be a smooth, quick process because we were able to file our I-600 way back when he was still in IBESR thus most of the paper processing is already done.

So maybe, just maybe he'll be able to wear the Halloween costume that I have for him?

:-)

Fingerprints updated, again

Yesterday, we headed over to Indianapolis to be refingerprinted by the Dept of Homeland Security. According to the US govt, fingerprints expire every 15 months, so rather than being able to just send in money to have our fingerprints rerun to check that we're still crime-free, Jay took the day off of work, we packed up the kids and drove the drove 2 hours each way to be fingerprinted. We hit Dunkin Donuts on the way there and McDonalds on the way home as an attempt to make the car-trip more fun for Josh. Mix that with some books to look through and Josh was a happy little boy. Brenna slept most of the trip and then cooed at and watched Josh for the rest of the time. All in all, it was a pretty uneventful trip. At the fingerprinting office, there was a security guard who had to use the security wand on everyone entering. Josh has been excitedly talking nonstop about that every since :-P

In the past 4 years we have now been to 3 different Homeland Security offices (ranging from 2-3 hours from our home) and have been fingerprinted 5 different times. Hoping to not jinx anything, but we should now be through with our fingerprinting days because it will not be another 15 months before David is home.

The latest word is that we're in Immigration waiting for David's Haitian passport. Once that's done, then we're looking at a week or two until we can travel to pick him up.

Our big boy

Here's a new picture of David :-)

Craziness in the details

A few weeks back, I was reading a blog entry which listed updates on how the general adoption process in Haiti has been going. For MOI, it was mentioned that "the workers in MOI have been instructed to go through every document with a fine tooth comb". Well, the next day we experienced this first hand. I received an e-mail from our orphanage director who had just come from MOI and was told that there was a problem with one of our papers. Our papers were essentially stuck unless we got it fixed.

The big problem that could cause months of delay? On one of our papers, Jay's name was listed without his middle name. Now mind you, none of our papers, other than his birth certificate, include his middle name, but for some reason MOI decided that it was essential for this one page. Why? We have no idea.

In the big picture, this was at least a relatively easy thing to get corrected. Of course, nothing is ever simple either :-) It wasn't as straight-forward as just printing off a new page and sending it because everything has to be 'official.' Hence, we printed it off then had to get it notarized, authenticated by the secretary of state, stamped by the Haitian consulate, translated into french, and then quickly get to Haiti. All of these steps could have easily delayed everything a month! Luckily, I was already planning to be in the Chicago area that week, so rather than having to use the mail, I was able to personally go to the secretary of state and Haitian consulate. I then overnighted it to a family that was traveling to Haiti a few days later and they were able to hand-deliver it to our orphanage director who had it at MOI a week after the initial 'problem' was discovered. In the end, it only cost us about a week delay, about a day & a half of my time, and ~$75.

Ahh, bureaucracy.

Onto MOI we go!

Just got news that we're out of 2nd legal and, as of Monday, David's dossier is now at the Ministry of Interiors (MOI). This office seems to be taking ~5 months to get through, but clearly we've learned that estimates are pretty pointless when it comes to Haitian adoptions. So let's pray for quicker!

As soon as it gets out of the ministry, then we're onto visa processing with the US govt and then we get on a plane and go get our little man :-)

One more step to check off

We're out of parquet! We still have several, possibly long, stages left to go through, but we're getting closer :-)

Our initial news that we had left IBESR back in March had been incorrect. We found out a few weeks afterward that the last signature that our orphanage's attorney thought was on our dossier, actually wasn't there. So we didn't really leave IBESR until the beginning of May (frustrating, but at least we're out now!). Parquet went quickly and right now we're awaiting 2nd legal.

I reposted the remaining stages below and also included a cute picture from David's 2nd birthday party.

Remaining steps (taken from this website):

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 (2-14 weeks) - seems to be currently taking 5+ months.
The file is submitted into the passport process. The passports are printed in the adopting parents last name.

DHS Processing (U.S. Parents) (1-3 weeks) - We already filed this so hopefully our time with the visa should be quick!
I-600 is filed by adopting parents. File is reviewed and approved by DHS.

DNA Testing (0-6 weeks) - This has already been done for David.
May or may not be necessary. Depends on DHS' opinion.

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

----------------------------
Total (Hopeful) Time Left: 6 weeks - 26 weeks (~2- 7 months)