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)

Pictures

Here's a link to pictures from this trip. Enjoy!

Day 6 - Travel Day

And we're back in Illinois. Today was a long travel day - although not as long as originally anticipated. We were able to fly stand-by out of Miami, so rather than having a 6 hour layover, we only had about 1 1/2 hours. It was pretty smooth traveling. I got carsick on the drive down to Port-au-Prince, but only throwing up once was much better than the last time we traveled home from Haiti and I was sick the whole day. Customs through Miami was the quickest I've ever seen it and we even had time for a quick bite to eat before our plane took off.

We were on Haitian time this morning (meaning everything is slower and takes longer than planned), so we didn't get to see David today before having to leave for the airport. Luckily, we had a great time with him yesterday so I felt like we got to say our goodbyes then. Hopefully (keep praying!!!), it won't be long until we see him again and actually bring him home with us. Rachel talked to her attorney this morning and our papers are on their way to parquet this week. We were told that its possible to get our papers out of parquet in less than a week, which would be amazing! Of course, delays are typical so we'll see what happens.

I spent some time on the plane sorting through pictures, so once I'm done captioning them I'll post a link to picassa. Since, I still need to make the 3 hour drive home tomorrow it may take a few days for me to finish. I'll warn you now, there's a lot :-)

A side note - I brought our laptop and video along this time so that Jay & I could attempt to video chat. I wasn't sure how the upload speed would be at the guesthouse, but it ended up working great! Josh and David even played peek-a-boo together over the video - how cool is that?! I really feel like seeing David and I together in real time (rather than just in photos) is going to make David so much more comprehendable to Josh now. Plus, it was nice to get to see Jay & Josh while I was gone.

Day 5

Well, the Ra Ra parade didn't wake me up this morning, but David did at 5:45 am :-P Looks like we'll need to work to get this boy on Josh-time of waking up at 8 at the earliest! However, he does share the Josh trait of being extremely happy when he wakes up. I absolutely loved watching him 'talk' and play while we were still in our pjs.

We spent the morning at the guest house and then the afternoon at the orphanage. I really feel like I've gotten to know David better on this trip than any of the prior ones. Between spending a good deal of one-on-one time as well as being at the orphanage surrounded by his peers, so much of his personality came out.

Anyway, no specific stories or pictures to share from today. I'm trying to sort through the many pictures we took and will hopefully have them posted in the next few days.