Seven Months of Paper Chasing Over

Along w/ the dossier goes a huge check.

Last week marked another huge milestone for our adoption journey as I finally mailed off our entire compiled dossier to our adoption agency, America World, in Virginia. When we began this process the various timelines all estimated 4-7 months for what they call “the paper chase”. I was sure we would be on the short end of that because I am diligent, organized and have time on my hands to get things done.

Oh how wrong I was.

I don’t even remember all the various hangups now, aside from the BIG ones of being initially rejected by USCIS and having most of the dossier get lost in the mail during the authentication process. The most challenging documents to get were probably the notarized doctor’s reports and then the home study.

So now that our part of the paperwork is done, all we have left to do right now is wait.

Oh, and pray…that’s pretty important!

Our agency will now take all those documents and have them translated to French, and take them to be authenticated by the Haitian consulate. Meanwhile they stay in touch with our orphanage about matching us with a little girl.

Our wait actually began several months ago when our homestudy was sent to our orphanage in Haiti. We don’t think it will be too long till we have a referral, but we’re a little concerned about the change in regulations in Haiti and the fact that new applications are on hold at the moment. (Here’s an AP article on that from yesterday. Take it with a grain of salt.) We’ve been told the new process, but so far it hasn’t been set in motion for anyone.

The good news is that I am seeing a ton of movement through the very long and complicated process for families who got into the system in Haiti under the old regulations. The longest step is usually between entering and exiting IBESR, then they go to Parquet (court), then MOI, then there is getting approval from USCIS in Haiti and finally getting visas to go home. Many families who have been stuck in IBESR for what feels like forever are now out and jumping through the final steps at a quicker pace. Kids are going home. That’s always encouraging to see.

I hope that means that once we do enter the system with our dossier and our child’s dossier that things will move along more quickly for us than they have for others in the past few years. Only God knows and influences what happens.

Inside that box is a massive stack of paper.

Celebrating children joining their forever families will never get old for me. As wonderful as the miracle of birth is, I now know a lot more about the labor of love that parents go through to adopt. Just last night we welcomed into our home a new couple to our church who had waited years for a child and brought their adopted son home as a newborn just two weeks ago. He is precious and dearly loved and are thrilled for them.

We believe our little girl will join our family soon enough. Maybe not even in 2013, but that time will pass in the blink of any eye. Our God is a father to the fatherless, and He’s not a deadbeat dad!