Another year passes already?

Yes, another year has passed since I last posted.  Do you see a pattern forming here?  I like to keep you in suspense, always wanting more!  Sure, that's what I'm doing....

Actually, there has been quite a lot going on in the past year.  We did finish all our dossier paperwork for Ethiopia and sent off to our agency the first of November for it to go to the Ethiopian embassy in D.C. for authentication.  What an exciting time!  We finished.  The paperwork was done.  It was correct.  I didn't wake up every morning wondering if we'd get the last signature today and if the notary on it would be valid or if there would be some strange mix up like someone putting the wrong year when they dated it!  We knew we had a three year wait (at least) and we settled in to just accepting it and feeling confident that God was using that time to help us save money to pay the rest of the expenses of the adoption and prepare ourselves as a family. 

We were sitting at a soccer game one evening just before thanksgiving and I took a minute to check my email.  There was an email from the director of our adoption's agency's Haiti director.  She was sending out an email to everyone in the adoption process to alert them to the need for a number of children in one of their orphanages to find families or they would have to pass them along to another agency.  The list only included genders and age.  All throughout this process we have wanted to adopt siblings but with Ethiopia this would take so much longer.  And, here, on this list were a number of sibling sets in the age range we wanted.  I showed it to Jason and we agreed it wouldn't hurt to inquire more.  We knew the offices were closed, but as soon as they opened the next morning I called.  We heard back that afternoon.  All of those children were being considered by other families.  That's amazing!!!  As far as we know, they all found their families from that one email.

We talked for a while to the director of the Haiti program about the need in Haiti.  She said that since the earthquake in 2010 the orphanages have been overcrowded with children.  Not only did more children lose their families, but the government had since closed a number of orphanages for substandard conditions so the other orphanages were having to take in more children.  She said the wait time was around 18-24 months tops and they definitely could refer us a sister AND a brother.  After much prayer and discussion we decided to pursue the transfer from the Ethiopia program to the Haiti program.  For us, this adoption is not a pursuit of a certain nationality, but of a child in need.  Yes, there are children in need everywhere, but we felt that the need was immediate in Haiti and we could fill it.  At the time we transferred, the government had certain age and length of marriage stipulations in place that we met but that a lot of families would not.  And we love the thought that because Haiti is closer and easier to travel to, we could visit again and take our children back some day, and maybe have more involvement as a church family.

We decided to move forward and apply for a transfer to the Haiti program and the first of the year, 2014, we were accepted into the Haiti program!!!! When we made our first inquiries into the Haiti adoption process we were told that most of the documents we collected for the Ethiopian dossier would easily transfer to the dossier needed for Haiti, with some additional items needed.  Now that we were officially in the program, the program director had a chance to look at our documents and realized that ALL of them had to be obtained again since Haiti requires that they be no more than a year old, where Ethiopia allowed them to be older.  AND we had to get a formal psychological evaluation.  Not only did all of this mean more time and hassle, but a good deal more money as everything had to be paid for again- home study updates, blood work, physicals, background checks, and a psychologist.  But, with the experience gleaned over the PAST 2 times we had done this already, it only took five months his time- um, did I just type only?!  It seemed like forever. Then, off the new dossier went to translation in May.  Long story short the translation took twice as long as predicted, was then sent to Haiti to be legalized in July.  At that point it was supposed to take up to two months before formal submission to the IBESR (the governing body in Haiti that decides which children are truly adoptable and which families are eligible to receive them).  And finally........ this went quicker than expected and a month later, August 12th to be exact, we were submitted and began the wait for a referral for our kids!!!! In 6-8 months we will receive a file and pictures of TWO kids (siblings)- one boy 0-4 years old and one girl 0-6 years old!  We are thrilled, we are overwhelmed, we are expectant!!! More details later on with all that we are thinking, needing, and praying.  Thanks for continuing to follow this very long journey we have been on, though we know:
"beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day" 2 Peter 3:8