A Brief Non-Update Update

Quite a few of you have (kindly) checked in to see if anything has changed recently, so I thought I'd take a moment to add a short update to the blog. As the title states, it's essentially a non-update. In a nutshell, we are just waiting.

On June 20th, our dossier was officially sent to Haiti, essentially closing the chapter of our paper-chasing and gathering, the period of work that we had control over. We are now waiting for the dossier to be legalized in Haiti, and then handed over to IBESR. The loose estimate for this to occur is within "a couple of months", but as I've mentioned before, there is no true average length of time that we can expect for any stages of the adoption. Add to this the knowledge that the work unofficially  slows down or stops in the IBESR offices in August, as it's traditionally a vacation month, and you'll now understand why you haven't heard much from me in awhile.  
We're in a period of time (which may last for months or years) in which we have no control over proceedings, and that is so very hard for me. My patience is in a constant state of flux, oh that fickle creature.

Once our dossier is registered with IBESR, we are essentially in line for a referral. Technically, this means that we could receive the call that our daughter has been identified at any time. Realistically, it'll likely be anywhere from a few months to a year for this coveted day to arrive. 

I am a part of a few adoption-related forums and Facebook community pages, and have recently seen a flurry of movement for both I-600 and I-800 families (we are I-800; I-600 was the process in place before Haiti joined the Hague Convention in April 2014). This gives me hope, and I am overcome with joy to see these families unite and begin to move forward with their lives together.  

In the back of my mind, two competing thoughts swing back and forth on a pendulum of expectation. 
One: Remember, Jordan, there is no "normal" in this world of adoption. A trend of referrals and placements now is no guarantee for the same tomorrow or the next day. The only true norm is waiting.
Two: But, couldn't we be the exception? Couldn't we get a quick referral, experience a perfect bonding trip, and fly through the post-bonding adoption stages and bring her home in record time?  Maybe. But in all likelihood, probably not. 

Most days this suspension in time is fine. I am deliberately focused on soaking up every second with my little family of three; delighting in Eisley's growth and personality everyday, experiencing and enjoying life in the moment. 
But some days, a sadness sneaks up on me and snags my heart. In those moments, I miss our second daughter terribly, though we've yet to be introduced to her, and she doesn't yet know we are awaiting her. I pray for her health and well-being, and for that of those taking care of her. I pray for this waiting period to get a move on, so we can meet her. 

That's all for now. Love and hugs.

The Dossier, part 2

As I mentioned in part one of our dossier saga, when we began collecting the necessary items to complete our dossier, our agency provided us with a few resources to help us along—a packet really. This included three versions of a checklist, each laid out a bit differently, depending on how you prefer to organize. (I’m telling you, it’s like these people know me!) On top of that, the woman who runs the Haiti program spent time talking us through the process on two different occasions. 
I tell you this to highlight how complex creating the dossier can be, due to the multiple steps that must be done in just the right way. And although I feel confident that I followed the checklists to the letter, there is still a distinct possibility that something will not be quite to the liking of IBESR, we’ll receive notice of a mistake, and we'll need to scramble to re-order, re-translate, re-certify, and re-submit something.

But, I digress.

Picking back up from the last post, I’ll briefly outline the steps that are required to finalize a Haiti dossier. This process varies greatly from country to country.

Note: as a clarifying caveat, not all of the items gathered require these steps, but about 85% of them did.

Notarization

We had notarization completed by a multitude of people—the bank, a very kind partner at work, the police department, workers at the agency. These did not come at extra cost to us (one of the few steps in which we can say that).

For this, we received a fancy stamp and signature.

Secretary of State (SOS) verification of said notarizations, also sometimes referred to as Apostille

This step meant we had to send documents to the office of the Secretary of State in which the notary is authorized, for another level of approval. There is a per document fee. We were held up by about a week in this process because I forgot that one of our referral letters was notarized in OR, and sent it with everything else to the WA SOS office. Fortunately, a very kind lady at the WA office called me to inform me of the mistake, and even included instructions for the OR SOS process when she returned all of the documents. Bless her; she didn’t need to call or include these steps for us!

For this, we received a fancy cover sheet with a shiny gold seal and the SOS’ signature.

Translation of documents, including notarization and SOS verification

Our agency provided us a few names of people who translate official documents as a side-job, for a nominal price. We had been forewarned that because this was not their full-time job, it could take some time to be completed. By the grace of God, one of the women had something come up, and told the agency that she was open to receive translation work en masse for a short time. I quickly reached out to her and she finished our translations in a matter of a week and a half, for a decent bulk fee. We did this entirely over email, which made me just a bit uncomfortable, sine I was sending copies of highly personal documents a stranger that I'll never meet.
She was incredibly kind and patient as I sent her batches of documents, and then sent her the SOS cover sheets for translation. I sent her a thank you card when we were done, because her part of the process was undoubtedly the smoothest and least stressful for me.

Department of State and Haitian consulate verification-the last step  

Here we reach the most nerve-racking part of the dossier. While we did send all of the original documents to the SOS, I felt (perhaps with delusion) that it was just a few cities away, and that this meant there was less chance of the paperwork being displaced or damaged. Once we’d arrived at this step, it struck me that we had spent months with these documents, and now we had to relinquish them into no-mans-land (aka the United States government).  Oh, and of course there is a pretty hefty per document fee associated with this.

We were given a few options for getting our documents to these two agencies in DC.

1.  Send them ourselves—mailing the packet first to the Dept. of State, waiting for them to come back home, and then mailing them back to the Haitian consulate, and waiting for them to come back home. The longest, most stressful option.

2.  Deliver them by hand to each office, in DC.
We could do this (uh, if we were in DC, which we clearly are not); we could ask people we might know in DC (family, friends, etc.); or we could hire someone.
We opted for the latter option, which to us felt most secure, and hired a courier service that handles this type of work regularly. I will admit, I was picturing Joseph Gordon Levitt as a bike courier (a la Premium Rush), and that may have added to my sense of security. We mailed off our documents, a bunch of money, and a pre-paid return envelope and essentially held our breath for two weeks.  The couriers literally walked our documents into the Dept. of State office, returned to pick them up when they were done, walked them down to the consulate, and picked them up to mail back home to us when this was completed.  This is how our government works, people.

For this, we received from a fancy cover sheet on each document from the DOS, complete with old-timey language like “To all to whom these presents shall come, Greetings” (I couldn’t make that up), and John Kerry’s signature (by way of Matthew, the Assistant Authentication Officer).

From the Haitian consulate, we received a third and final fancy cover sheet on each document, written in French Creole, and affixed with a long red ribbon and a large gold seal sticker. Again, not even kidding. It’s like we won first place! First place in what? Who knows.

So, what’s next?

Our dossier arrived in Haiti the week of June 20^th. At this time, we’re waiting for it to formally accepted by IBESR, which could take a month or two. Then, we wait for an official referral, which is when IBESR lets us know that they believe they’ve found our match--our daughter. It’s very difficult to know how long until this time: it could be a few months; it could be 9 months, or a year. I am part of a Haiti adoption group online, which has about 1,700 members, and only a handful of I800A families on that page have received referrals, as the country continues to close out adoptions under the old I600 process, before Haiti joined the Hague convention. 

Please join us in praying for speed and accuracy into the next steps ahead of us, on this journey (or sending good vibes, or whatever suits your fancy. Anything is appreciated my friends!)