It's my blog and I'll blab if I want to, blab if I want to...

I feel almost apologetic when I am needing to purge myself of the recent paper chase updates on this blog. Then I remember that it is my blog.  And as double reaffirmation (does that equal four?), this blog hasn't even been public anymore for nearly a couple months.  By the time I re-publish this blog nobody will even see this post...SO!  I will ramble here as opposed to some poor soul who has the unfortunate kindness to ask how the adoption is coming.

I don't have a TON to tell since two days ago, but we get our IBESR letter notarized as well as getting our judicial POA re-notarized yesterday!  One of my friends also got her letter of recommendation notarized and in to us yesterday!  Now today Mark's authenticated birth certificate came in the mail and I got a call from our insurance company saying our letter of coverage was "approved" and ready to email out to us.  Of course that was this morning and I haven't gotten it yet, but I'm hopeful to see it by the end of the day.  That insurance letter is the last thing we need before our home study can be finalized, so that's pretty exciting!

Outside of immigration stuff (which is filled out with a cashiers check attached and already in an addressed envelope...just waiting for our home study) - other than that, the only thing we are waiting on are our psych evaluations and our last notarized (and in this case also authenticated) letter of recommendation to arrive in the mail!  That's it!  Then we can get our entire dossier authenticated and translated!  Wahoo!  I'm seeing the light at the end of this paper chase tunnel.

This is a little bit number nerdy, but I was hoping we could have everything done by a week from today.  March 12th.  We found out that our Ethiopian adoption was falling through on November 12th.  After a month of intense research and prayer we turned in our first application to adopt from Haiti with WIAA on December 12th. The time between November and December 12th felt a lot longer than a month because it was intense and emotional.  Lots of lost sleep.  But it was only one month.  And while the last (nearly) three months has felt a little bit longer also because we've intensely worked on getting all our paperwork done...I'm really pleased with the pace.  Getting all our home study and dossier documents gathered and completed in two months is fantastic.  Oh!  And our home study visit with our caseworker happened on January 12th!

So, here's my hope (we'll see what happens):  If we can have our updated home study reviewed and finalized, immigration paperwork submitted, dossier approved by Wasatch and authenticated and sent off to be translated by one week from today...that would be awesome.

Here's to hoping.

A few little baby document steps

It's only been a week since my last update, but I've been having one of those "urgent" weeks where I'm feeling a big push to wrap things up.  Those super motivated pushes have come a small handful of times throughout this process with both Ethiopia and Haiti.  I tend to believe that there is a reason for when those urgent pushes come.  Anyway, of course this one came at a time where I've been sick so that's been a bit of a bummer, but we've still gotten some things done since last week:

• Mark's medical letter got finished and notarized (a nice lady in another office in his building that's a notary offered to go notarize it at Mark's doctor's office).
• Reciprocal power of attorney letters typed up and notarized.
• Judicial power of attorney letters typed up and notarized...except I did something wrong on it, so we will amend the date and try again tomorrow when the notary is working that has the expiration date that we want.
• We gave the last of the information we need to get our psychological evaluation letters written
• Followed up on 2 remaining letters of recommendation that friends have written but need to have notarized.
• Looked up information on how to authenticate a document originating in Michigan and sent appropriate envelopes and checks off for that (to have a letter of recommendation authenticated).
• Wrote our IBESR letter (about ourselves and officially requesting IBESR to adopt a child from their country).
• Followed up TWICE more on our insurance company getting us the letter to verify coverage for our future child (we still don't have it).  I got bounced around on hold each time for more than a half an hour each.  So frustrating.
• I hand delivered all our documents except the aforementioned insurance letter (which I'll take in as soon as I get it) to our agency so our case worker can start completing our home study amendment.  We want to get a jump start on that so we are able to submit our immigration pre-approval paperwork (it has to have a copy of the home study submitted with it).
• I filled out our I 800a application (for immigration) so when our home study is done we are ready to quickly mail it off.

Also!  When I went in to our agency office to deliver our home study documents I was able to meet Chareyl in person.  I've talked to her several times over the phone and emailed with her many more, but I hadn't met her in person.  Just talking to her was such a solidifying re-affirmation that we chose the right agency to guide us through this journey to adopt from Haiti.  I am so impressed with her knowledge of Haiti and the adoption process there, her insight, and just in her as a person in general.  While I know that even the most knowledgable, experienced person on Haitian adoptions can't insulate us from the unpredictability of this process - I do feel like we have the right person at our side to guide us through this journey.  And I'm so grateful for that!


My newest concern is...the likelihood that Homeland Security will be closing for a period of time soon due to lack of funding from gridlock in congress on political issues.  And that is who we send our paperwork to for immigration pre-approval.  Just one more thing you can't anticipate or do anything about I guess, but grrr...

In good news I found out that while we do have to wait for our finalized home study to submit our application to immigration...we don't have to have already attended our fingerprint appointment that they'll assign us and have our favorable determination letter in hand before starting to process our dossier!  That could save us a couple of months on our timeline!  We can be getting our dossier authenticated and translated while we wait for USCIS to process our application and so it's ready to go when we get our FDL.  That was great news!  So, here's to hoping we get that home study wrapped up quickly.

Paper chase update

Nothing that's huge news to tell, but I figured that I'd update anyway.  We're plugging away at all the very exciting (sarcasm) details involved with the paper process:

• 8 passport photos each - check.
• Employment and income verification letter received and notarized - check.
• Bank letter (notarized) with 3 months of statements - check.
• Labs drawn for HIV, hepatitis & syphillis - check.
• Mark's birth certificate mailed back to CA for authentication - check.
• Additional birth certificates ordered - check.
• Marriage license found - check.
• Photos of home and family printed, assembled onto pages, and color copied - check.
• Copies done of passports and drivers licenses - check.
• Mobile notary with acceptable expiration found (that wasn't easy), hired, and met at my doctor's office to notarize her signature with her letter clearing my health - check.
• TB test documented for Mark and performed for me - check.
• Legal information researched, immigration office called to consult with, and information gathered to decide on which USCIS paperwork to use for our situation - check.
• Doctor letters verifying each of our kids' health received - check.
• Letters of recommendation from 4 families requested - check.
• Letter requested from health insurance company verifying that our future child will have coverage immediately upon us taking custody (I had to be pushy/insistent that a document of credible coverage wasn't sufficient).  It has taken weeks to get the letter written and is currently "under review" before it can be sent out to us - almost a check.
• Last 3 years of taxes copied - check.
• Notarized local police clearance - check.
• Judicial and reciprocal power of attorney letters typed, but not yet notarized.

So!  As you can see we've been busy trying to attack this paperwork.  Mark took a fasting blood test today that his doctor required in conjunction with his physical that is scheduled this week.  Mark found a notary in his office building that is willing to come to his doctor appointment to notarize his doctor's signature on his medical letter Friday also.  Once that is done and we finally receive the letter from our health insurance company then our home study documents will be complete and our case worker can finish writing up our home study!

Once our home study is complete we can turn in our I-800a application to immigration.  They will send us an assigned date for more fingerprinting and once that is done we'll wait on their favorable determination letter.  That is what will be holding up our dossier at that point since we are close to having all the other documents that we need for that to be complete.

Once our dossier is complete it will have to be authenticated and translated before it can be sent to Haiti.  So that's where we are in the process!  We're definitely in the hurry up and wait part of the adoption process.  We feel like we're frantically hurrying to get together all the paperwork we need...so that we can start waiting :)

Pain in the butt, BUT...

Some days I'm less enthused than others about having to start this paper chase part of the process over again.  New background checks (no we didn't become criminals in the last 2 years).  Asking the same people to write another letter of recommendation.  Getting new physicals and letters from employers.  Notarizing every document under the sun etc, etc...

You get the idea.  It's a bit tedious.  Then there's that BUT...

BUT I still feel like there has been His hand in the timing of things.  And here is yet another way I've seen that:

When we found out that our adoption journey with Ethiopia could no longer continue and decided that adopting from Haiti was the right thing for our family...the next step was choosing an agency.  After researching online and communicating with several families who had adopted or were in the adoption process from Haiti, I felt like Diana Boni from ABI was who I wanted to facilitate our adoption.  Unfortunately when I contacted them I found out that they had no more openings for children in our age parameters.  We also contacted another agency that several families said good things about and they were very helpful and quick about getting back to us.  We were tempted to just jump on board and get going, but I was really hesitant for some reason.  One thing that concerned me was the large number of families this agency had in process, but they assured me that there are more children in Haiti in need than there are families looking to adopt.  Based on our prior experience being at the end of a large program list with Ethiopia, I was still nervous about this.

As I continued researching and interviewing people I began to look into WIAA (who happened to be our in state agency that completed our home study for our Ethiopian adoption) and was interested, but hesitant based on the lack of families I was able to talk to who had used them.  We spent a few weeks researching (made some great connections including one from someone I know well!) and got good information.  I even got the guts to ask Diana Boni what agencies she recommended since we couldn't use them.  She gave me a list of 4 agencies she deems as the most ethical and experienced.  The agency I mentioned earlier was not on that list, and WIAA was.  After contacting a list of references, lot of thought and prayer we decided to move forward with WIAA.  They accepted our application and we contracted with them.  I couldn't be more excited about working with Wasatch and particularly Chareyl Moyes who heads up the Haiti program.  Her years of extensive knowledge and experience working in Haiti more than makes up for her self-admitted lacking of "fluffy email updates" to families during the waiting process.

Now!  Here's the point I was getting to...just days after we contracted with WIAA we find out that new quotas being enforced on the Haiti side of things...only 12 dossiers per agency may be submitted per year, and only 5 additional for special needs cases (it used to be more of a suggested quota and then unlimited additional applications for special needs).  This put the larger agencies I mentioned in a place where they have had to stop accepting applications.  ABI has enough families that their dossier quota is filled through the end of 2016 and the other agency I mentioned who had an even larger number of families in process is now going to have to hold many of their families dossiers for a significant length of time before they can even submit them to Haiti and begin their wait.  I am grateful that we went with the agency we did.  Not only did I feel like they will provide an ethical adoption, and that they have a lot of years of experience in Haiti...but because they keep their program smaller we won't run into hold ups on the U.S. side of thing before we even enter the chaos of the Haiti side of things.  I feel for these families I'm hearing from on message boards that are now trying to decide whether to switch agencies or wait out the long additional wait before they can submit to Haiti and even start the "real" wait.

So!  I wrote all of that out for myself.  Basically all that I'm saying is that yes it's a pain to start this paper chase over, but I still feel like we've been blessed.  I feel like the Lord helped guide us where we are through our experiences with our failed adoption and that we are on track now.  A long road still ahead, but on track.  And that feels good.

New entry

I updated the pictures on the wall in our entry a couple weeks ago and just realized I should post pictures of it here!

New entry photos as we enter this new part of our family's story.

We're all very excited to watch things unfold.

Out of the mouth of babes.

Out of the blue while looking at our family picture hanging in the front room.

Noah: "Mom...I like this picture, but sometimes I look at it and it just feels like someone is missing."

Me: (after choking back a little emotion) "I know what you mean, buddy.  I know what you mean."

Hesitant to share

After being so open about our adoption from Ethiopia and then having it fail has made me hesitant to share our feelings about being drawn to adopt from Haiti now.  Maybe I fear seeing apathy from friends or family that aren't sure that this adoption will go through either.  Maybe I want to wait until things are a little further down the road so that the already insanely long wait is a little shorter (I don't want people to get sick of hearing me talk about another pending adoption when there's not really much information to tell).  So, I've made this blog private again so I have somewhere to put down my feelings and I'll share the blog again when the time is right.  Maybe that will be sooner than I think, or maybe it won't.  In the meantime, here's where we are...

After reviewing every option out there for us (including considering that our family could be complete...which we didn't feel was the case) we narrowed things down to another domestic adoption or an adoption from Haiti.  As we continued to interview people, track down references, research things, pray, attend the temple, and just talk about it - it became clearer and clearer to us that Haiti was right for our family.

At first the idea of starting over was daunting especially considering the state of adoption in Haiti (they recently joined the Hague convention and last year instated all new adoption laws which are being enforced in varying degrees).  Plus there is the unstable political atmosphere of Haiti in general.  At one point I made a list of all the reasons why adopting from Haiti was risky, or would be stressful...and somehow those things couldn't outweigh the feeling that it was still right for us.  So, we are consigned to a path of unknown length with the only sure thing being that there will be unexpected delays and frustrating hoops to jump...but that in the end we will understand why this whole crazy adoption journey happened the way it did.

I like this quote.  When I get discouraged about the wait for our family to start over, I think of it...

Now, there was also the dilemma of selecting an agency.  We feel really good about using Wasatch International Adoptions.  Originally we looked into them simply because we used them to prepare our home study for our Ethiopian adoption (our agency was in Oregon and you have to have a home study prepared in the state you reside).  Once I started doing research more in depth on agencies I was impressed with the ethics and experience they have - particularly their director Chareyl.  WIAA is one of the agencies that has been facilitating adoptions in Haiti for a very long time, and Chareyl for a decade.  Many agencies opened sometime after the earthquake (which happened in 2010).  Chareyl has a good handle not only on the legal proceedings, but also the culture there and has adopted from Haiti herself.  She is self admittedly not into providing "fluffy" emails during the adoption process, but she will be the one to make things happen when the rubber meets the road.  I feel cautious optimism about the whole process we're embarking upon and feel that we've found the right partner to join up with in WIA as we jump into the unknown.

The process in Haiti is ever changing and inconsistent.  There is no waitlist number and there seems to be no rhyme or reason to what agency or family is given the next referral.  Everything is processed by hand (no computers), with so many required steps to complete that means each step can take a frustratingly long time or be difficult to complete.  I believe that Haiti is doing the best it can with the resources it has to protect its children and monitor a system that can be so prone to corruption.  New laws and Hague accreditation is a great step in that direction.

So!  We are as aware as one can be at this stage of the process about what we are jumping into and how challenging it will be, but we are excited.  And I have already begun to fall in love with what I know about the colorful resilient country that is Haiti!  We have also begun the process of selecting a child to sponsor for an education.  We would like to choose a child with an intact family that cannot afford to provide their child an education.  We have always felt strongly that when adopting a child from another country that you don't only adopt a child, but their country also.  We feel like that is one small step that we can take to tie ourselves to that country, and to start the process of helping make  fundamental change to a country so riddled with poverty (poorest country in the western hemisphere).    Adopting a child will help that child (and bless our family), but adoption isn't the solution to the country's struggle with poverty.  I believe that a huge solution is access to education.  The government does not provide education and private education (even a just a few hundred dollars a year) is more than most families' annual salaries.

Anyway!  As you can see we have already begun to bond with another country :)  More to come soon...