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Thursday, August 21, 2008

Waiting.

Is there another word which more appropriately encompasses the reality of the adoption experience?

Waiting for acceptance with an agency.
Waiting for birth certificates, medical exams, homestudy reports.
Waiting for legalizations, reviews, and mailings.
Waiting for word that you've entered Step One.
Waiting for word that you've exited Step One.
Waiting for word that you've entered Step Two.
And so on, and so forth ...

Most of all, waiting to hold your children in your arms.

Below is a listing of the steps in Haitian adoption after a family's dossier has arrived in Haiti, as recorded on the blog of another adoptive family. As you can see, there is a huge variance on timeframes. Some people fly through certain steps, while others languish for months beyond the average wait time. It is a system which is frustrating, nerve-wracking, and ultimately forces us to remember that GOD controls the hearts of kings and the hands of time ...
1) First Legal - 1 to 4 weeks.
2) IBESR - 3 to 12 months.
3) Second Legal - 1 to 4 weeks.
4) Parquet- 1 to 14 months.
5) MOI- 1 to 3 months.
6) US Visas issued - While this is a 24 hour step for Canadian citizens and less than a week for French citizens, it has taken up to several months for American citizens. (This is not a Haitian step but one carried out by representatives of the adoptive parents' home country.)

2 comments:

Kathy Cassel said...

There is a lot of stuff between all those steps too. There's a big gap between exiting parquet (which I haven't done yet) and going into MOI because a lot has to be verified. And there are other things like right now our birth dad needs to go for his interview but they either can't find him or he doesn't have proper identification. That could take months to get.

Dawn S. said...

Yes, WAITING. But time is nothing to God and He will bring us our children in HIS perfect timing so hang in there. I can say that to you because I have no one to tuck in at night...my arms ache, too. HUGS