Tears of Joy

After weeks of emailing the US Embassy in Haiti trying to find out about our kid’s immigration visas and hearing no reply, I contacted one of our Senators. A representative from his office sent an urgent email in April. No one responded. Monday night, in frustration, I went up the chain-of-command. No, I didn’t email President Bush or Condoleezza Rice! But, my email hit the right office. Tuesday morning, I had a response from the lady in Haiti.

And today:

Please be informed that we have extended appointments for the final immigrant visa interviews of these adoptive children to the C*****’ agent in Port au Prince.

Sincerely,
Adoptions Unit

Did you notice that there isn’t a date and time of the appointment? For those reading my blog for the sole reason of checking on my adoption because you are adopting from Haiti too. One of the things I did learn was:

“As you are probably aware, there is no legal or other requirement that adoptive parents travel to Haiti to attend the final immigrant visa interview. Because of the fluid security situation, we strongly suggest that adoptive parents wait for the visa(s) to be issued and in the hands of their adoption agent prior to traveling to Haiti to pick up their adoptive child or children. Please refer to the most recent information on Haiti at travel.state.gov.”

My husband is traveling this week and won’t be home until Friday. I have had my adoption coordinator wire money to Dr. Bernard’s bank account so that someone from the orphanage can pay for and pick up the children’s visas. When I hear that the visas are in their hot little hands, I will make travel arrangements to go down and pick up Beverly and David! While we are there, we will meet with both David’s and Beverly’s mother. I selected Newlife Link because the adoption process was transparent and open, unusual in International Adoptions. We will also visit the orphanage.

I will not be blogging until after I return home. I have a ton of stuff to do! Where is my mother when I need her? She is born organized and stays on task like no one I know. That’s not true, I married a man with the same quality. He is out of town too. I need to put on my professional, list-making, task-oriented self and get going. I am not at all comfortable with that person, but I lived her for almost 20-years. So, I guess I can do it for a week.

Our Dossier was in Haiti in the first week of September 2005; that means from start to finish our adoption took 33-months. When we started the time frame, from referral to bringing your children home, was typically 9 months. When we accepted our referral in December 2005, I was planning on kids by the following September 2006. My Dad died on September 1, 2006. My was that year different than what I planned.

I hope to return to blogging when I get back home. I enjoy writing; I find it relaxing and brain-stimulating. I don’t know how active I will be. Thank you all for your prayer coverage!