It's June 15th. We've been in IBESR seven months and one week... praying and waiting. It's Friday. For most, Friday is the day of the week you look forward to. For most of us on the adoption road, Fridays mean a coming silence.
Don't get me wrong. Everyone needs time off and down days. Everyone needs time to refresh and renew. But on this journey, those silent days are not days you look forward too. You look forward to Mondays and a whole new week of possible news. But even though we don't look forward to them we need Fridays.
We hold our breath Monday mornings to Friday evenings. When Friday nights come we need to take a deep breath. Sometimes like stubborn children we stomp our feet and say "I don't want to." But thankfully, breathing is something our big smart Daddy made happen naturally. And just like breathing, weekends will come even if we try and hold our breath a little longer. He always knows what we need even when we don't want it.
There has been a few "happenings" in Haiti over the last month pertaining to adoption. At the beginning of last month IBESR (the office in Haiti in which our paperwork waits) temporarily stopped taking new dossiers. Originally they had planned to close from May 7th until the end of June, but have moved the end date to July 30th.
On the surface, closure doesn't sound like a good thing. But the intention of this temporary closing is so that the office can take this time of not accepting new cases to complete the cases they already have in their office. With a new president dealing with chaos, a system with pits and forgotten cobwebbed corners, and a new director of IBESR having to clean house and concentrate on making sure the children of Haiti in orphanages are safe, there is a backlog in cases.
There are those we know who have been waiting in this office for over a year. The new director stated in a meeting that it is their intention to also get the dispensations from the president that are needed for families to move out of IBESR and into Parquet (court) where families receive their official adoption decree.
So far, during this closure, our orphanage received word of one family getting their dispensation. This family has been waiting almost a year so this was very good news to hear. Their progress brings hope to us and the other families waiting to see movement during this temporary closure.
This past weekend the internet was abuzz with word that President Martelly was going to ratify the Hague Convention on Monday in honor of "Children's Day" in Haiti. And this did happen on Monday as planned. There is a lot of "ifs" and "buts" that are following this move. In other countries when they have ratified the Hague before they were ready and able to comply with the rules and regulations that come with the Hague, other countries have (further down the road) pulled out of adoptions from the country.
Haiti doesn't plan on stopping international adoptions and has been working hard to make the changes they need. I don't see them getting it all done in the 90-day grace period they have after signing. It has taken other countries years and years,. But at least they are trying and working toward the goal. I also do not see the US pulling out of adoptions in Haiti. In the past they have allowed adoptions in progress to proceed. So we are not worried about things on the US side.
As far as the Haiti side of things, our prayer is that we will continue to see movement during the closure and that we will receive our dispensation and approval during the 90-day grace period. Our agency has told us that, usually, any adoptions in progress are "grandfathered" in and any new changes that are made will not affect us even if we do not get out of this office in the 90 days.
A part of me has to laugh. We have been at this for three and half years. We have weathered false information, an earthquake, government "red tape", Humanitarian Parole denial, disruptions, restarts, policy changes, and now Hague. And do you know what I have to say about that .....OUR GOD IS BIGGER!
