Those four words have defined our adoption process to date and there is nothing new that will change that any time soon.
Chris called me this afternoon...she is sorting through the files she recevied back from HIS House for each of the children. There is nothing in Joshua's file that is worthwhile to us - no birth certificate, no renunciation papers, nothing. Since we are going to complete his adoption here in the US, we have to contact our Haitian lawyer to retrieve our documents from IBESR in Haiti and then give them to Hal and Chris to bring back here for us.
So, now we wait...again. I have contacted our lawyer here to see if we can proceed without these documents. We'll see what he says. All we have for him right now are his refugee resettlement papers.
Now, I ask, why would the US Government take all of the paperwork we will need to complete our adoption here and NOT give them back to us. What if we can't get the information out of Haiti? What if the documents are buried in the bottom of the rubble that was once the Presidential Palace? Then what?
So, now we wait. I've sent e-mails to both lawyers and have asked one to find out if we can proceed here without those documents and the other to see if they can get our files out of IBESR.
This is not the news I wanted to hear, obviously. I was under the impression that all of our documents would be available to us. If only I had made a copy of Joshua's birth certificate before I gave it to the Embassy in Haiti when we signed our I-600. Then I would at least have a copy of that. But no, I don't even have that!
Well, whatever hurdles we must jump now, whatever hoops we must go through, Joshua is here with us as we sort out the paperwork.
Please join us in praying for our papers...that they would be retrieved out of IBESR, that we could proceed without the papers here, that we won't owe a lot to the lawyer in Haiti (she really hadn't done ANYTHING on our file in over a year since it was tied up in the President's office). Thanks.
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