Adoption News

23 June 2009

We received 10 children out of IBESR today!  HURRAY!!!   Alexandra, Wodna, Kenderson, Mackensley, Kervens, Saraphina, Naïka, Odnelson, Odeleine, and Wadson!   

Isn't this wonderful?  Finally some good news after months of very little movement on adoptions.  All of the dossiers that were signed below in my 5 June blog are in Parquet.  Now, we are just waiting for Parquet to ask for the parents, and we will pray that we can find the parent's quickly so that they can be signed out of Parquet in record time!

We have received several admissions in the last 2 weeks but mostly sibling groups and little boys.  Where are all of the little girls?  We still have a long waiting list of families wanting little girls.  But our little boy list is very very short.  I think there are only 2 families wanting little boys who do not have one yet!

Please keep praying that adoptions will continue to move out of IBESR, Parquet, and MOI and my biggest prayer is that the new law will pass soon and it will be a good law.

5 June 2009

Finally, we heard back from Parquet about the dossiers that were signed by IBESR without the dispensation attached.  Our lawyer said that no dossiers were being signed without the dispensation.  She said that those we received got the dispensation through IBESR.  They just did not attach the authorization to the dossier.  Parquet returned the dossiers to IBESR and asked them to attach the dispensation inside the dossier.

Then last week, we received 7 more dossiers out of IBESR and no dispensations were attached!  So, all of the dossiers must have the dispensation attached to the inside of the front page of the dossier.  We are sad that we are still have to wait for dispensations but happy that we have received several dossiers out this past week! 

We have not heard officially about the meeting that was supposed to take place between Parquet and IBESR.  When I hear something, I will post it here.

14 May 2009

We received 4 dossiers out of IBESR where the families have biological children and we did not need a dispensation!  We talked to Parquet and they are saying that they are honoring a moratorium on all dossiers that arrived in IBESR by October 2008 and not requiring a dispensation for them!  We took the 4 dossiers to Parquet today.  Now we must wait to see if they actually will go ahead and sign the dossiers!  One of these files has been in IBESR since January 2007!  This is great news if they actually honor the moratorium and grandfather these dossiers through on the old policies that were ineffect at the time.  This is also supposed to include all dossiers rejected by Parquet due to biological children back in 2008.

Keep praying because we have a lot of dossiers sitting in IBESR waiting for a dispense.  This ruling would be a small gift from God if it truly is the policy fo now!

16 April 2009

I am very disappointed.  The meeting yesterday  between IBESR and Parquet did not resolve any issues about dispensations.  Our lawyer told us that they are meeting again at the end of May and at that time will resolve the issue of acceptable criteria for adoptive parents such as age, length of marriage and number of children.  They have been telling us they were going to do something for so long that I feel like nothing is ever going to change!

Some good news is that we received another dispensation for a child in IBESR!  They are getting approved one at a time!  We have never seen the 50 that rumor had it was signed a couple of weeks ago, but I will accept a few at a time for now.

11 April 2009

News this last week has been that on April 15 there will be a meeting between IBESR and Parquet about the issue of dispensations.  We were told that hopefully the decision will be made to go ahead and sign all dossiers up through December 2008 without having to have the dispensations!  I will post what  we hear after the meeting.

I also heard this week that a special "investigator" for the prime minister's office is looking into the problems with adoptions.  This investigator has interviewed the president of the association of orphanages.  We will just have to wait and see if this helps make a difference in the speed of adoptions.

It is impossible  for me to believe that going from 3 months for an adoption to finish in 2001 to 18 to 20 months for an adoption in 2008/2009 is better for the children!  UNICEF has stated at meetings that it needs to be longer to make sure everything is done legally.  What does the length of time have to do with doing it right? 

Dossiers continue to move through the system except for IBESR and dispensations.  I gave 5 proposals this week!  We have more little boys than little girls as always!  So those families who requested a little girl, please continue to be patient.  We will give you a proposal as soon as we can.

1 April 2009

I started work this morning with several emails telling me that 50 dossiers were given dispensation on Tuesday!  This was reported on another web site.  Our adoption worker had been to check on dispensations on Tuesday and was told that new ones had not come out.  I had a hard time believing that 50 were signed in one day when the pattern has been 2 to 6 at a time!  But I also believe in miracles and so was really praying that a miracle had taken place!   I sent Terriot, our adoption worker, back to the office of the Moniteur to see if it was true.  Well, 2 for GLA did come out but only 6 were signed.  Now, from the time dispensations are given to when they are published in the newspaper, The Moniteur, is about 1 week.  So maybe next week, we will actually get the Moniteur that says 50 dispensations were given.  But for right now, we see no proof that 50 dispensations were actually given yesterday.  But keep praying that this rumor is actually true!

With the two dispensations that we received today, that makes four dispensations that we have received.  This is good news but we still need 24 more!

Magalie Francois, our Haitian administrator, leaves for maternity leave starting this Friday.  She does a lot of the work getting consents, birth certificates, process verbals, and going to Parquet.  We will be taking over this work while she is gone for the next 3 months.  We have several other workers and Dixie who will try to fill her shoes while she is becoming a mommy for the first time.  Please pray for her because her baby is breech and she must have a C-Section.

17 March 2009

Good News today!  One of our dossiers received a dispensation!  Hopefully, this is just the first of many that will signed in the next few weeks.  We heard that there are around 200 dossiers waiting for dispensation and so far 19 have been given dispensations in the last 2 weeks.  I really need my families to be praying that our dossiers will be given the dispensations needed in the next few weeks and that they can then move on to Parquet.

We only have a couple of dossiers in Parquet.  Parquet is signing dossiers quickly as soon as we bring the biological parents in for their interview.  Parquet is requiring us to bring the parents in.  I know that some orphanages are not taking all of their parents in but it is supposed to be required for everyone and we want to make sure and do this right.  The US Embassy especially is checking to see that the orphanages are doing what is required.

MOI has returned to taking about 3 months to get the authorization to print the passports.  It had gone down to 6 weeks but since Christmas has taken more time.  If they could do them in 6 weeks before Christmas why is it taken twice that amount of time now?

Our lawyer said that someone from the French Embassy made inquiries with all of the different sections of Haitian government concerning adoptions and why it was taking so long.  She was acted like the government did not think the process was so long but I told her that I am HAPPY that someone finally is stepping in and making inquiries of why IBESR is taking more than a year to approve some dossiers, Parquet was taking more than 6 months, MOI more than 3 months!  That is way too long for an adoption is ANY country!  Thank you, French Embassy personel!

I would like to ask everyone to pray for adoptions in Haiti every morning for the next month and ask God to take control of the situation and put the children and their needs first!

5 March 2009

I am so sorry that I have not written anything for a month.  We have had several children go home in the past month and several dossiers have come out of Parquet.  We even have had a couple visas issued at the US  Embassy which has been so difficult for us this past year!

Our biggest problem right now is with dossiers stuck in IBESR waiting for presidential dispensation.  Dossiers sat in IBESR for months before it was finally decided that all dossiers that did not meet the criteria of the law of 1974 would have to have a presidential dispensation.  This was done in December 2008.  Now it has been 3 months and we still have not heard any news about when the dispense will be given.  A rumor we heard today was that some dispensations have been given this week but nobody knows to whom.  Nobody at our association meeting today has received a dispense.  So it may just be a rumor!

The Association of Creches met today and a letter was drafted and signed and will be delivered to the Commissioner of the Parquet in Port-au-Prince.  We hope and pray that he will respond to our letter favorably and address some of the concerns and difficulties that we are all having with our dossiers in Parquet. 

I have several proposals to send out in the next couple of days.  Thankfully, my waiting list is getting shorter and shorter! 

5 February 2009

Yesterday, there was a meeting at Parquet with IBESR present and about 20 creche directors.  It is disappointing when only 20 directors out of 67 creches come to these meetings.  One reason the turn out was probably low was that Mme Yva Samedy's, director of one of the Haitian orphanages, husband's funeral was taking place at the same time.  He was kidnapped and killed in PAP last week.

They could not tell us about the dispensations.  They said that this was for the Minister of Justice's office to give us word on them.  Everyone expressed their concerns and the problems we are having.  Nothing was resolved.  It is the same thing at every meeting.  They told us the moratorium on accepting dossiers that did not meet the 1974 law was finished.  We said that it never really was in place.  All of the dossiers that should have been covered with the moratorium were returned to us and are now in dispensation.  What was the moratorium for if not to pass through these dossiers that have been in process for such a long time? 

Finally, the commissioner over Parquet in PAP came in and said that since there seemed to be so many problems with Parquet and IBESR, he asked that those present at the meeting write a letter to Parquet and they would work with IBESR to find resolutions to the problems.

These same discussions have been going on since Commissioner Gassant was head of Parquet.  Two years ago July, we had meetings with the same end results...nothing changed!

I suggested having an office where we could take families and have them actually talk to a representative of IBESR and Parquet at the beginning of the process.  This would eliminate trying to find parents after the children are in the orphanage 1 to 2 years.  Sometimes, parents do not come to visit!  Then we have to hire an investigator to go out and search for the parents.  Even that does not work sometimes. 

But this would be too simple, too practical, and might actually work!   So we continue to work with the system that we have in place as chaotic as it is! 

For those of our parents waiting for a referral, I have lots of baby boys that have come in and will be giving lots of proposals in the next week.  I have not had many little girls come to the orphanage lately.  There is a long waiting list for girls.  Please be patient and we are praying for a baby for you.

27 January 2009

NOTICE: Room and Board for all adoptive parents staying at GLA is being raised to $50 USD per person per night.  This includes 3 meals per day. There is also a $100  USD per person fee for Security, and a $25 USD per family (not per person) charge for transportation/fuel cost. 

15 January 2009

Effective immediately all adoption fees will be increased to $10,500 USD per child.  The first deposit of $5000 will not be refundable.  This increase allows us to continue to provide the quality of care that we have always provided to the children.  These rates are comparable to other orphanages who have the same high standards as GLA. 

We find that non-adoption related donations have fallen off this last year, due to the economy,  making it impossible to run the orphanage on the former adoption fees.  The children are staying at the orphanage an average of 20 months.  The adoption fees are not covering the costs, and the non-adoption related donations used to make up the difference.  This is no longer the case.

9 January 2009

We have received several visas in the last few weeks.  Children have left to France, Holland, and the USA!  We received 4 American Visas today!  That is so exciting since these are the most difficult visas to receive!  They take three times as long to process as any other country!

I received 3 dossiers out of Parquet today.  This is also a blessing since Parquet has been closed for 2 weeks over the Christmas and New Years holidays. 

IBESR still has not received any dispensations from the President's office.  We did not know how long it would take and we are praying that any day now they will start signing the dispensations and releasing the dossiers in IBESR.

26 December 2008

IBESR is working but with limited staff during the holidays.  I do not know if we will see progress on files before January.  We are still waiting on dispensations from the President's office.  I am anxious to receive the first dispensations to be given so we will have some idea how long it will take to get them.

Parquet is closed until January 5.  We took parents down for their interview on December 24 and they were already closed.  We were surprised because all of the government offices are supposed to be open until noon on the 24th!  We must wait now until after the 5th to take the parents again.

MOI is really doing well getting dossiers out and signed.  It is now taking about 6 weeks and sometimes even less in MOI.  This is a GREAT improvement over the 6 to 12 months it was taking last year!

Let us all pray that 2009 will bring a quicker adoption process, and that the new law will be voted on and legalized.  Then, most of the current problems with adoptions will be eliminated!!

27 November 2008

Today is American Thanksgiving and we celebrated in many ways here in Haiti.  One big way was when we received the news that IBESR and Parquet had their meeting today and decided that they would honor a moratorium on all dossiers that go into IBESR by January 7, 2009.  IBESR has agreed to ask for dispensation for all dossiers not fitting the law of 1974 if in IBESR before this date.  With them doing this, it should go quicker than if each orphanage asked for dispensation dossier by dossier.  IBESR will ask for dispensation in batches. 

So tomorrow morning, we will send all dossiers that  were returned by Parquet to IBESR and they will apply for the dispensation.  This is wonderful news and makes today a GREAT Thanksgiving Day for us and all adoptive parents!

19 November 2008

As far as we have heard, the director of IBESR still has not had a meeting with Mr. Mazar in Parquet.  So...I have no news for you yet about the Presdiential dispensation.  We have given some dossiers to our lawyer to ask for a dispensation.  We cannot wait for IBESR and Parquet to come to an agreement and  for them to tell us that they will allow the adoptions that are stalled to be approved!  So we have asked our lawyer to go ahead and apply for a Presidential dispensation.  The Association of Creches has proposed to IBESR that a committee be set up to review dossiers in IBESR and pull the ones that need a dispensation and get them sent quickly for the dispense.  We do not know if IBESR will accept this yet.

An American group is here  today and was to have a meeting with IBESR.  Mrs. Bernard Pierre did not show up for their meeting.  It is very difficult to get anything done when you cannot meet with officials.

We have received several dossiers out of IBESR and MOI this week.  It is nice to see some dossiers continue to move through the system, but it is sad to watch others get stuck in the system.  My heart goes out to the children who have to wait so much longer for the government to decide if they can be together with their forever family!

11 November 2008

Today, our meeting with Mrs. Bernard Pierre was a good one.  Several things were clarified for us and Mrs. Bernard Pierre says that she will ask Parquet to give us a moratorium on all dossiers that pass IBESR in 2008.  She will ask that all dossiers that IBESR approves be allowed to finish the process. 

She said that if a couple has a letter of sterility and if at least one of the couple is 30 years old, then they will allow the couple to adopt without any problems.  After the moratorium is through, then all dossiers that do not meet the requirements of the law of 1974 will need a Presidential dispensation (pardon). 

We need to push for the new law that is in the works to be finished and passed.  Instead of the French and American Embassies trying to put roadblocks in the path of each adoption going to their countries, they could help us push to get the new law passed and we could have a new updated law to work with that would allow us to help all of the children waiting for families.