Adoption News

July 28, 2008

We have had several more dossiers come out of MOI in the past 2 weeks.  We are thankful that at least MOI seems to be approving dossiers.  We should be getting passports and visas for these children soon.  It will be good to have some empty beds at the orphanage for children to be admitted!

Parquet will not be closed for 2 months as I previously wrote.  The orphanage directors met with Parquet on Friday and we were told that they would not be closed.  We are very thankful that they decided not to close for 2 months!

Due to some problems with orphan investigations for some American families, GLA has decided to ask American parents to file their I-600 in Haiti or file it early in the USA and ask USCIS to be in the "Adjudicate Orphan First" program.

For the families who want to file their I-600 in Haiti, you will need to contact us to coordinate your travel to Haiti.  You need to email Laurie to find out which dates we have room in our guesthouse.  We must then contact the USCIS office in Haiti ahead of your travel and let them know the dates you will be in Haiti, so that they can give us an appointment for you to file your I-600.  On the day of your appointment, you must bring the following:

For the Adjudicate Orphan First process, the I-600 can be filed any time in the US and the parent must request "Adjudicate Orphan First" in a letter attached to the I-600 when filed.  The orphan determination investigation (I-604) will be requested by the stateside USCIS office and the office in Haiti will communicate the findings directly to the US office.  Once the request is received, USCIS office in Haiti will contact the orphanage for the birth parent interview and the submission of the documents.  Once the stateside USCIS office receives the orphan investigation report from USCIS Haiti, they will include it in the I-600 file until they approve it and send it to the Consular Section through the National Visa Center.

July 18, 2008

We received 10 dossiers out of MOI today!  Ten children closer to being united with their forever families.  We were really surprised because the dossiers had only been in MOI for a few months.  This is great news for us and for the families waiting to take these children home!  Now, we just need to get the passports printed and the visas issued! 

We received some disturbing news from Parquet yesterday.  We were told that Parquet will not be working on any adoptions dossiers from August 1st until October.  We do not know the reasoning, but heard that one of the Embassies was involved in the decision.  We are trying to find out more information and I will post as soon as I hear what is going on.  We have several dossiers in Parquet and we are trying to find out if they will finish the ones they have in Parquet already or if these families must wait until October to get their dossiers signed.  Watch next week for more information.

June 26, 2008

Dear Donors and Parents,
 
We are finally seeing adoptions move through the system.  We are still having some problems in IBESR and Parquet, but nothing like last year.  We still are not taking new applications from adoptive parents because of our waiting list.  Because of this, we do not have very much adoption money coming into the orphanage.  The orphanage is funded through adoption money and general donations.
 
The donations for the orphanage are down. We feel this is due probably to economic recession.   We are suffering because of the rise in food costs and fuel costs.  We have $4000 in the general fund to buy food and take care of the children.  That is not even enough for a month of expenses!
 
Other orphanages are asking adoptive parents to pay more than $500 per month for child care in addition to the adoption expenses.  They are asking this due to the length of time adoptions are taking and the rise in costs for caring for the children. We do not want to do ask for a monthly child care fee if we can help it.
 
But we are asking all parents and donors to please sit down and send a donation today to help feed the children and run the orphanage.  We need the funds sent to go toward the General Fund account. 
 
Send whatever God puts on your heart to send.  These funds will be used for the operation of the orphanage in Haiti.
 
I am not a person who writes often asking for emergency funds, but I feel a desperation right now.  I know God will provide, but I feel that I need to let everyone know our situation.  I have faith that God will speak to you about what you should do to help.
 
For those that cannot give anything, then please pray for our needs every day.  God will answer those prayers and the funds needed will come.  You receive these updates because you have a heart for the children of Haiti.  Pray for the children.
 
And Life in Haiti goes on...

May 21, 2008

I will no longer be giving such detailed updates about GLA families' adoption process on the web site.  Adoptive parents using other orphanages, who are reading this site or maybe getting information from the different adoption forums, are passing on misinformation and also confronting Haitian officials quoting my remarks about my families. 

One example is the 30 children that we sent home this year.  Those children had been waiting for passports for over 9 months.  The ones that came out of parquet had been there 12 months.  They were just finally approved all at the same time.  These adoptions had not gone quicker than any other orphanages.  They just happened to get approved at the same time.  It was presented to the Haitian authorities as if GLA had received preferential treatment! 

Important general information, I will still post here.  Just another day in our life in Haiti...

April 21, 2008

Five (5) children's dossiers came out of Parquet today!  These had all been there since December 2007.  We have 21 dossiers in Parquet at this time, but only five are left there from 2007.  Parquet has asked us to find some of the families of these children and that takes time. We pray that these dossiers will be signed soon. 

IBESR still has many dossiers there that have been there since last year.  These are families with biological children.  Our lawyer said that hopefully, most of these dossiers will be signed and come out this week.

MOI has really been taking about 3 months recently. 

We are hopeful that adoptions will start going a little faster in the next few months.  Please keep the children and their adoptive families in your prayers.

April 7, 2008

Six (6) children's dossiers were approved at Parquet today!  Now we only have 3 dossiers left from last summer in Parquet.  Hopefully, they will come out in the next batch!  Today has been a good day for dossiers!  We are all very happy.

April 4, 2008

Five (5) more children's dossiers came out of Parquet today.  These are dossiers that have been blocked because of the adoptive parents having biological children.  We are supposed to receive the other 8 on Monday.  We will pray that this is true.

April 3, 2008

There was a meeting with the Minister of Interior and all of the orphanages.  They addressed all of the problems that we are having getting passports for adopted children.  The Minister said he was not aware of the problems and asked the lawyer for the Ministry of Interior why it takes 6 months to get passports for these cases.  He then told the lawyer that unless there are problems with a dossier, they must approve it within 1 month.  The Director of Immigration was also at the meeting.

The Minister agreed that the dossiers did not need to be studied again once IBESR and Parquet had approved them.  They just needed to look for erros and quickly process the passports.  Hopefully, this will actually help and we will see passports come out quicker.

The 12 dossiers that we had in Parquet did not come out last week.  The secretary is working on the forms that Mr. Mazar has to sign.  They were supposed to be done today and we can pick them up tomorrow.  Everything moves in "Haitian" time and we all just need to understand that the urgency that we feel about getting these dossiers out of each section of the government is NOT necessarily felt by the government personel who processes them!

Mme Beaudin has not been at IBESR this past week.  This is why some dossiers that were promised have not been signed.  The lawyer is checking every day with her office.

I am optimistic about adoptions moving forward.  It is good to see some movement in Parquet and MOI.

Now if we could just get the visas issued a little faster!

And life in Haiti goes on... 

March 27, 2008

Hallelujah!  Six (6) children's dossiers came out of Parquet today.  Several are from May 2007!  We received one (1) at the end of last week that had been in Parquet 13 months!  There are another 12 that they told us yesterday will be signed tomorrow and we can come and get them on Monday or Tuesday.  We had 18 dossiers stuck in Parquet, so this will be all of the ones that have been in there for so long.  It is really good to see movement in Parquet!

IBESR also is signing dossiers that have been there for several months.  We have not received them in our hands yet, but have been told that Mme Beaudin has signed them and we will be receiving them soon.

Now, we just need passports to go quicker!

March 20, 2008

IBESR has been fighting for all of the children stuck in Parquet.  They have met with the Minister of Justice and we heard that they even went to the President's office trying to find a resolution to the problems in Parquet.  We were also told that Mr. Gassant has been told to work on the dossiers that have been sitting in Parquet for so long and get them finished! 

The Association of orphanages asked for a meeting with Mr. Gassant and Mr. Mazar on Thursday of this week.   The association sent a petion to Mr. Gassant asking for a meeting to plead the case for the children and adoptive families.  When talking to Mr. Gassant, he really did not say much that was new.  Presidential dispensation was mentioned and Mr. Gassant said that he did not recognize this at Parquet.  It's part of the adoption law, so not quite sure why he would say this?  He and Mr. Mazar did say that they are working on the 60 blocked dossiers at this time and we need to be checking with the secretary frequently to see when we can bring biological parents for the interview at Parquet.  This is wonderful news!  Maybe now, we can get these dossiers through the courts and into Immigration!  Some for GLA have been sitting in Parquet since May 2007!

IBESR also said that they will now sign dossiers that have been sitting at IBESR for the last 7 months.  We were told that they would start signing these now and have them to us within the next week.  Let us pray that they do go quickly.  They were holding some dossiers of families with more than 1 child until they had resolved the issue with Parquet.

Parquet does not want to recognize IBESR's authority.  That is the underlying issue.  This is something that they are going to have to resolve between them.  There is nothing that outside forces can do.

Visa at the US Consulate is still taking longer than usual.  I think they are trying to work on some internal issues that are causing delays, but it is slow going. 

Let us keep all of the government agencies, both Haitian and foreign, in our prayers. 

February 15, 2008

Good News!  Four more dossiers came out of MOI today!  That leaves only 12 dossiers left in MOI waiting for approval.  This is VERY good news.

February 14, 2008

Last week was a good week.  We received 4 passports from Immigration, 2 dossiers came out of MOI, and 1 dossier out of Parquet that has been there for a very long time! 

Our lawyer had the meeting with Parquet and she argued the case that Parquet should be following the constitution and law concerning adoptions.  They agreed that they should be following the law, as it exists.  However, they did not give a timeframe to do this. 

The lawyer says that a number of people are working to arrange a meeting with IBESR to explain that we need IBESR to lean on Parquet to get them to follow through on their committment.  We will let you know when the meeting is set up so you can all pray for a good outcome.

February 9, 2008

Good News!  Ten (10) dossiers came out of MOI on Friday which means 10 passports went for printing! 

We are still having problems with Parquet.  If the adoptive family has more than 1 child, the Parquet officer does not want to sign the dossier.  Our lawyer along with another lawyer had a meeting with IBESR about the problem of Parquet holding dossiers.  IBESR told them that according to the constitution and law, IBESR has the authority to choose the BEST family for each child.  They will not ask for dispensation from the President for the dossiers. 

Our lawyer has an appointment on Tuesday, 12 February with Mr. Mazar FORTIL and is going with the law and constitution in hand.  Let us pray that Parquet wil agree with the lawyer and release the dossiers stuck in Parquet. 

Dossiers continue to come out of IBESR.  We are thankful that IBESR and MOI seem to be processing things quicker than a few months ago.  Now if Parquet would just release the dossiers of families that have several children.

January 29, 2008

I am in the USA getting rest and medical treatment for 5 bulging disks in my back and 4 in my neck!  The Staff in Haiti is doing a wonderful job in my absence.  I am so thankful that I feel peace about leaving them to take care of things while I get the treatment that I need.

Since my update on December 13, we have had a lot of activity in the adoption program.

It's so good to see things moving and children going home.  We desperately needed the beds for new children.  I was able to give several proposals before I left the first of January and Léa has sent out more since I left.  Slowly, we are filling the spots on our waiting list of adoptive parents with dossiers in Haiti.

I will be returning to Haiti at the end of February.  I hope to get word on the new law and what IBESR, Parquet, and MOI have decided about our blocked dossiers.  IBESR says they will help get these approved, but we do not know when this will happen.  Hopefully, we will hear something soon and then I will let you know.

December 13, 2007

We are very excited that 6 children's dossiers came out of MOI yesterday and 3 children out of Parquet!  One of the dossiers in Parquet was there since April.  We still have some from May that have biological children, but hopefully, these will be signed next week.

There is a meeting on the 18th of December between IBESR, MOI, and Parquet to discuss files that have biological children.  I believe all dossiers will be signed before the new law takes effect.  Our lawyer is certain of it after talking to Parquet today.

It is good to see more movement and children going home!

December 8, 2007

GLA has not increased our adoption fees for two years.  We have always wanted to keep our fees reasonable for families wanting to adopt a child from Haiti.  But due to rising costs, we find the need to increase the fees effective January 1, 2008.

Adoptions finishing today have been taking about 15 to 24 months from the day of the proposal to when the child actually goes home.  This is an extra long time.  Children are staying an avergage of 24 months or even longer in the orphanage compared to 12 months just a  short time ago.  The US dollar has lost a lot of value in the last few months causing food and supply costs to incrase in Haiti.  After lawyer and paperwork fees, GLA is left with only $185 USD per month per child to feed the children, buy medication, supplies, and pay the care givers, when the remaining money is spread over a 24 month period.

Due to these facts, GLA will be increasing the adoption fees effective for all dossiers arriving at GLA after January 1, 2008.  The new fee will be $9,000 USD.  To help families pay the increase, there will be third payment added on at the end of the adoption process and is to be paid before the family comes to Haiti.  GLA's fees cover all costs associated with the Haitian portion of the adoption.

If the time for completion of a dossier decreased to under 12 months again, we will reevalutate the fees.  We know this will be difficult for some families working on their dossiers at this time, but we must think of the children first and make sure that their needs are taken care of while they are at the orphanage.

November 28, 2007

Since August 1, 2007, we have had 22 children join their "forever families" and leave Haiti!  It is always nice to see children going home before Christmas.  We should have more going home in December if visas are issued in time.

Since the October 26th update below, we have had the following come out of the different government departments:

November 13, 2007

I want to reassure all adoptive families who already have a dossier in Haiti that the proposed new law will not effect your dossier.  This law is only PROPOSED.  It is a draft of the law.  It must go back to chambers and be studied again.  Then voted on in 2 government sections before becoming law.  This will not be a quick process!  We have no idea what the final law will look like.  People may have to go through an agency for their adoption and they may not.  We do not know yet. 

If your dossier is in Haiti and has been legalized which we do for all dossiers on arrival, then your dossier is ready to go into IBESR as soon as we have a child to propose to you.  It will be accepted by IBESR.  Please do not panic because of what I wrote about the law or what was reported on French TV or in the news on-line.  Haiti is not known for moving quickly on any issue and we do not see that this law will be any different.

We will have plenty of notice before the law is voted on and I will keep everyone informed of the situation through my updates.

November 12, 2007

Last week, we went to a meeting about the new adoption law put on by IBESR and UNICEF.  They gave us a new copy of the law and it was discussed and suggestions were given by the personel from the Justice Department, lawyers, and the orphanage directors.  This law will now go back to chambers and any changes that they want to make taking into account all of the suggestions will be made.

Some of the highlights of the new law are:

For couples, at least 1 of the couple must be more than 30 years old.  The couple must have been married at least 5 years. (Proposed by group to say couples married 3 years with documented infertility can adopt)

Couple that have lived together at least 10 years and can get documentation for this can adopt.

Single women at least 35 years old can adopt.

Single men, who are divorced or widowed, without biological children and are at least 35 years old can adopt.

A family with more than 2 biological children can only adopt a handicapped child, a child with special health issue, or a child over 5 years old.  ( the actual proposed law says a family with 0 or 1 child only can adopt a normal infant.  A family with 2 children must adopt a special child.  But it was proposed that it be changed to say up to 2 children can adopt a normal infant.  Don't know if this will go through or not.  They are wanting to restrict the number of adoptions and number of dossiers coming to Haiti.  In 2006, supposedly 1900 adoptions were done in Haiti.)

Upper age limit is 50 years old.  If one is under 50 and the other is older 50, they can still adopt.

We can only work with an Agency in the foreign country.  No private adoptions anymore is the proposal and most orphanages are very much against this.

All dossiers must go to IBESR and then they will be distributed to the orphanages.  According to the proposed law, IBESR will give proposals.  Again, this is Hague related I think and UNICEF is recommending this.   Logistically, this is going to be hard to do here in Haiti. (UNICEF did say that the policies are still to be written and they know that certain orphanages work with certain foreign agencies (OAA) and there will a way for us to continue working with our agencies that we already have contracts with.  Canada for many years has sent their dossiers to IBESR and then they are distributed to the orphanage that the adoptive parents request.  I would assume it would continue to work like this.)

Depending on elections in December, it might be voted on by the end of the year or if elections don't go well, then early 2008.  Let us all pray that some changes are made in chambers to the way the law reads right now.

November 1, 2007

We have worked long and hard to build up a good reputation with our adoption program.  Because of this good reputation, we have many adoptive families wanting to work with GLA for their adoption.  This worked well before January 2007.  Dossiers arrived at the orphanage and we quickly gave the family a proposal of a waiting child.  But in 2007, we have had delays in the adoption process due to problems in Parquet (courts) and with Haitian Immigration.  This has caused a long list of adoptive parents waiting for proposals and not enough children to give them.  We cannot take in new children until we have sent adopted children home.  We literally have no empty beds in the whole orphanage!

Today, families are having to wait 5 to 7 months for a proposal!  This is causing stress not only for the family, but it is stressful for us each day when we see the long list of families who we know want a child so badly! 

For these reasons, we have decided that we will not approve any new applications from adoptive families until sometime in 2008.  This will not affect anyone already approved or in the adoption process with GLA.  It will also not affect families who have already adopted from GLA once and would like to do a 2nd adoption. 

Today, we have 23 children in passport printing and waiting for visas. Hopefully, they will be going home in the next month and several new children can be taken into the orphanage.  The new Haitian adoption law should be voted on sometime in early January 2008 and this also might allow adoptions to go quicker.  Keep watching this page and if we can send many children home in the next few months, we will start taking in some new applications.

This is a difficult time for many orphanages in Haiti.  Since the children are staying in the orphanage for an average of 15 to 24 months, all funds received for their care are depleted before their adoption is finished!  We have had to stop some of our community outreach programs because we just do not have the funds to help anyone other than the children in the orphanage.  The amount of money needed for food, medicine, diapers, laundry, household supplies and salaries for the caregivers can be overwhelming at times.  We need your prayers that adoptions will start to go faster and that we will receive some donations toward the cost of food and supplies.   

If you have questions about whether your application has been approved already, call our US office at (719) 638-4348.  Talk with Jean and she will be able to give you more information. You can also email Jean by clicking HERE .  Hopefully, this will be a temporary situation and we will be able to start taking in new applications again sometime in 2008.

October 26, 2007

In the last 10 days we have received 15 dossiers out of MOI!  We are so thankful that things seem to be moving.  I had a meeting with Mr. Guignard in MOI along with the Consular officer of Holland this week.  He said at that time that he was signing them quicker and we have seen many come out of MOI.  They also have hired 2 new people to fill out the forms for MOI.  They did only have 1 person to fill these out which meant that we all had to wait to fill out the children's forms for the Political Office.  So things are looking up at MOI!

October 22, 2007

It's been awhile since I sent out an update and so I'll try to bring you up to date about what is going on here in Haiti!

IBESR

IBESR continues to study and sign dossiers quickly.  It is still taking about 3 months  to 4 months and we are happy with this time frame considering how long it has taken in the past.   The new adoption law is still being studied in the Senate and I still hear that they hope to vote on it at the beginning of the new year.  We'll see what changes they make to it in chambers.  I will let you know as soon as I hear something on this. 

Parquet

October 18, we had a meeting with Mr. Mazar for a parent interview.   We took our list of dossiers that have been in parquet a long time.  He said we must send our lawyer to inquire about them.  He said that he is signing dossiers now.  I do not quite believe this because we are not getting very many from Parquet.  We will give new list to her again tomorrow and ask her to please go inquire about each dossier.  If he is signing, then why haven't some from April and May been signed???

Parquet is a building that is off limits to us without an invitation and now even lawyers cannot just enter without an appointment.  It is not a department that allows us to go look for dossiers.  It is impossible for us to tell you exactly where your dossier is in Parquet.  It is just one of those things about haitian adoptions that we must accept.  We can inquire about dossiers with an appointment, but it is not an easy department to deal with.

Today, October 22, the lawyer spoke to Mr. Mazar.  He said that he would be signing dossiers.  The lawyer thought we would get 3 out this week.  We reinforced to the lawyer that Mr. Gassant said in his meeting in July that Parquet would sign dossiers that do not meet the letter of the law for all dossiers put into IBESR by September 1.  This has not happened.  Parquet has not approved dossiers that were in their office 3 months before the meeting in July!  We still have dossiers there from April and May!

MOI

The rumor on the Internet was that 150 dossiers were signed and going to Immigration for the passports!  The rumor here was that 100 dossiers were signed and in Immigration.  The reality is that 30 dossiers arrived in Immigration on October 18 and 4 were for GLA. 

1 from April 26

1 from May 8

1 from June 1

1 from July 11

As you can see, there is no order to which ones came out of MOI.  Today, October 22, 3 more dossiers came out of MOI and passports will be printed.  Tomorrow, the Dutch Consulate is meeting with the director of the Political Office at MOI. There are several Dutch families that have been in MOI since April and May.  I will go also and if I have the opportunity, I will talk about all dossiers in MOI.

Let us all pray that he will sign 30 more today and tomorrow!  I desperately want to send children home! 

We have been receiving a few babies into the orphanage but not nearly enough to give proposals to everyone.  Hopefully, more children will go home in the next few weeks and we will be able to free up some beds so we can take more children into the orphanage.

5 PM September 13, 2007

Sorry, I haven't kept you very well informed since I went to the States. I'll try to make up for it today!  We've had a good couple of months with adoptions.  We still have a lot of dossiers in Parquet and Passports but we are seeing some movement in the last month.

Since the 1st of August, we have had:

Out of IBESR: 15 dossiers

Out of Parquet: 14 dossiers

Out of MOI and passports printed: 14

Children who have gone home: 10

There was a problem in August with an orphanage being shut down.  This caused Parquet to not sign any dossiers from the middle of August to just this week.  We did get 1 dossier out of Parquet this week that had been in there since May!  We have sent new lists to the lawyers asking them to please ask specifically for the dossiers that have been in Parquet more than a couple of months. 

We also sent a list to the Minister of the Interior about all of the dossiers waiting for passports.  Some of these dossiers have been waiting since April 26!  This is way too long. The dossiers have been studied and the forms filled out that need to be done.  We asked the French Embassy and the Canadian Embassy if they would inquire about dossiers that have been in MOI more than 4 months, but they will not help at this time.  Please be in prayer about these dossiers and families that are waiting so long.  The US and Dutch Consulates have made inquiries and hopefully, this will help these dossiers to be released soon.

IBESR is moving dossiers out quickly.  We could not be happier with Mrs. Beaudin and her IBESR staff.

The orphanage lawyer, Mme Pierre, called this afternoon.  She had been to a meeting about the new law and she asked specifically what the criteria for families will be from this day forward.  She was told that families with up to 3 children can adopt, the parents must be over 30 years old, and have been married/living common law for more than 5 years.  The new law should be voted on by the end of the year and take effect sometime in early 2008. 

I assume that couples with infertility issues might be able to adopt before 30 years old, but I haven't heard this for sure from our lawyer.  I have heard that families with several children of the same sex will still be able to adopt a child of the opposite sex.  For example, if a family has 4 boys and wants to adopt a girl, IBESR and Parquet will take this into consideration.  

Please continue to pray for IBESR, Parquet and MOI staff.  Pray for all families waiting to take their children home.  Pray that adoptions will continue to move forward quickly and children can go home.

 

7:30 PM July 26, 2007

11 dossiers came out of Civil Court today!  Now they have to go back into Parquet for legalization and then for Attestation of the signature on the act of adoption.  Maybe things will start to move a little faster in Parquet and courts.  Keep praying!

Updated July 26, 2007

Our lawyers have told us that President Preval does not want all of the problems with adoptions that we have been experiencing in the last 6 months and he has encouraged all sections of the government that are involved to work together and find solutions.  If this is true, then hopefully, the different sections, IBESR, Parquet (courts) and Ministry of the Interior, will all resolve their differences and allow adoptions to move forward.

Yesterday, Parquet had another meeting with all of the orphanages doing adoptions.  Mr. Gassant was there and it was a short meeting.  I could not personally go, but sent our adoption worker in my place.  He left the meeting optimistic and felt things would start moving out of Parquet more quickly from now on.  Mr. Gassant said that 80% of all the dossiers in Parquet will be signed.  He said that he will refuse to sign for large families.  In his opinion, families with 4 biological children can not adopt from Haiti UNLESS the 4 children are all one sex (all boys or all girls) and the family wants to adopt a child of the opposite sex.  Then he will most likely approve the adoption.

He says that they will give priority to families that are infertile.  He wants to see a certificate from their doctor in the dossier that says a couple is infertile; then they will have no problem getting approved.  I still have a problem with looking ONLY at the legal aspects of an adoption.  As long as the couple is infertile and have no biological children, they are good candidates to adopt in the eyes of the Parquet.  This takes none of the social aspects into account.  IBESR has the important role of making sure that the family is a good family, and the  placement is in the best interest of the child!  There has to be a balance between social well-being and legalities.

Hopefully, all dossiers will move through Parquet quickly, and the court work can be completed.  The dossiers can then go to the next steps of the process which are the attestation of the signature on the act of adoption, legalization at the Justice department, and Immigration for the passport.

July 24, 2007

Dossiers are moving and passports are coming out of the Ministry of the Interior for GLA.  We have received 11 passports in the last week.  This is exciting news for adoptive families!

We have been busy every night preparing dossiers that have come out of Parquet, so that they can go into the courts the next day.  We have received 5 children out of IBESR this week, too!

Our three teen-agers left with their adoptive parents today. (Nadege, Patrick, and Miklene) They have been at GLA 3 years.  It was so rewarding to get their visas and see the excitement on their faces!  An adoptive father is coming tomorrow for  two more children who have been here for 3 years.  (Rosemanie and Romaison)  This family was denied 2 times by IBESR because of their large family before they were finally approved.  We and the children are very excited about their adoptions finally being complete!  Three more families are coming next week.  Hopefully, the next few weeks will see many children being united with their forever families.

GLA is not approving any new families to adopt until November 1, 2007.  Any family that is already in progress or has an approved application is not affected by this new policy.  Until we have several children going home, we have no beds for new children coming into the orphanage.  This is causing overcrowding and stress for everyone.  We also have a long waiting list of dossiers waiting for a proposal.  We feel it is very important to take care of the waiting families before accepting new ones.

Prospective Adoptive Parents can send their application into the GLA office, but it will not be approved until November 1st.  There will be exceptions to this policy, so write JBell6549@aol.com with any questions.

I will update this page as new information is available.

And Life in Haiti goes on.....

dixie