Adoption News

 

2 February 2010

The Haitian government has closed all new adoptions until further notice.

GLA is NOT accepting adoption applications at this time nor will we be doing new adoptions from Haiti until adoptions are open again. 

24 January 2010

All orphans from the earthquake will not be available for adoption  at ths time.  First, they must be determined to be true orphans and not just seperated from their families.  Then the Haitian government must declare them as abandoned.  After this all happens, they will be available for adoption.  But at this time, Haitian adoptions are not being processed.  The government is not functioning in all areas.  It may be months before they are up and running completely.  It will take Haiti  a long time to bounce back after the disaster.  At this time, GLA will not be taking any new dossiers.  We will wait and see what the Haitian government decides to do about the orphans and adoptions.  I am praying that they wil allow adoptions of orphans to happen in a quicker time frame and get these children into families but until we know for sure, we will not take applications.

23 January 2010

The French government has asked for documentation on every adoption that is approved by IBESR.  As soon as I return to Haiti, I will get the information together and sent to the French Embassy.  We sent 2 children home today to their parents but these children already had their dossiers in the French Embassy and were had their visas. The children and staff knew that they were going home soon.

The Canadian Embassy decided on Thursday evening to allow the children to go to Canada to their adoptive families.  They wanted us to send the children out on Saturday in the middle of the night, but we did not want the children to be traumatized an more than they have to be.  We asked the Canadian Embassy to wait until Molly, Joyce, and I returned to Haiti on Sunday.  They were okay with this and told us today that we can leave with the children on Monday orTuesday and 4 staff from GLA can travel with the chilren.  We thought this was a much better scenario  instead of putting the children on a plane with people they have never seen before!   It only meant a delay of a couple of days.

I am the children's voice.  They cannot speak up for themselves.  We all love them them very much and have been with them since they came to GLA .  I just want what is best for them and I do not feel turning them over to strangers for a 5 hour plane ride is what is best for them.  I ask GLA families to please accept and understand my decision.

20 January 2010

Today, the US government issued 77 humanitarian paroles for GLA children and 6 visas.  Our children will be going to the US soon to join their families.

GLA sent 23 children to the Netherlands and 14 children to Luxembourg tonight on a chartered plane.  We are so thankful that the Dutch adoption agency NAS in cooperation with The Dutch Consular General in Haiti and the Dutch Ministry made this happen!

15 January 2010

U.S. citizens with pending adoption cases in Haiti are requested to contact the Department of State at AskCI@state.gov for information about their adoption case.  In your inquiry, please include: full name and contact information of parents, full name(s) of child(ren), date(s) of birth of child(ren) [if known], and the name and contact information of orphanage.  

14 January 2010

Our lawyer was able to get through to us today.  She says all of the government buildings downtown were damaged or destroyed!  She reported that Judge Rock CADET was killed in a building collapse. 

I have asked our lawyer to petition IBESR and the government of Hait to allow all children in the adoption process to be allowed to join their adoptive families.  We are all going to need beds for orphans who have lost their family in this disaster!  I need all of my families to contact their adoption agencies and government officials to allow these children to leave Haiti without a Haitian passport on Humanitarian or Refuge visas!  I KNOW the USA government can issue emergency passports for situtations like this because they did it for me during a crisis in Haiti from a poison in a children's fever medicine and children were dying.  We sent 11 children out of Haiti during that time and most did not have a Haitian issued passport.  Please find out if your government has such a system in place!  (All DUTCH Families: Please work through NAS to get these children home.  They are trying to get ALL children in process and not just those finished in Parquet.  So join forces with NAS and not to confuse the issue with the Dutch Government.)

Some of your dossiers are thankfully with us in our office.  Others are wtih other government sections and we do not know if they are intact or not.  I do know that the National Palace, Ministry of Justice, Ministry of Finance, DJI building which is part of the legalization department, National Cathedral is gone.  I do not know about Immigration or IBESR! 

I do not know if this is possible but let us explore the possibility of getting the children out so that we can take in more orphans.

9 January 2010

We were told that on Friday, we would receive 7 more dossiers out of the courts.   Now, when the court clerk says that dossiers will come out of the courts, he means that they will have been signed by the judge and sent back to Parquet for legalization, signed and sent back to us.  Our adoption agent, Terriot, did not receive the dossiers.  Terriot's motorcycle broke down yesterday afternoon on is way  back to the orphanage.  The clutch went out.  So finally at six o'clock, he called to tell us that he would not be back and that the dossiers were not done yet!  Hopefully, Monday, the dossiers will be in our hands.

7 January 2010

Some of my French families were confused by the last paragraph of the posting below.  I changed it a little to make it more clear to them hopefully.  For those dossiers that are now in Parquet, we have started contacting birth families to have them go to Parquet for their interviews.  This has NOTHING to do with dossiers in courts who have already passed through Parquet adoption section once.  Court papers must pass through Parquet again after signed by the judge in the civil courts, but they go to Parquet's legal section for legalization.  They do not pass back through the adoption section. 

I know that many of our families think that the paper trail for the adoption process is a simple one that once you get one signature, you are done in that section.  I wish that was true, but it is not.  In IBESR we need 4 signatures before the dossier is finished.  In Parquet, we need signatures from different people BEFORE the dossier enters Parquet , a signature from the lawyer in charge of adoptions, and then a stamp after Parquet.  In the civil courts, the head judge for adoptions must sign, the greffier must sign, the judge must sign again to legalize the signature of the greffier, and then the Parquet legalization department must sign.  Now if the legalization department finds errors in wording, such as MANDATAIRE (Power of Attorney), on the document which was supposed to be removed, they send it back to the court clerk for correction.  In Attestation, a clerk must type the form, another clerk must check the signature against the one on file, and then only the director of Archives can sign that the signature is a good one.  For MOI, the dossiers must travel through 2 different offices and all of the documents are studied before it is signed.  In Immigration, we turn the dossier into the receiving office, from their it goes to many different sections before it is returned to us as a passport!  i believe there is 5 different offices that touch the dossier before it is given to us as a passport! 

This does not take into consideration the Justice and Foreign Affaires offices that legalize all of the paperwork!  We lose more paperwork in the Justice Legalization department than any where else in the system!  We then have to ask the judge to remake paperwork that they have lost!  When we turn paperwork into Legalization, it is no longer attached to the dossier but has to be taken out and individual papers given to Legalization.

Ordinarily, I find the system confusing so I do not share this with all of our families.  But I have some families who cannot understand why different sections take so long and I want everyone to be aware of the complexity of the adoption process in Haiti.   Even what I listed above is probably not all of the steps!  Every once in awhile even I find out about a step in the process that I did not know about!

Nothing in Haiti is easy...

6 January 2010 

Magaly, Terriot and I  met this morning with our lawyer and the greffier (court clerk) to discuss the length of time it was taking for files to finish in Parquet and the Civil Court.  After I returned from the US in December, I found that dossiers that we thought were in Parquet, had been returned to the greffier (court clerk) to have the new process verbal added and also the letter of requete (asking for consideration of the file) had to be retyped.  Instead of sending that back to us to type, the court clerk kept all of the dossiers in his office.  He was going to retype them all himself.  I can do this in 1 minute on my computer.  He takes a long time to do it because of electricity problems in his office plus he is running all over Port-au-Prince working!  The Parquet also changed their system and said that the new process verbal that the judge in Kenscoff does after the adoptive parens visit  had to be added before it entered Parquet.  Everyone had been told to add them after Parquet and Parquet decided they must be added BEFORE Parquet!  This is okay for the court to do this, but the greffier (court clerk) did not notify us!  Thankfully, we had the process verbals to give him and he put them into Parquet after I returned to Haiti.

The dossiers in the Civil Court that came out last week are still listed as being in courts because after the civil court, we have to get the act of adoption.  The adoption process will not change until the act of adoption is done and the dossier has moved into attestation. 

Some families have written and wndered why dossiers in the  civil courts have taken so long.  We had about 20 dossiers in the civil court waiting to be signed. (We received 7 recently)   I too wondered why things were taking so long.  What has happened is that the court is requiring added wording in the civil court document.  So all 20 of the dossiers had to be redone with the new wording added.  Instead of the court clerk sending them back  the orphanage, he kept them to change himself.  He will NOT do that anymore. 

I spent today retyping some papers for Parquet and hopefully, things are now done and  everything is in the proper place.  We should get dossiers from the civil court on Friday.  I will keep everyone informed about what is going on as I know things! 

We have already started contacting biological families to have them go to Parquet for their interviews for those dossiers that just got turned into Parquet.  Hopefully, Parquet will sign the dossirs quickly after the birth famiies appear before them.

5 January 2010

Tomorrow morning, I have a meeting with the lawyer and one of the court clerks.  I am trying to find out why it is taking so long to get the court papers signed.  I asked for a meeting so we can plan how to make this whole process to go faster!  Hopefully, I will have some answers and plans when I come home tomorrow!

Haiti is getting closer to passing a new adoption law.  There was a notice in the Monitor newspaper talking about the new law and how the Parliment would handle debating and voting on the law!  Many people here have told me that we will be lucky to get a new law this year since it is an election year.  I am hoping they are wrong and the lawmakers will vote and pass a new law that will benefit the children!

1 January 2010

This past week, we received 7 dossiers out of the courts.  It took several calls to our lawyer who is spending the holidays in New York with hr family to get the dossiers, but thankfully, we finally received them!  There are several more that we are waiting on and they should be out next week.  I found out that the court papers that were originaly typed here had to be changed because the Judge added some wording he wanted on the documents.  This seems to be why it has taken so long.  Hopefully, we have come to an agreement over how this will be done from now on to cut down on the time needed to do it!

Adoptive families start coming to GLA again on Tuesday to go in front of the judge.  This has seemed to work very well when parents come.  We have found that the children have done alright with the visits and their routine does not change while the adoptive parents visit. For some of the older children, we think it has been a great experience!   It has helped for them to see their parents and know that they are coming back later to take them home!

The government will be working again next week.  I do not know if every office will be working on Monday but next week sometime, they will all be working again!!

Please pray with us that 2010 will see adoption time to be less.  I really want to see children going home quicker in 2010!

19 December 2009

To all of our adoptive parents and agencies:

2009 has been a very difficult year for GLA financially. We have attempted to keep adoption costs as low as possible, however, due to the fact that the children are with us 20 -24 months after referral, we can no longer support them on our present fee schedule. The adoption fee has never covered our costs completely, but we have always received enough donations to subsidize the adoptions. Due to the economy, donations are down $500,000 this year. If GLA is to continue serving children and families in Haiti, we find that we must increase our adoption fees. Most orphanages charge a monthly child care fee in addition to the adoption fees.  We do not want to do that. Effective January 15, 2010 adoptions fees will increase to $12,500.  If your dossier is received before January 15, the fee will remain $10,500.  The breakdown of the new fees will be as follows:  $6000 non-refundable deposit, to be submitted with your dossier. $3500 will be due when your dossier comes out of IBESR, and $3000 due when you enter passports. 

We are sorry for any inconvenience this may cause, but want to make sure the children are well cared for and cannot keep our quality of care at its present level without this increase.  We appreciate your understanding that the children and their needs are our top priority.

1 December 2009

I am still in the States visiting churches and special goups, but I received word yesterday that 12 dossiers came out of IBESR last week!  That is wonderful news since we had many dossiers in there more than 1 year!  Keep praying that the children's files will move quickly through Parquet and the courts, so they can go home to their forever families quickly!

19 October 2009


After a family has travelled to Haiti and signed for the local judge, the judge issues a new "process verbal" (one of the legal documents that is part of the child's dossier) to be added to the child's dossier. This new process verbal reflects that a parent has travelled and met their child. Originally I had been told that a new process verbal would not be required for families who did not meet with the judge, and that for these families, they would only need to show evidence that the family had been to Haiti. However, this week, I have found out that a new process verbal is required for these families too. However, the civil court judge said he would not make these families return to Haiti for another trip but that the orphanages could show the passports and stamps to the local judge and he could do the process verbal from them. Once the new process verbals have been issued by the local judge, they must be added to the child's dossier. For families not yet in the Court process, this will not change their process at all except for having to have this addition document issued. However, for families currently in the Court process, their dossiers must be returned to Parquet to have the Parquet approval's date changed. I am not expecting that this will be a long process; I am not expecting these dossiers to get mixed with the dossiers that are currently in the Parquet stage. Once the change has been made to the Parquet approval, the complete dossier will return to the courts. 

Now, has that confused everyone?? 

10 October 2009

We have seen lots of movement with adoptions this past month.  We have received many dossiers out of MOI and even had several children going home.  IBESR has gotten dispensations and we have even seen files coming out of parquet!  It is so nice to see things moving for some families even if other families are stuck in different areas.  I wish that all files could move through the system quickly, but I have kind of given up on this happening with Haitian adoptions!

The house has been full of adoptive parents coming to sign in front of the local Judge and we are almost caught up with all dossiers in courts and parquet.  There are still a few families left to come, but not many.  We think it has been nice for the families to see their children but I know it has been a hardship financially for some parents to make the trip to Haiti. 

For families whose dossier is in courts, the dossier must now return to Parquet for a new Parquet paper with a date that is before the date the parents signed in front of the judge.  I think this is a complete mess!  We end up having to change three (3) court documents so that dates match!  That does not even make sense to me!  We are changing the dates on legal documents at the request of one judge!

We are still waiting on dispensations and last week received one that had been in the system since November 2008!  We are still waiting on 5 from November!  Waiting for the Presidential dispensations have been so frustrating!  All we can do is sit and wait.  I truly believe the stress has given me an ulcer! 

Hopefully, we will continue to have parents coming to Haiti before they go into Parquet so that they can move through the system smoothly.  Please pray that Judge Cadet will grandfather the files through that were already in the system before he made his fateful decision that all parents had to come to Haiti!

2 September 2009

 Recently, the Adoption Judge responsible for all of Port-au-Prince made the decision that all adoptive parents must make a trip to Haiti, meet the children, and sign a form in front of the justice of the peace (the local judge that we use in Kenscoff) before the final court decision would be approved.  He made this decision on his own without any input from IBESR, the Minister of Justice, or any of the other judges.

 This judge, Mr. Cadet, attended a meeting on the Hague Convention and Haiti was shown as a country that had badly managed adoption procedures.  On his return, he decided to make all adoptive parents come to Haiti and meet their children before the finalization of the adoption. 

 Haitian law says that it is legal to be represented by another person living in Haiti.  Mr. Cadet has decided that this does not apply to this one section of the law that says that adoptive parents must appear before the Justice of the Peace at the beginning of the adoption process. 

 

Mr. Cadet has been inflexible about his decision and does not want to change his opinion.  The French Embassy has tried to negotiate without any results.  After the summer holidays, the French Embassy along with other countries, will try to work something out with IBESR and UNICEF about this situation.

 

Many orphanages are now requiring adoptive parents to come to Haiti.  GLA will also now require our parents to come.  ALL ADOPTIVE PARENTS MUST APPEAR IN FRONT OF THE JUSTICE OF THE PEACE BEFORE YOUR ADOPTION CAN BE FINALIZED IN THE CIVIL COURT. For American Families, we will try to do this at the same time as you file your I-600. American families, who have already been to Haiti to file their I-600 and can prove this with a copy of their entry visa into Haiti, do not need to come again.  If there is a husband and a wife, then both of them must come to Haiti unless there is a medical problem with one of the couple that does not allow them to come into Haiti.

 

We will first be giving priority to families whose files are currently in the Courts stage. After that, will be families that are in Parquet. And lastly, families that are in IBESR or before. Please note if your file has already passed through Courts, then you do not need to come.

 

We are extremely sorry for any inconvenience this will cause our families.  We have fought through our lawyer and through the Association of Orphanages to get this changed without any success.  The bottom line is that if you want your child home in a timely fashion then you must come to Haiti and appear in front of the Justice of the Peace.

 

And Life in Haiti goes on....

25 July 2009 

Last night, I sat and wrote a long update and then the web site would not let me save it. I gave up and decided to try again today.

Some dispensations have been coming out of the President’s office in bunches and then it slows down and we see only a few coming out. It is a constant battle to get the dossiers out of their different sections. Sometimes it is absolutely exhausting trying to get each dossier moving through the system.

Magalie is back from maternity leave. She is back in her position as Haitian administrator and she has already spent two days at Parqet this week trying to get dossiers approved and signed. One good thing we’ve found out this week from Parquet is that we do not have to wait anymore for Parquet to ask for biological parents. We can take them as we find them! This will help a lot.

There has been a rumor going around that the head judge of the court of the first instance, where adoptions are done, was going to require all adoptive parents to come to Haiti at the beginning of their adoption process and appear in front of the local judge that writes up the 2nd consent or act of adoption. The rumor was that all families needed to come before the head judge would sign the homologation of the adoption in the civil court.   If there are two parents, then both must come.

I have been wanting to move on this rumor  for the last month, but  agencies in the US wanted to go through “channels” to contact the Embassies and have them go talk to the Judge. BUT here it is a month later, and we are still in the talking stages about what should be done!

Our lawyer has drafted a letter for my families to write. She would like you to attach a photo of your adoptive child and a photo of you. We want the judge to realize that you and your child are a family waiting to be united! You are not just a pile of papers on his desk!

According to information that I have received,  UNICEF had a meeting with Judge Rock Cadet and told him their concerns about irregularities in Haitian adoptions.  UNICEF says they never meant  for this to happen.   I do not believe this.  They say they are pro-adoption but continue to do things like this that make adopting a Haitian child more difficult. I realize that the judge made this decision but he made it after being influenced by UNICEF personnel!   I would like to have specific insances of irregularities in Haitian adoptions.  Everyone is being punished for the errors of a few.

I would love to take bags of letters to the judge. Even if you already have your child home or have passed the court stage of the adoption, write a letter please and send it to me. If you are done, then thank Judge Cadet for uniting you and your child and making your family complete!

Even if you are not adopting from GLA, I encourage you to contact your orphanage director and ask them if they will accept for you to write a letter to Judge Cadet andthen they  take it to him. With many voices, we will be heard so much better than just a few. Join your voice to ours and let us be heard in Haiti. If you do not fight for your child, I fear that the adoption process will just keep getting more difficult.

Send the letters to:

Dixie Bickel

Unit 2081 – GLA

3170 Airmans Dr

Fort Pierce, FL 34946 USA

Here is an example of the letter she suggests that  you write:

To the Head Judge of the First Instance Court in Port-au-Prince

Mr. Rock Cadet

Dear Judge Cadet,

We are writing to you as parents desiring to adopt a Haitian child. We are very surprised by your new decision to refuse our power of attorney made in our country and legalized at the Haitian Embassy. 

We want you to consider, Judge Cadet, that according to the policies in some countries; it is not acceptable to come to meet the children until the adoption process is finished. We also worry about the psychological effects on the children of us visiting and then possibly IBESR refusing our adoption petition.

Therefore, we are asking you to please reconsider your decision and accept the adoption documents legally signed by our power of attorney who is our legal representative in Haiti.

We are counting on your understanding, and pray that you will receive our heartfelt greetings.

Sincerely,

 

Letter in French:

Au Doyen du tribunal de

Premiere Instance de Port-au-Prince

Monsieur Rock Cadet

En ses bureau

Monsieur,

Nous, parents désireux d’adopter des enfants Haitiens, sommes stupéfaits par la nouvelle decision que vous avez prise selon laquelle nos mandats de procuration qui ont été donnés par devant les consuls de votre pays accrédités á l’étranger ne sont plus acceptés.

Nous vous informons, Monsieur le Doyen, que selon la loi du pays d’origine de certains d’entre avant la fin de la procedure d’adoption.

Par contre nous vous demandons de croire en notre bonne foi et d’accepter d’homologuer les proces verbaux d’adoption dans lesquels nous avions été légalement représentés par nos mandants.

Tout en comptant sur votre comprehension nous vous prions de recevoir nos salutions distinguées.

Sincerement,

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.