Haiti #4 (Court)

http://home4achild.blogspot.com/2011/04/haiti-1.html
http://home4achild.blogspot.com/2011/04/haiti-2.html
http://home4achild.blogspot.com/2011/04/haiti-3.html


Since Linds asked the question I thought I'd take a quick detour and describe our court day...

As those of you who are walking this journey with us.. or are walking it in your own shoes.. know there are many, many layers to adopting internationally.
So far we have:
Completed a homestudy, back ground check and multiple life survey type documents stateside/
These all went into one document called our "Dossier".
The dossier was then authenticated by the haitian Consulate here in the States and sent to Haiti.
Once there our dossier then was reviewed by the adoption lawyers at NLL and we were placed with ur children.
The dossier then entered IBESR (Haiti's social services department) where it ws again authenticated and we were granted permission to move on with th adoption of Wadley and Jesley (Wadley's twin).
When Jesley died we had to put our dossier back into IBESR for permission to adopt Peter. Due to the election of a new President in Haiti in the interim time we are still waiting for that processes to complete so we can work on bringing both boys home.....

Haiti has several security steps in place to make sure that the right children are placed with the right families. While these steps can be frustrating if you are in the process of trying to climb up to the lace of bringing children home.. they are there for the protection of the children and the famililes, something we are all for if adopting legally from any country.

One of those steps is "Lower court". while we were in Haiti Steve and I went to the court to see the "Lower" or First Judge. We took our children with us and signed to state that we acknowledged that these children were the children we wanted to adopt.The fact that we were abe to do this is a testimony to the Haitian people and their dedication to restore order as they can to their country. Despite there being no courthouse rebuilt since the earthquake we were able to complete this stage of the process in a timely manner. Once again my admiration for the tireless work the lawyers at NLL do increased. I understand all the more clearly why things take a little longer than we think they should.. I hope I don't quickly forget waiting with the other folks looking for legal help and resolution, in the hot sun, on the street in Port Au Prince.

The next stop was to IBESR to see if we could find out how Peter's dossier was doing. Unfortunately I was a little distraught by having to go through this process.. it highlighted the fact that Jesley was really and truly gone and I found it hard to stop the tears that desided to make an untimely appearance. The short answer from this visit was that our dossier needs to get Presidential approval..again.. in order for us to move forward. We can only hope that this process is completed in a timely manner so we can move to the rest of the paper work and court appearances.we will need to return to complete the adoption and again to bring the boys home. We continue to save the pennies and pray for completion.

 Wadley with Jesley

We miss Jesley, I don't think we will ever not miss him even though we know he is safe in the arms of a loving God and Savior. He can not be replaced because God created him unique, as He does each of us, but God in His great mercy allowed Peter to come into our lives. we now have the opportunity to love and raise him along side his big brother Wadley. And let me tell you! Wadley is a fabulous big brother, he would reach over and gently pat Peter if he cried... just as he used to if Jesley cried... we really are so in love with these chldren of ours.... all of them!

Wadley with Peter