we entered IBESR (Haiti Social Services)!!!
Praise God! We are so thrilled, I don't even have words! We have been working on this... yes, this first step... for nearly 18 months. We never were sure that we would actually GET to this step. There were significant hurdles, moments of despair, but everything showed us a renewed and strengthened commitment that we are meant to be Verlande's parents.
We could be in this step for "approximately" 6 months.. (seriously... dont' ever trust a Haitian timeline)... a miracle could be 4 months??? but we also know that realistically, people have had struggles at this stage also. We will pray, and please please pray for us, for Verlande, for the people doing this work in Haiti, getting to their jobs, having the energy and strength to work on these children's cases, for the honesty of the system, and the list goes on... of course:)
Either during this step, or afterwards, we will have to get a "presidential dispensation" from the President of Haiti because we have biological children... (and it is against the law for some reason to adopt from Haiti when you have bio kids, however it happens, you just have to get this signature)... It is somewhat unclear if this HAS to happen while in IBESR or not... we are praying for speed, smooth timing, and also for political "calmness" and nothing to happen within the Haitian government outstanding, so that nothing is put on hold. For us, since we need this dispensation, that would not be good.
When you enter IBESR, you have 12-18 month "timeline"... again.. I have learned over hte past 18 months that it is really frankly SILLY to talk times. I dont' feel comfortable with that, but at this time, I am too caught up in our excitement of being in IBESR to worry about times. I'm sure in 4-5 months I"ll be getting a little impatient... (or maybe another month!) we'll see... Patience is a work in progress with me.. I know I have alot to learn, but I also think it is a bit overrated when there is a 7.5 year old waiting for a forever family, home, and soft blankets and teddy bears to sleep with, holidays to celebrate, a brother and sister waiting for her, etc.
After IBESR, we go to Parquet Court, so Ryan and I need to travel to Haiti IMMEDIATELY upon getting the phone call..... (so grandparents.... we'll be calling.. ha ha!! we won't be taking the kids to Haiti this young, I am not comfortable taking them to a place with a State Dept travel warning, although other families do this and haven't had trouble. I don't think our kids would be good with it. They are both rule followers and frankly would freak out by not having seatbelts/carseats/.... there are so many scenarios that I can see not being good!) I can't wait to get this call!
Thanks, as always, to those of you who we know are behind us the whole way, who I sometimes break down to, who have sensed my gradual loss of hope, and have strengthened me and brought me such strength. A funny thing was that the night before we got this phone call, we were reading the kids a bible story that talked about praying and asking God for help when you need it, and just a simple reminder about the power of prayer. I kind of had this thought of, "I haven't really been praying about this lately as much, I haven't really been ASKING, and so I did ASK God that night for something to show me a signal that we are doing the right thing and this is the path to follow" and the next morning we got the phone call. Amazing.
