Adoption Process... in a nutshell.

Once the decision to adopt was made, it started the ball being slowly pushed up a large mountain. A mountain of paperwork, government agencies, and prayer. The bigger the mountain, the more we see God's glory. I wanted to give a timeline, and as we update it will be easier to see our process.

1. Orphanage Application -we applied and were approved by by GLA in the spring of 2007.
2. Homestudy - we completed our homestudy in the fall of 2007.
3. I-600A - USCIS approval to adopt 2 children and bring them to the U.S.A. We were approved in the spring of 2008.
4. Dossier -quick definition -Dossier is the 5lbs of paperwork that is our life in writing that the Haiti government uses to determine if we are fit parents. Our dossier took about 6 months to put together, and was mailed the end of June.
5. Proposal -We recieved our proposal in September of 2008.
6. IBESR- Haiti's social services that must approve the adoption. We are currently waiting to enter this step.
7. Parquet- Haiti's court system. The official government approval.
8. Orphan Investigation- This is a requirement by the US government to determine the children meet thier definition of an orphan, and includes a birth parent interview.
9. Ministry of Interior - I'm not exactly sure what the MOI does, but it's important too...
10. VISA's - Important too. . . and so far off right now I don't spend alot of time thinking about.
11. Home !!!! I spend too much time thinking about probably.

This is a simple breakdown, and there is no set time we will be in any set step. However, we know God is in control, and his timing has been perfect all along. All the times I fretted about the time it was taking me to get our dossier ready- it got there with-in days of our children's arrival. God's perfect timing! All the times we wanted to move forward and couldn't - it's because our children weren't born yet...God's perfect timing. And as the days march on, and I want to hurry it up... I want to remember his perfect timing all along. Feel free to remind me when I forget!