Last week we heard that the girls' extrait was finally stamped and sent through legalization. This was the piece of paper that the US Consulate has been waiting on in order to approve their visas. Dixie brought it over to the US Consulate on the same day and hopefully we will hear something very soon. We are praying that they will not need anything else and that we will hear that their visas are approved some time within the next week or two. We hate to get our hopes up, but we hope that this will finally be it.
It has been hard these past few months, but only through our faith have we gotten through it all. This has definitely taught us that we are not in control and that only God knows the whole picture. We have learned to lean more heavily on Him and to let Him play this whole thing out the way it needs to. I can't tell you how comforting it has been to stay in His word everyday. I read somewhere that the Bible is a letter from God to us. He uses it to remind us how much He loves us and if we continually read it, it will always bring us great comfort. I can't tell you how much it has lately! So whenever you need a quick pick me up, open up His word. He is never far away!
Thank you all again for all of your thoughts and prayers! Hopefully we will be hearing something real soon!
Love,
Allison
Monday, September 22, 2008
Thursday, September 4, 2008
Department of State Update
A Bethany worker (who use to live and work at GLA) recently went to GLA for a visit and was updated on many different areas of the Haitian adoption process. The following was her experience with the US Consulate/Embassy. It helps explain some of the delays we are currently experiencing.
US Department of State
We met with Donald Moore (Consular General) and Garry Pierrot (Adoptions Unit Officer) at the new US Consulate/Embassy. Mr. Moore led our meeting for the most part. He is extremely enthusiastic about his position, and in working alongside families with adoptions. He mentioned “we want to give good news …” Transparency is very important to Mr. Moore, and wants services to be as transparent as possible. If there are problems, he wants to be able to have this communicated. One of the issues that the Consulate has been dealing with is not having sufficient staff. He is expecting that by November, they will be full staffed, which should result in speeding up processing time. DOS is currently processing 7-8 adoption cases a week.
Mr. Moore and Mr. Pierrot indicated that they are mandated to prevent fraud. They mentioned that fraudulent documents are statistically quite common in Haiti visa applications, often unbeknownst to orphanages that are submitting them. Orphanages believe that they have obtained the documents legitimately; however, it turns out that these documents are not always as they appear. As a result, Mr. Pierrot’s job is to ensure that no child leaves Haiti and enters the U.S. with fraudulent documents. Mr. Pierrot indicated that adoptions have priority with the Fraud Unit at DOS, and fraud investigations for adoption cases are normally completed before other fraud investigations. This is good news that adoptions are seen as important, and that DOS does recognize their urgency. However, after this discussion, we could better understand why the visa process has been taking longer lately. I expressed some concerns with these two regarding some recent frustrations Dixie has been having in correspondence with DOS (when emailing/phoning about orphan investigations, specific case questions, etc). Mr. Moore was very apologetic. He indicated that they have been short-staffed, and are hoping that correspondence issues will be resolved with more staff. We also presented the idea of JCICS developing Standards of Practice for Haiti, and they were very supportive of this. They indicated that if, in the future, training would be required, they would be more than willing to assist with the training if they could.
US Department of State
We met with Donald Moore (Consular General) and Garry Pierrot (Adoptions Unit Officer) at the new US Consulate/Embassy. Mr. Moore led our meeting for the most part. He is extremely enthusiastic about his position, and in working alongside families with adoptions. He mentioned “we want to give good news …” Transparency is very important to Mr. Moore, and wants services to be as transparent as possible. If there are problems, he wants to be able to have this communicated. One of the issues that the Consulate has been dealing with is not having sufficient staff. He is expecting that by November, they will be full staffed, which should result in speeding up processing time. DOS is currently processing 7-8 adoption cases a week.
Mr. Moore and Mr. Pierrot indicated that they are mandated to prevent fraud. They mentioned that fraudulent documents are statistically quite common in Haiti visa applications, often unbeknownst to orphanages that are submitting them. Orphanages believe that they have obtained the documents legitimately; however, it turns out that these documents are not always as they appear. As a result, Mr. Pierrot’s job is to ensure that no child leaves Haiti and enters the U.S. with fraudulent documents. Mr. Pierrot indicated that adoptions have priority with the Fraud Unit at DOS, and fraud investigations for adoption cases are normally completed before other fraud investigations. This is good news that adoptions are seen as important, and that DOS does recognize their urgency. However, after this discussion, we could better understand why the visa process has been taking longer lately. I expressed some concerns with these two regarding some recent frustrations Dixie has been having in correspondence with DOS (when emailing/phoning about orphan investigations, specific case questions, etc). Mr. Moore was very apologetic. He indicated that they have been short-staffed, and are hoping that correspondence issues will be resolved with more staff. We also presented the idea of JCICS developing Standards of Practice for Haiti, and they were very supportive of this. They indicated that if, in the future, training would be required, they would be more than willing to assist with the training if they could.
Hurricanes
No new news on our front, but I thought I would update you on Haiti and GLA, in regards to the hurricanes....
FAY - lots of rain and wind, but no damage.
GUSTAV - a lot more rain, but GLA weathered the storm well
HANNA - This was posted on GLA's website:
Hurricane Hannah brought destruction to Haiti last night , September 2nd. Our area sustained downed trees, toppled brick walls, and roads blocked. People are already out cutting the trees blocking the roads. Our metal roofs got blown off the house and we lost the internet dish at the Toddler House. The wind was blowing so hard the rain came in around the closed windows of the orphanage and flooded our dining room table and floor! There seems to be as many leaves inside the house as outside! Thankfully, we are all safe and God kept us from harm. Now we just have to clean up from the storm. This was much worse than any storm we have personally seen in the 17 years we have lived in Haiti.
Two more storms are headed in their direction, please pray for Haiti, the people, and GLA. The flooding on the island is horrible and many have lost their homes. Many consider Haiti a 5th world country, because there is no hope. I refuse to believe that as long as we believe in the power and glory of Jesus Christ, He is our hope, even for the people in Haiti. I praise God for keeping the orphanage safe and out of harms way!
FAY - lots of rain and wind, but no damage.
GUSTAV - a lot more rain, but GLA weathered the storm well
HANNA - This was posted on GLA's website:
Hurricane Hannah brought destruction to Haiti last night , September 2nd. Our area sustained downed trees, toppled brick walls, and roads blocked. People are already out cutting the trees blocking the roads. Our metal roofs got blown off the house and we lost the internet dish at the Toddler House. The wind was blowing so hard the rain came in around the closed windows of the orphanage and flooded our dining room table and floor! There seems to be as many leaves inside the house as outside! Thankfully, we are all safe and God kept us from harm. Now we just have to clean up from the storm. This was much worse than any storm we have personally seen in the 17 years we have lived in Haiti.
Two more storms are headed in their direction, please pray for Haiti, the people, and GLA. The flooding on the island is horrible and many have lost their homes. Many consider Haiti a 5th world country, because there is no hope. I refuse to believe that as long as we believe in the power and glory of Jesus Christ, He is our hope, even for the people in Haiti. I praise God for keeping the orphanage safe and out of harms way!
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