Documents being legalized

The paperwork journey is just about complete. About 10 days ago, a portion of of Dossier was sent to the Haitian Consulate in Chicago to be legalized. This is the final step for some of the documents. They first needed to be notarized. Then they got state sealed by the Indiana Sectratary of State's office. And finally, they will get legalized by a Haitian Consulate.

The US work is complete. Now we start in Haiti.

Once that is done the full Dossier and copies will get sent off to the orphanage, God's Littlest Angels. I think that will be the real test of patience as we shift into waiting mode. The next major milestone is child referral. This is when we get photos and a description of our son. As I typed the word milestone, I realize that the term is not significant enough. The referral put's a face to the child God has chosen to join our family.

In September, I had hoped to get the referral around Christmas time. I don't think that is possible now, given the timing. *sigh* This is teaching me patience right?

Dossier is ready to send

Did you ever wonder what 6 copies of our Dossier would look like? Well here you go.

 

 

 

Six copies of the Dossier

We made some progress these last few weeks. We completed all the Dossier documents and then sent a sub-set of them off to France to be translated into French. The total pages that were translated ended up being 53. That is a lot of darn French.

Along with all the original documents we also needed to create 6 copies. So, we worked today (10/23) to create the big pile that you see above in the post.

I also updated our progress chart. On Monday (10/24) the Dossier and 5 of the copies will go off to the National office for our agency. They will look things over and then send some of the documents to the Haitian Consulate in Chicago to be legalized. From there, the full packet is shipped off to the Orphanage and we start the process in Haiti.

Making Progress

As you can see we are almost complete with the USA portion of the process. This is exciting and scary at the same time. We've experienced a few bumps along the way in terms of getting the Dossier documents together and "official". However, now, it all gets turned over the Orphanage and the Haitian government. The unknown and inability to control any of it is the scary part. Yes, we had bumps with the documents, but we could control how they were put together. That sort of control is going to go away. Prayers for patience are always welcome, and I imagine, needed.

The next big milestone is referral. That is when this will begin to feel real and tangible.

What kind of morning will it be?

As I go to bed the night before, I always wonder, "What kind of morning will it be?" Will it be cold and windy and surprise me so that I am inappropriately dressed? Will it be crystal clear so that the sunrise is breathtaking? How close will be be to that October morning in 2005, when the temperature was mild, the sky clear and the sunrise beautiful?

The early mornings remind me of Dad. He was the definition of a morning person and when we worked for him the mornings always started early. Need to get that good jump on the day.

Watching the sunrise on October 1st is my annual tradition to remember Dad. Oh, this is certainly not the only time I think of him.For example. with all the adoption "stuff" going on these past few weeks, I often wonder what advice he would provide and how he would keep me sane. He was a great sounding board and I miss being able to share with him.

October is also prime football season and he loved college football. Today would be a good one for Dad. OSU versus Michigan State. Penn State playing IU. Then a night game of Purdue versus Notre Dame. He'd have a rooting interest all day long.

Today's sunrise wasn't bad. Still not to the quality of 2005, but beautiful enough to warrant a photo.

Enjoy!

2011-09-11 Adoption Update

It has been a while since an update on our progress was posted here on the blog. Things continue to move along at a steady pace. To us it seems like a crawl, but we realize we can't control the actions of others.

With our Home Study complete and approved, we filed a 1-600A with USCIS (US Citizenship and Immigration Services). This is an initial application for international adoption. It is a document that states our intent to adopt from Haiti with the US government. This is the initial steps for our son's visa. This takes about 30 days to complete, so hopefully we will have the Dossier completed by the beginning of October.

I did get an interesting lesson in a service the State Government can perform. If you have a document that has been notarized, but that notary needs to be confirmed, you can have the Secretary of State validate it with a Sate Seal. The Secretary of State looks at the notary's signature and compares it to what is on file with the State and then they applied a state seal.

Here is a chart the shows our progress. Hopefully this is a nice visual representation of where we are. We do need to get some documents translated, but we are hopeful they will be sent off by the end of this week

 

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When we complete this chart, we move on to all the steps in Haiti. I have another chart for the steps once we get the Dossier sent to the orphanage in Haiti, God's Littlest Angels. That is when the exercise in patience will really come in.

Don't get caught up in doing

I had the opportunity to attend a church leadership retreat yesterday. As part of the kickoff, the youth team showed a video of photos from their recent trip to Fondwa Haiti. It really brought back memories for me. Seeing familiar places and faces from my trip in those photos. The youth leader ended this portion of the retreat challenging us to avoid getting caught up in the "doing" of life and be more caught up in being present in life. My time in  Haiti last year provided me that opportunity. I wasn't so concerned with doing and was able to really focus on the moment and the experience.

I think that is a good challenge for us in everyday life. Not necessarily when we go on a mission trip or on some service focused event. But, how can we be present in all that we do throughout life?

This is the one year anniversary for my trip to Haiti. That trip took the conceptual idea of adoption and turned it into a reality for me. Coming home from the trip a year ago, I became convinced that adoption was the right thing for our family.

As we go through the adoption process, it can become very easy to focus on and get caught up in the doing. As an example, our main focus right now is getting all the paperwork together for our Dossier. What an example of "doing". There is even a checklist list for us to mark off what is done.

I need to pause and shift my focus away from the doing, away from the checklist and move it to the process and all that we are learning and gaining from it. Now doing is a necessary part of life. Checklists aren't bad things. We need to do to generate money for the household, keep that house clean and educate our kids. All necessary and important things.

But, wouldn't life be so much better if the focus was on being present with those around us? Something that I certainly need to remember in my life.

Whatever You're Doing (Something Heavenly)

"Whatever You're doing inside of me
It feels like chaos but somehow there's peace
It's hard to surrender to what I can't see
But I'm giving in to something Heavenly"

Sanctus Real

Huzzah!

Our Home Study has been approved. According to the Adoption Agency we are approved to adopt from Haiti. This is a big relief, not so much from the stnadpoint of not being approved, but rather from the standpoint of a milestone being crossed.

Now we move on to the governmental paperwork and paper trail.

Huzzah indeed!