Adoption: One Crazy Adventure After Another

The day started out pretty good. We were on the road within minutes of when we intended to start. About 15 mins into the drive, I received a text message. This time I looked right away (I learn fast, no?). It was a message from the orphanage director saying that Lou's mother was at the directors place and waiting for us. I replied saying that we were on our way.

We got there and there were a two people sitting in the entrance of the building - it was Lou's mom and someone else who we were told was the driver/navigator.


She is a very beautiful lady and we can visually see the resemblance. She wanted Lou to go to her. You could see that Lou recognized her but didn't want to get too close. His reaction shows us that he has bonded to us. She seemed to handle it OK. We asked Lou where mama was and he pointed to Tina. I spoke in Creole for a little bit but then got over my head and asked our driver (Jeff) to come and help translate. We had a good time talking as we waited for the orphanage director to come to work.

When she got there, she gave us some papers and we were on our way. That's the beginning of the strange stuff.

We got a few blocks away in our borrowed-from-the-mission car when all of a sudden they told our driver that they were going to get out up ahead a little ways. So we let them out...and then started asking questions...

Did they know where they were going? Why not just come with us since they have to go do the test with us anyway? It turns out they thought they were done and were ready to catch a tap tap home. We told them that Lou's birthmom has to go with us to do the test. We managed to convince them to get back into the car and we were once again on our way (sitting in different seats...it must have looked like a Chinese fire drill in the middle of a busy Haitian street (Delmas)).

We found the place without a problem (thanks to Jeff our great driver). We got there and eventually found our way up stairs and to the correct door (it was like a maze).

The receptionist person told us that we needed to fill out paperwork and that we would have to come back Thursday. We told them that we already had done that with an American company (ORCHID) that works with this place (BIOMED). And asked why do we have to come back Thursday?

It turns out that there is a US Embassy person that goes to BIOMED every Thursday to witness the IDs and tests to confirm that the right people are being tested. This was the first that we had heard of this. The place that set up the DNA testing (Orchid - which is a GREAT company to work with so far) nor the orphanage director knew that this needed to be done.

Now the birth mother would have to work her way back to BIOMED on Thursday...but she doesn't know Port-au-Prince or Petionville. We tried to find a common place to meet, but were unsuccessful. We figured out a way to get them here on Thursday so all is ready (we hope) for Thursday morning.

No matter how many ways you think things can go wrong here and no matter how many ways you try to prevent those things from going wrong, something else that you didn't expect will go wrong and delay you even further. This whole adoption is a true test of patience and endurance like I have never seen.

I sent an email to the USCIS to find out if there really is someone who is supposed to verify the tests and if they will indeed be available Thursday. I hope to get a reply tomorrow.

We were told a week ago that we should be out of MOI in about 3 weeks - so that leaves us two weeks left until we are out of MOI (then we have Haitian passport to go through which is supposed to take 2 weeks on the short end). 2 weeks after we send the DNA test in we should have the results and if all is OK, the US visa can be issued. We are looking to be done within two months if all goes well.

We continue to persevere and are doing OK. We are ready for a break from all of this adoption mess - I wish it were not a mess, but rather more organized for all Haitian children and adoptive parents.