Friday, October 16, 2009

From the US Embassy - Haiti website

"After a petition to adopt a child is approved by USCIS [approved Sept. 19, 2009], the agent in Haiti working with the adopting parents [our orphanage director] should e-mail the Consular Section at PaPAdoptions@state.gov to schedule an appointment with the Adoptions Unit. After all requirements are fulfilled under Haitian and American law [they have to see that we have done all that we should have], the immigrant visa is generally issued on the following business day."

Source:
http://haiti.usembassy.gov/adoption.html

Things that we are told change all the time. We were told at one point to push for a visa appointment. I was just told over the phone minutes ago (by the same person) that now we have to wait because our child is from a town that is an hour away. They have to verify the paperwork by apparently going to his town to check the paperwork out. What the US Embassy - Haiti website says they are doing is not what they are actually doing.

This is very confusing. They have all of the original paperwork with stamps, signatures, and impressed stamps (not just ink stamps). What are those things worth if they have to go there and check things out anyway? All of that time and effort in getting that original paperwork and going through those steps was wasted because they have to go there and check it all out anyway. This is all new to us - and apparently new to everyone else who can get out in 2-3 days.

I continue to struggle (and am failing) with seeing past the circumstances that cause our delays to see that God is controlling the timing of when we leave Haiti for reasons I may never know. Perhaps I am worn out. That is no excuse, however - I need to persevere better. I am a great example of the love of Christ - why would He continue to put up with me complaining (and continue to forgive me) if He didn't love me. I am much, much less forgiving when the kids do the same thing over and over after being told over and over.

I have so many lessons to learn. The older I get the more I have to learn.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I must confess being on the outside and having a different perspective, I don't understand. I really don't understand the WHY is all of this.

But thank you for pointing out that I need to be more forgiving to my children when they repeatedly do something they should not. I needed to hear that today!

Don't suppose they gave you a useless time line of when to expect them to go verify everything?

Hang tough. We shall call you Old Wise One after this is over. Or would you rather be called Old Crazy One? There's a fine line, you know.

Jan

Ken Schlorf said...

The time line that we are going by is easy to find and seems to be common knowledge. People going through the system know that when they get to this point, they have a week left (to get the visa). We are just doing what everyone else is doing - going by what +90% of the other people have to go through. We could have 60 days (per the website) for them to go through their "administraive processing" before we get the visa. This was not expected and seems to be happening only to us (I have heard of one other not going through fast but that appeared to be because they didn't have anything and they were aware of it).

I will be older. I might be wiser. I definitely am crazier.