Friday, October 16, 2009

Ya Gotta Love It...

So I called our orphanage director just now to try to understand the process further and to see what she knows. I was completely and absolutely (without it being a judgement call) calm and simply asked a couple questions about paperwork -trying to learn about the system (that's what I said: that I was trying to learn).

After my first question, she started yelling in the phone and in my ear. She didn't listen to what I was asking and rather thought I was asking a question about something else. I tried to talk over her yelling over me as I talked and it didn't help. She seemed defensive.

She ended the call after one minute by taking the Lord's name in vain and hanging up on me.

Sometimes I think this process would be easier to go through if we were blinded by the people moving the paperwork. Coming here has given us sight into the way things operate without someone else's colored glasses.

The biggest problem here is that there appears to be little standardization. I attempted to call and find out from a "professional" what the process is that our paperwork goes through. I am trying to set my own expectations based on what needs to be done. If I am looking at other peoples' cases and am not seeing the whole picture, I want to know where I am wrong in my thinking. My attempt to call the "professional" ended up in being hung up on.

From what we can read and understand (I was trying to learn more by calling the orphanage director), we may have 60 days to go through the "administrative process" that is required before we get the visa. This may be due to the fact that we filed under the "Orphans First" program which is/was a pilot program to speed up the adoption process. Ironic isn't it.

Boring Car Stuff...

I don't know about you, but I need a commerical break from the adoption. I got the Toyota transmission finished a day or two ago and it went out today. If I did everything right, it should come back on its own power. I have been messing with a lot of signal and brake lights lately too because we have to get the annual licenses renewed. These roads are rough! (Is it obvious that I am just reaching for things to say here... A boring commerical no doubt.) I need to go pound sand for a little while.

5 comments:

Shea said...

I think God has nothing to do with all this nonsense. I mean I believe he is watching over you and loving you all the way, but all this craziness seems to be parts of PEOPLE'S will some of it is silly, senseless, and just plain dumb. I have decided that I am just going to pray for a miracle for you to get out of Haiti(I was going to use the synonym 4 letter word, but since you are a missionary I'll refrain lol) Please know I am will keep you in my thoughts and prayers. ~HUGS~

Shea
( going to get my reecesrainbow little boy NOV 2!!!!)

Ken Schlorf said...

We have been learning many thing throughout this overall trial of adoption and all of the mini trials within it. I do think that we are being taught things (trust, patience, perseverance and steadfastness - and those are the Christian-life related things, not to mention learning about the process in general and other things).

We have said this a few times to each other: when/if we do get out of here, it will be a miracle. The way they do things here, the way they lose paperwork, the disorganized fashion of +90% of the things done all demonstrate that it's almost as much of a miracle as giving birth itself.

Thank you for your prayers, Shea! We are happy to see that you have a date to get your son!

Anonymous said...

I'm suspecting you just happen to be the peace of paper they grabbed to 'audit'. I think the law has been around that the consular office needs to investigate every orphan to see that they are true orphans. I'm sure Haiti is no different than ET where lately some documents have been forged. I suspect also they just spot check cases and don't really do all the cases. I'm just guessing here. Whatever the explanation, it's frustrating. In the end, you can only do your part and then wait (ever so patiently) while someone else does their part.

So...throw away the calendar. Throw the rule book away. Apparently, everyone has a different version anyway. Is there anyone else you can talk to? Senator? Representative? Not sure.

Wishing you a speedy response.
Jan

Ken Schlorf said...

I had thought the same thing, Jan. When we went in, I wanted to make sure they had the classification of the visa right so I told them that we were living with them (if you have seen the child in person, you get a different/easier classification of visa that requires less overall paperwork). In doing so, I may have ensure the right visa classification AND I may have ensured them choose our case to put through the ringer. Again, we'll never know what madness lies behind the counters and desks here.

Again, our biggest mistake was thinking that we were like everyone else. Now that we have had a few days to get past the fact that we won't be done in a couple of days like most others, I think that we'll (once again) settle in to the fact that we have NO CLUE when we'll really be done.

I am not sure if contacting our representative (again) will do anything. Especially since it has been less than a week - again, it may seem like we are over-anxious but it is because we (like almost everyone else) thought that we'd be done in a couple days not a couple of weeks or a couple of months.

Thank you for your well wishes, Jan!

Shea said...

It took us 18 months to get this court date!! We were the first type of this adoption(hague stuff) in the United States. Though I'm not living in Haiti, I have seen about as much lost paperwork, scratching of heads, and pure guessing as you have lol. Of hague worker actually told us she was trying to use someone else's file as a guinea pig instead of making ours one!!! In the end, we had to get a lawyer involved. Keep your chin up. ~Hugs and prayers~