Tamarah has a passport! Her visa file was submitted to the U.S. Embassy yesterday (July 16th). I am so very happy about this progress, however, there are about 400 children's files still waiting to be signed out of the Ministry of Interior (MOI) so that passports can be issued for these children. I am hoping and praying that things will get moving.
The U.S., Canadian and French Embassies are working on resolving the slow processing time of files in MOI. When a child's file enters MOI, that child already is legally adopted. The child is no longer an orphan. The child has a family! Yet, he/she cannot join his/her family and has to stay inside of the orphanage environment.
Not only that, the adopted child takes up a "space" inside the orphanage that another orphan is waiting for. Children who are in need of medical care, food and shelter are being turned away as a result.
If you are an U.S. family who has been waiting for your child's file to come out of MOI for over one month, email the U.S. Embassy in Port au Prince, Haiti. They are talking directly with the Minister of the Interior Mr. Bien-Aime to get this wait shortened and to get the adopted children home with their forever families. Here is the email address: PAPadoptions@state.gov
P.S. This is one of my favorite photos of Tamarah. She is 18 months old now. In this photo, she was about 10 months old. I had taken photos during my June '07 trip, but my son accidentially erased them when he was downloading them onto my computer.
