Adoptive Mom's Blog

2008-12-31T07:02:00.000-08:00

Things have been so crazy hectic since September and I have neglected my blog. How could I? :))

I finished another semester at law school. I was trying to double up on classes so that I could graduate by July 2009, but there is one class (Constitutional Law - Part 2) that is not offered in the evenings during the Spring 2009 semester...thus I have to take it in the Fall 2009 semester. That means, I won't graduate until Fall 2009. However, I will be taking the Bar Exam in February 2010 and this way, I will prep for the bar exam during the same time that I am in my last semester of law school. So, it is not all bad. :)

Amie is in High School, freshman. She is doing really well academically. Also, she is playing on the Varsity Team for Basketball and finished playing Jr. Varsity Volleyball. She also wants to do track when that season starts. She is 13 years old and stands 6'1'' tall.

The other kids are doing well too. Josh is back from NYC and is focusing on his school work. I am still homeschooling him and it is nice to see that he is serious about his studies and is talking about college. He wants to re-enroll into regular high school for 12th grade. I do not know how he would accomplish that with his modeling, but he may take a one-year break from modeling.

Teddy and Emmanuel are doing well too. We are talking about going back to Africa in the Spring to visit their birth country. I do not think that I can afford to take both of them because the tickets are about $2,000-2,400 per person. So, we will see what happens.

Tamarah and Erna are doing well too. Together they get into so much trouble! Separate, they are well behaved. I have gotten into the habit of taking one or the other when I am out and about running errands, etc. If I take both of them, the encourage each other to get into mischief. Many people think that they are twins.

This is really funny....

2008-09-14T16:39:00.001-07:00

Click on the below link to watch "Saturday Night Live" - a comedy skid on Governor Sarah Palin and Senator Hillary Clinton...it is too funny!

http://www.nbc.com/Saturday_Night_Live/video/clips/palin-hillary-open/656281/

When you click on the link, it shows a commercial first, but then the skit starts.

More Josh Photos...

2008-08-24T07:41:00.000-07:00

Here is a link to the New York Times Magazine where Josh is one of the models of a fashion spread...

www.nytimes.com/indexes/2008/08/17/style/t/index.html#pageName=17strip

Updates & Photos...of Josh

2008-08-23T07:40:00.001-07:00

Joshua is back in New York City now, but he did some work with a great French photographer in Los Angeles while Josh was home. Here are some photos...

Amie's 8th Grade "Graduation"

2008-07-23T09:29:00.000-07:00

Update, July 24: Thanks for the nice congratulatory emails about Amie's promotion and awards. That is really nice to receive. Just for information... somebody congratulated my "Haitian Cutie" -- actually, Amie and Joshua are my biological children. :-)

Original Post, July 23:
On Monday, July 21st, my daughter Amie "graduated" from the 8th grade. She had been attending the Language Academy, a public school within San Diego where students are taught in three languages, Spanish, French and English.
Amie graduated with high honors (3.9 GPA out of a 4.0 possible) and was named the Spanish Graduate of the Year. She gave a speech at the graduation ceremony.

Her principal is to the left of her and one of the school board members is next to the principal. Amie gave her speech in Spanish and in English. Her friend received the French Graduate of the Year award and gave a speech in French and English.

Amie starts high school in September. She has been accepted into the International Baccelorate Program at San Diego High School, one of the top rated high schools in the United States (according to Newsweek Magazine).

I am a proud mom! :-)

Aren't my kids CUTE?!

2008-07-10T19:09:00.001-07:00

Grades are in...

2008-06-02T10:24:00.000-07:00

I ended up with a 4.0 GPA for the Spring 2008 semester. So far, my average is 3.72 GPA for my law school studies. I am what is called a 3L now, meaning one more year left before I am finished with my Juris Doctor degree. :-)

For my European family and friends... 4.0 is the highest grade you can get.

Thanks for all of your support and encouragement!

Finals, kids & losing weight...

2008-05-05T06:03:00.000-07:00

I thought that these two cartoons were so funny. I have been steadily losing weight for the past few months. I "fell off the wagon" once or twice, but am back on it and am "behaving myself"... at least when it comes to food. I have learned that a high protein, low carb eating style works best for me. When I try the low calorie, low fat and high carb eating, then I start binging because I have serious cravings.

Joshua is doing fine now, he is no longer homesick and is back in his routine in NYC. I admire him for his determination to make it in the modeling world. I support him, but I worry about him nonetheless.

Today, I have one law exam from 4:30 p.m. - 9:00 p.m. tonight! I know, what a time to take a law exam, but I work full-time, so when else can I take it, right?

Wish me good luck. ... I have another one at the same time next Monday and then I will be done for the semester. :-)

Updates... :)

2008-05-02T15:38:00.000-07:00

Joshua was home for a couple of weeks. He left again for NYC yesterday morning. I felt so sad seeing him leave. He called me in the evening sounding rather homesick.

I asked him how he could miss his two-year-old slobbering and head-butting sister, his seven-year-old brother who always bothers him, his eight-year-old sister who always complains about him, and his 12-year-old sister who always bosses him around... and he just said,

"Oh mom, but I miss you guys so much!"

He laughed and said that he missed all the things that he always complaints about.
So, I had him promise me to call me twice per day to let me know how he is doing and how he is feeling. I know that once he gets back into the swing of things that he will feel better. He is going to Milan, Italy and Paris, France to do some of the fashion shows in June. He called me today and said that they want him to do some work in South Africa. But, I am not sure about that trip because South Africa has a really high crime rate. We go to Haiti all the time, but he is with family then, so I do not worry. But if he was to go to South Africa, he would be without any family member. It is not supposed to be until July, so we have some time to discuss this.

Here are two photos that I have not posted before, I don't think...

Today was a great day at work. I was informed that my school was awarded the grant that I had written for new document cameras and projectors for classrooms. Today, I got a telephone call that were were awarded the grant...my first grade teachers did a "happy dance" during lunch today because they are the ones who will be getting the document cameras and projectors. $12,000 worth of great technology!

Then, I got an email to tell me that our schools is being honored at a banquet in June for our continued high academic achievement. The award is called: Title I Academic Achievement Award. (Title I is the federal education funding that is given to high poverty schools. About 70% of my school's students are living below the poverty level.)

Mind you...now I need to spend the weekend studying for law exams. I have a four-and-a-half hour exam Monday evening and another one the following Monday evening... YIKES!

Oh yes, and I have Federal Jury Duty on Monday! They will probably excuse me though because I was a police officer before going into education and I am a law student...two things that most attorneys don't like...so I always get excused.

Been busy...

2008-04-22T06:32:00.000-07:00

It has been a while since I updated my blog... I have been so busy. Well...many of you probably have read that people in the U.S. have had trouble paying their mortgages (bank loans) for their homes and many people are losing their homes because they cannot afford the payments.

I had been renting a home for almost three years, faithfully paying the rent, but my landlady did not pay her mortgage for the past 8 months. I ended up with a one-week notice to move out because the bank owned the house now and I had to move. Fortunately, I was able to find a new house fairly fast. It is actually bigger and much nicer than the house that I had been living in. Nonetheless, it was so much work to move! Fortunately, my oldest daughter and her friends helped me to move.

Here are some photos of the new house... It is nice and big, all on one level, no stairs. I now have room to have people come and visit.

What a crazy week...

2008-04-03T20:23:00.000-07:00

By the way, I posted a draft letter to UNICEF on the "other blog": www.achildsvoiceinternational.blogspot.com

Sorry, but I have been really busy this week...crazy busy!

Why - A Child's Voice International Advocacy?

2008-03-26T08:56:00.000-07:00

I have always felt passionate about children and their rights. If you search for organizations that represent children's viewpoints and voices, you won't find many.

Some may point to UNICEF, but in my opinion, UNICEF does not really represent children but represent what their bureaucracy's unrealistic opinions are. You can find lots of other organizations that represent political prisoners, women's issues, adoption agencies, etc. but there are no organizations that speak for the children.

Last year when the issue with the Ministry of Interior came up where adopted children now had families but could not join them because they did not have a passport and could not get issued one without the MOI approval. I searched high and low for an organization that would represent the children's rights to travel to join their families. There was no such organization that would speak up for the children's rights to passports.

As many of you know, I am almost done with law school. I knew going into law school that I would come out as a lawyer who works for children, but I was not sure in what capacity. Now I know that I want to speak for the rights of homeless, abandoned and orphaned children in an international arena.

Children in the developed, first world countries have issues, there is the foster care system, there are child abuse issues, etc. but those issues pale in contrast to what happens to children in third world countries. Adoption is not the solution in third world countries, but it is a temporary assistance to serve the needs of children "right now". The individual countries and the international community have an obligation to improve the lives of the children in-country. The children have a right to not starve to death, they have a right to medical treatment, eduction and a loving home environment. The children have a right to a future.

However, adoption is getting such a bad reputation namely because of UNICEF's concern regarding "child buying" or unethical adoptions. Because of these concerns, some countries are shutting down to adoptions. Take Romania as an example, adoptions shut down and now the children in Romania continue to linger is sub-human conditions and there is no chance of adoption. Very little has been done to improve the lives of those children. What kind of future do these children have? They are abandoned, thown away and unloved. In my opinion, this is a crime against humanity.

What about Haiti? What about Liberia? What about other countries? Is Ehtiopia going to be next?

There are outside forces working really hard to shut down adoptions. For the children's sake, let's not let that happen. That is why I started A Child's Voice International Advocacy. I am hoping that others who care as much about the future and the rights of these children will join in the advocacy and to give those children a voice.

My kids & adoption...

2008-03-26T08:38:00.000-07:00

I just wanted to give friends a personal update... (This is the lazy way to do this because then I do not have to write to everybody.) :-)

Joshua - is doing really well with his modeling. I need to post some more photos, though I do not like some of the current photos because they are too artsy in my opionion. Why do they never smile on modeling photos? They always make the models pout and put on such a serious face. Also, Joshua is doing really well with his school work! I am so proud of him, but he knows that if he does not get good grades, then I won't permit him to be in New York modeling. He is enrolled in ABEKA Christian Academy. It is a great program.
Amie - just got her report card - she is s straight "A" student! Also, she got accepted to San Diego High School's International Baccelorate Program. Additionally, she is doing so well in her basketball. She is 5'11" tall at age 13 and plays in the Boys 15-17 Basketball League because she is so good.
Teddy - is such a joy. She is so helpful with everything around the house. She is such a blessing to have as a daughter. She works really hard in school and most recently won an academic award for her academic improvement. When I first adopted Teddy and Emmanuel from Liberia, both had been starved and thus it affected Teddy's congitive development. I am happy to say that she has caught up. Teddy speaks English and Spanish fluently now.
Emmanuel - is so funny. He really is a mommy's boy. All the other kids tease him about that, poor kid! He is really doing well in school as well. Learning comes easy to him. He is now able to speak English, Spanish and he is learning Kreyol. He really has a talent for languages. He still has some food issues because he panics when he does not get food immediately when he feels hungry. He is getting better though. He is starting to say that he is full and won't continue eating. It has taken us 3 years to get to this point.
Tamarah - is growing so fast! She no longer looks like a baby. She is getting tall and lean. She is headstrong and is doing well potty training one day and the next she refuses to go to the toilet and wants her diaper. She is bossy and tries to get her way. The funniest thing is when she knows that she has gotten into trouble, she goes and times herself out by sitting on the time out chair.

I have started a new blog...

2008-03-24T18:14:00.000-07:00

I have started a new blog that will deal exclusively with children and adoption related issues in Haiti.

http://www.achildsvoiceinternational.blogspot.com/

I have started a small organization named:

A Child's Voice International Advocacy.

You can read the mission statement and focus on the new blog. I will keep this blog to post personal and family updates and photos.

MOI & Other Updates...

2008-03-24T06:31:00.000-07:00

On Thursday, "quite a few" files made their way from the Ministry of Interior (MOI) to the Immigration Office. So, we should hear of kids getting passports pretty soon. I do not know the exact number of files, but for example, one particular orphanage had 12 files released.

Also, several people were fired from the Immigration Office (passport office) for accepting bribes, these people accepted money for getting passports faster. Please keep in mind that this passport office not only issues adoption passports but it also processes the regular Haitian passports as well. I have no idea what passports these individuals were working on, all I know that they were fired and possibly arrested as well for accepting bribes.

In regards to the IBESR files that were released, only orphanages/attorneys with the apporpriate power of attorney for an individual file are allowed to get individual information about that particular file. I was told that files with bio kids were signed as well.

As I receive information, I pass it on via my blog. I cannot find out about individual files, that is beyond the scope of what I can do.

Update - U.S. Embassy - Haiti

2008-03-20T15:39:00.000-07:00

On Wednesday, March 19, we had an almost two-hour meeting, in Washington D.C., with the Department of State, Head of Intercountry Adoption's (Office of Children's Issues), a Consular Officer in charge of Children's Issues in Haiti, a Visa Officer, the Executive Director of the Congressional Coalition on Adoption Institute and the President of EACH to discuss concerns regarding scheduling appointments and processing adoption visas at the U.S. Consulate in Haiti.

The officials were interested in finding solutions to improve the process and to make it more user friendly for adoption professionals and adoptive families. It was a very constructive and positive meeting.

We were able to discuss some of the delays families have been experiencing recently with obtaining birth-parent and visa interviews and explained certain problems that have been encountered due to conflicts between Haitian law and U.S. law.

The State Department officials were very attentive and generous with their time. We will be following up with suggestions on how the process can be more "user friendly."

IBESR signs out 100 adoption files!

2008-03-19T04:02:00.000-07:00

I have been so busy in the last couple of weeks that I have not had a chance to update my blog. Sorry about that...I got some "complaining" emails about that... :-)

IBESR has signed out 100 adoption files (this includes files of adoptive parents with biological children)
MOI has a printer problem and thus no authorization letters for Immigration can be printed, this issue should be resolved by Monday.
The San Diego Women and Children's Human Rights Conference was a HUGE success

The So. California Adoption Reuion with the Haitian Ambassador in attendance was another HUGE success.

I will post more extensive updates soon... I promise!

Haiti Conference Presenters:

Presenters from Left to Right: Raymond A. Joseph (Haitian Ambassador to the U.S.), Barbara Walker (Reach out to Haiti), front- Professor Tiefenbrun, back- Mario Jospeh (Human Right Lawyer - Haiti), Me, A. Rodon Bien-Aime (Haitian Congressman), Professor Mattar (Human Trafficking Expert)

So. California Haitian Adoption Reunion:

Request for Information from U.S. Families

2008-03-04T18:30:00.000-08:00

I have received lots of emails overnight, trying to keep up with them... What I need from families is the following information:

Adopting Parent(s) Name:_________
Orphanage Name:________
Home State:______
Email:______
Telephone Number:________
Child(ren)'s Name(s):
Disposition: ______ Have you been waiting for a visa appointment, for how long? Have you requested an appointment? What happened? Were you told to get new relinquishments? Etc. State any issues that you are having getting your child's visa.

If you are one of the families in the process of waiting for an orphan investigation appointment and/or a visa appointment, can you please email me.

McLane from EACH emailed me to ask me for those stats. Several families have contacted her about this matter, but she wants more definate numbers.

Please only email me if your Haitian adoption is COMPLETE and you are waiting for an orphan investigation and/or visa appointments.

U.S. Embassy Requirement...

2008-03-04T04:25:00.000-08:00

Things are moving on the slow side at the U.S. Consulate in Haiti in terms of processing orphan investigations and in the issuance of visas as many adoptive parents who have finally made it out of the Haitian process are learning.

One of the requirements of the U.S. Consulate is that each Haitian adoption related document is studied in detail by the consular officer, Ms. McCarthy. Once she has completed studying the documents, she lets the orphanage representative know if she wants different types of documents.

This can happen in terms of relinquishment documents. For example, if your documents do not have the Tribunal book and page number on it, your orphanage has to go and get that done.

Also, in terms of orphan investigations, they are taking longer at the U.S. Consulate. In the past all those investigations were conducted by the USCIS office in Port au Prince because of security concerns in Haiti. Since it is safer now, the Dept. of State (U.S. Consulate) has retaken the function of orphan investigation, as is customary.

I have gotten many emails in regards to how long it is taking at the U.S. Consulate in terms of getting orphan investigations and visa appointments completed. You can contact your U.S. Senator and U.S. Congressman/woman if you have concerns regarding this part of the process. They may be of assistance to you. Also, I encourage all adoptive parents to join EACH at www.eqalityforadoptedchildren.org and put your concerns in the comment section as you join. Joining is free, but donations are always appreciated. McLane, the founder of EACH has a long history of advocating at the U.S. Dept. of State and USCIS for issues regarding the adoption process on the U.S. side of things.

I hope this information is helpful to you. It is frustrating to have "everybody" study the same documents over and over again, as this is what happens in MOI (on the Haitian side of things). All this appears to be in response to the concerns that UNICEF has expressed in terms of its alleged child trafficking in Haitian adoptions.

I am still waiting for the UNICEF representative to provide me with the statistics of trafficked children in Haitian adoptions that he claimed he had we I met with him in December 2007.

My article was published....

2008-03-02T20:05:00.000-08:00

I just got back from Germany tonight...it was a 12 hour flight from Frankfurt to Dallas, TX. Then I had two hours to make it through customs, change terminals, etc. and then another three-hour flight home... Anyway...if anybody wants a pdf file copy of the article let me know. I do not know how to upload it in that format.

The article was published in the San Francisco Daily Journal and ran on Thursday, Februrary 28th.

Love and Haiti

By Vera Valdivia
The country of Haiti is located just 600 miles off the coast of Florida. It is the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere and one of the poorest in the world. Additionally, Haiti has one of the worst records of human rights violations in the world.

It is time for a call to action, which is why on Friday, March 7, 2008, at Thomas Jefferson School of Law in San Diego, a panel consisting of legal academics, Haitian government officials, a Haitian human rights lawyer and women and children’s rights activists are coming together to discuss these egregious violations.

In Haiti, political activities result in the violation of human rights through kidnapping and torture, poor people are detained in jails without legal representation for stealing a loaf of bread, girls and women are forced into prostitution, children are used as household slaves, thousands of children die from malnutrition and illness, and hundreds of babies die at birth or shortly thereafter.

The Haitian legal system is not available to protect the victims because only people with financial resources can afford justice. In Haiti, about 10 percent of the population holds 90 percent of the wealth. Consequently, the economically powerless, especially women and children, suffer unspeakable abuses and do not have access to the protection of law. Many of the tiniest victims of this abuse end up in one of the morgues located in the capital city of Port-au-Prince. The morgue I saw resembles a toy store with what looks like hundreds of toy dolls on storage shelves in a large dark room. However, they are not dolls but dead babies and children who are stacked on top of one another on shelves that reach all the way to the ceiling. Nobody seems to cry for these dead children, nobody asks how or why they died. Nobody comes to claim their bodies.
Many of the dead babies were born to the girls and women who have been forced into prostitution for various reasons, and as a result many unwanted babies are born. Babies end up in garbage piles on the side of the road, inside of sewer drains or in the river drowned. Some of the babies are born out of liaisons between the prostitutes and U.N. peacekeeping troops.

American, Canadian, French and Dutch nonprofi t humanitarian or church-sponsored organizations operate and fund many of the Haitian orphanages that provide shelter to some of the unwanted, abandoned and orphaned babies and older children. Several of these organizations seek adoptive homes for the children and, since the mid-1990s, thousands of Haitian children have found permanent homes with families in the United States, Canada, France, the Netherlands, Spain, Belgium, Ireland, Argentina and Germany. Although international adoption is not the long-term solution for the plight of so many of Haiti’s children, it provides homes to unwanted children while the Haitian government and the international community should be working on making fundamental changes in the country’s economic and legal system.

UNICEF has expressed its concern to the Haitian government regarding the deplorable conditions under which the majority of Haitian children have to live. Although UNICEF does not have the financial resources to improve the situation of the abandoned and orphaned children, it told the Haitian government that “too many children” were adopted internationally.

In 2006, approximately 1,059 formerly abandoned and orphaned Haitian children joined their adoptive families in the above-mentioned countries. This number dropped dramatically in 2007, when only approximately 724 adopted Haitian children joined their new families. However, this decrease is not a result of a drop in numbers of abandoned or orphaned children because Haitian orphanages are still filled beyond capacity, and needy children are turned away daily because there is no more room.

Some powerful judicial and government offi cials appear to have taken notice of UNICEF’s concern regarding the large numbers of children leaving the country through adoption. One of the judicial officials, a powerful judge with the title of chief prosecutor of the Port-au-Prince parquet (the main court), is in charge of approving international adoptions for orphanages located within the capital’s judicial district. Another government official works within the Ministry of Interior who has been placed in charge of approving passport applications for adopted children who are about to leave the country to live with their new families.

In 2007, the chief prosecutor began refusing to sign adoption decrees even though the petitions have been approved by the home countries of the adopting families after thorough screening and
by IBESR, the Haitian Social Services Ministry. More than 300 adoption files have been stuck in his office during 2007. These adoption files represent 300 children who remain in orphanages waiting, while their prospective adoptive parents hope that the chief prosecutor will have a miraculous change of heart and sign the decrees.

One of the problems with the Haitian legal system, which is based on French Napoleonic codes, is that as new laws are passed by the legislature, old laws are not repealed and stay on the books. One of these old, unrepealed laws only permits childless singles or couples to adopt. The law had not been applied in years, but the chief prosecutor cites this particular law as the reason he has not signed off on the adoption decrees. In response to the existence of the old law, Haitian President René Préval has issued letters of exemption for these families granting a presidential pardon and permitting the adoption. The chief prosecutor, however, has continued with his refusal to sign the adoption fi les. Conversely, many of the waiting adoption files are of childless singles or couples, and the chief prosecutor has refused to sign those adoption decrees as well, without citing a reason. Some of the adoption files have been waiting in the main court for a year.

Since January 2007, the Ministry of Interior has been in charge of reviewing all documents related to completed adoptions that have been processed and legalized by the different Parquet (court) locations in Haiti and the few adoptions that the chief prosecutor has signed. The passport office is not permitted to issue passports for adopted children without an approval letter from the Ministry of Interior. Approximately 500 completed adoption files are
currently awaiting such approval. Some fi les have been waiting for passport approval for the past 12 months. In the meantime, adopted children who are no longer abandoned or orphaned cannot join their new families because they cannot leave the country without a Haitian passport.

Instead of focusing on the real problems and working to make effective changes that will improve the lives of children, these offi cials have reduced the number of adopted children who left the country during 2007 by about 32 percent. Hundreds of children whose files are stuck in the adoption process or who are waiting for passports remain in orphanages. Other children, without a prospect for a better future, continue to be homeless, malnourished and ill.

Haiti is desperately in need of possible solutions to its human rights crisis and changes to its legal system. These fundamental changes have to be made in order to improve Haiti’s human rights record and to improve the lives of all Haitians, but especially those of women and children.

On my way to Germany...

2008-02-26T06:45:00.000-08:00

....I am on my way to Germany and won't be back until Sunday night. My favorite uncle died. :-(

Anyway...he died in his sleep of a heart attack. The sad thing is that he was only 62 years old. He was one of the most fun people I have ever come across. He was somebody you could go out and steal horses with. :) He actually taught me how to ride horse and used to train me when I used to ride competitive horse jumping and dressage.

I will very much miss him as will my kids...he was never married and never had kids. (He was a bit of a playboy.) My kids loved him because they felt how much he loved kids. (I guess it was easy for him because he never had to change a dirty diaper, etc. He just got to have the kids to have fun with and to play tricks on us, the parents.)

This is a photo of Alfons, my uncle, he is the guy in the yellow shirt on the right.

I am not sure how much internet access I will have while in Germany. I am bringing my laptop, but am not sure how it will work with the 220 voltage.

I will get to see my sister and my niece. I will also spend some time with my friend Astrid who adopted two children from Haiti a few years ago. Also, I will get to see my great-uncle.

I am taking Tamarah with me...she is getting some serious frequent flier miles!

Misc. Updates...

2008-02-25T06:43:00.000-08:00

1) I was asked to write an editorial-opinion piece for a newspaper regarding the situation in Haiti. I submitted my final draft to the editor over the weekend. I will post it on the blog once it has been published. The editorial is supposed to be published prior to the San Diego conference.

I never know what happens in the editing process, but in my final draft, I addressed the UNICEF involvement in Haitian adoptions, and what happened in Parquet and MOI during 2007.

2) I have gotten several responses from adoptive families stuck in Parquet. The orphanages and adoption lawyers have to also give their consent.

3) I have submitted my thesis statement (12 pages) and annotated bibliography (8 pages) to the Law Review Journal Committee for review. I will have a meeting next week were they will pick it apart and I have to do a "thesis defense" as part of the writing process. Of course my law review article deals with international adoptions.

4) Remember, the U.S. Consulate is closed for the month of April 2008 because they are moving from their downtown building to the newly constructed U.S. Embassy at the outskirt of Port-au-Prince. During that time no adoption visas will be issued.

5) I hope that you guys don't get tired of me posting Joshua photos...

New Photos of Josh...

2008-02-23T09:14:00.000-08:00

So, I cannot help myself... I am a mommy after all and mommies like to brag about their babies...here are some more photos from some photo shoots this past week of Joshua. Why don't they ever smile in magazine kind of photos?

Call for Action...2007 Haitian Adoptions

2008-02-20T06:44:00.000-08:00

Following are the number of Haitian children who joined their adoptive families in 2007 compared to 2006. So far, by my calculations (and I am still waiting for formal statistics from the US Government and Canada - I have Quebec's statistics, but am missing the other Canadan stats. though I am presuming about 44 children for the other Canadian provinces) in 2006 - 1059 adopted children from Haiti joined their forever families, however in 2007, only 724 adopted children from Haiti joined their forever families.

That is a 32% decrease of Haitan children joining their families. This decrease is not because there are less families trying to adopt abandoned or orphaned Haitian children, this decrease reflects how many children's adoptions are stuck within the Haitian system (IBESR, Parquet and ultimately Ministry of Interior).

If the adoption process had been continuing in a smooth manner, and using the statistics of increased adoptions of about 20% per year, it is my estimation that about 1200-1300 children total would have come home to their forever families in 2007. This means that about 500 children's adoptions are stuck somewhere in the adoption process.

France:
2006 - 571 adopted children from Haiti
2007 - 403 adopted children from Haiti (168 fewer - 30% decrease)
Source: http://www.diplomatie.gouv.fr/fr/IMG/pdf/chiffres_adoption_2007.pdf

USA:
2006 - 309 adopted children from Haiti
2007 - 195 adopted children from Haiti as of Dec. 15, 2007 (114 fewer - 37% decrease)

Canada:
2006 - 123
2007 - ??? ** Can you help get me the official statistics?
2007 - 44 *Quebec statistics (66 in 2006)http://www.adoption.gouv.qc.ca/site/fr_statistiques.phtml

The Netherlands:
2006 - 41
2007 - 28 (13 fewer - 32% decrease)
Source: www.wereldkinderen.nl/site.php?=47
www.stichtingflash.nl/wachtlijstenoverzicht.phtml
http://www.nederlandseadoptiestichting.nl/

Spain:
2006 - 15
2007- 10 (*Spain abandoned Haitian adoptions, however approximately 20 families who started the adoption prior to Spain's closing its doors to adoptions in Haiti are still waiting for their children.) (5 fewer - 33% decrease)

As we know, UNICEF is putting a lot of pressure on the Haitian government, telling them that too many children are being adopted internationally. (I was told the same thing by the UNCEF representative in Haiti during a face to face meeting in December 2007.)

Thus, the Haitian response has been to make the adoptions more difficult. For example, Gassant in Parquet is refusing to sign adoption decrees and the Ministry of Interior was not authorizing adopted children's passports.

UNICEF should be really proud of itself because less children are leaving the country.

BUT, did they solve the problem of the Haitian children? Many of the children have adopting families and they continue to live in orphanages, institutionalized.

Many other children continue to live on the streets, hungry and sick, many dying. There is no assistance that is being provided to make those children's lifes better.

This has to change and it is going to take an international effort of people who care for the children of Haiti to come together and expose what is really happening in response of the UNICEF pressure on the Haitian government.

I had a meeting with Mario Joseph, leading human rights lawyer in Haiti. He agreed to assist in this effort. I briefed him on what is happening in Parquet with Mr. Gassant's refusal to sign adoption decrees of families seeking to adopt Haitian orphans/abandoned children who have biological children. (Actually, he is not even signing adoption decrees for families with no biological children.)

In order to assist in highlighting the plight of the Haitian children who are stuck in limbo because of Mr. Gassant's actions, Mr. Joseph needs the cooperation of families and their orphanages/ orphanages' lawyers. He needs to highlight individual cases to Mr. Gassant in order to question the legality of his actions (or inactions).

He plans to hold a meeting with Mr. Gassant and if there is no result in response to the meeting, he plans to go on Haitian radio and TV to address the problem and to expose what is happening.

I know that some families and orphanages might be afraid to take this action, but without action, we are at a literal stand-still in Parquet.

MOI's issue in signing passport authorizations used to be a problem, but it is running much smoother now and that is in part because of the grassroots effort of adopting families.

Update on Josh...

2008-02-20T06:42:00.000-08:00

Josh called me yesterday...he was picked by Louis Vuitton to do some modeling for them. Sorry... I had to brag a little... :)

MOI Update...

2008-02-16T09:53:00.001-08:00

... 51 files were signed out of MOI last week and are in Immigration. :-)

U.S. Citizenship - IR 4 Visa

2008-02-12T09:21:00.000-08:00

If your child came to the U.S. on an IR4 visa (most of the time that type is issued when the child was not seen by both parents or by the single parent prior to his/her adoption), you must readopt your child in your home state.

If your child came on an IR4 visa, he/she is considered a "resident alien" and is not a U.S. citizen. According to my research, from FY 2000-2005, almost 40,000 adopted children entered the U.S. on IR4 visas.

In conducting some research, I have learned that over the past five years, nine adults who were adopted as infants by U.S. citizens were deported to their "home countries" for varying reasons. The adopted adult children's parents had not followed through in obtaining their children's citizenship.

In some states, the process of readoption is really simple, but in other states it is a more complicated and expensive process. You need to check on your state's laws regarding what is needed to readopt your child.

Once your child is readopted, he/she is supposed to be a citizen, however, you really do not have proof of his/her citizenship. This can really create a problem because in the USCIS records, your child a "resident alien" still.

You need to apply for a Certificate of Citizenship for him/her. You can also apply for a passport, but passports expire every 5 years and have to be renewed.

You need to apply for a Certificate of Citizenship from U.S. Immigration. This also lets USCIS know that you "finalized" the adoption by readopting your adopted child. This is expensive to do, but you must follow through with the process.

What documentation can I get of my child's citizenship?
If your child permanently resides in the U.S, you can obtain evidence of your child’s citizenship by applying for a Certificate of Citizenship. You will need to file form N-600 (Application for Certificate of Citizenship) and submit it to the local USCIS District Office or Sub-Office that holds jurisdiction over your permanent residence. You can also apply for a U.S. passport from the Department of State.

What forms do I file and what are the fees?
If your child permanently resides in the U.S., you can apply for evidence of citizenship by filing form N-600 (Application for Certificate of Citizenship). If you are filing on behalf of an adopted minor child, the fee is $420.
http://www.uscis.gov/files/form/N-600.pdf

Where should I file the forms?
If your child permanently resides in the U.S., you can file form N-600 (Application for Certificate of Citizenship) at the USCIS District Office or Sub-Office that that holds jurisdiction over your permanent residence.

What resources are available to answer questions about the Child Citizenship Act?
For more information about the CCA application procedures and forms, you may contact our National Customer Service Center at 1-800-375-5283. USCIS has also made available field guidance and public materials to all information officers and other front line staff to aid them in answering questions.

New York Trip - Part 2

2008-02-11T15:57:00.000-08:00

I will post photos later... I got back to San Diego from NYC last night (Sunday). I almost missed my plane. I had underestimated how long the subway would take to the airport. I arrived at the airport at 6:00 p.m. and my plane was scheduled to leave at 6:20 p.m. Fortunately, the American Airline's counter lady helped me jump the line at security and I ran all the way to the airplane! It was far! I have not run like that for a long time, at least prior to my knee surgery three years ago. I was so exhausted when I got the gate...coughing and sweating, but I made it!

Get this...I barely make it onto the plane in time before the doors closed, but then we sat on the runway, waiting for over one hour because there were 40 airplanes in front of us, in queue waiting to take off. Apparently, JFK airport reduced the take-offs to one runway because there was a really strong 50+ miles/hour surface wind. It was not bumpy taking off and flying back to San Diego. I got a lot of studying done! :-)

I had a wonderful time in NYC with Josh. On Sunday, it started snowing. I never realized that Josh had never seen snow falling before. When it started, he asked me, "Mom, is that ash coming down?"

At first, I thought that he was kidding, but then I realized that even though he has seen snow on the ground before when we were up in the mountains, he had never actually seen snow falling. Living in Southern California, he had seen ash falling from the sky from the wild fires, that is why he asked that question.

I told him that it was snow falling and he said, "Oh, I thought that snowflakes were bigger."

I asked him how big he thought they were going to be and replied that he thought that they would be the size of papercut snowflakeds (you know the ones you cut out with scissors). I almost fell to the ground laughing. Imagine big snowballs falling from the sky! --- After that, we had a good laugh. :-)

I said good-bye to Josh as he was going to catch a taxi back to his apartment and I was going to go down the stairs into the subway. I started to hyperventilate and had a bit of a panic attack about leaving "my boy" in NYC all by himself... But, he is doing really well, so I told myself to "knock it off"! :-) What can I say, I am his mom and he is "my boy", right?!

New York Trip

2008-02-09T17:15:00.000-08:00

I left San Diego at 9:30 p.m. Friday night and connected to a flight to New York in Los Angeles on an overnight flight. I arrived in New York (JFK airport) at 7:45 a.m. Saturday morning. I figured out how to take the subway to Grand Central Station in downtown New York because I have a room at the Grand Central Hyatt Hotel for the night. It cost $7 to take the subway versus $70 for a taxi. I felt really smart, until I changed subways and got on the wrong one... LOL... but I figured out really quick that the subway that I had gotten on was going in the wrong direction.

I met up with Joshua when I got to the hotel. It is really nice but rather expensive. We went to Soho today, visited Grand Central Station (it has really beautiful architecture) and went to Times Square as well.

I wanted to catch a show, but Joshua insisted that we go and watch a movie. Can you believe that I am flying a total of 5,000 miles for a weekend and instead of seeing a Broadway Show, I went to watch a dumb movie!?!

Times Square Photos...

Photos from the Soho area of New York...

I really liked all the shops!

Where is Joshua?

I kept trying to take photos of Joshua and he kept saying, "Mom, stop! I hate it when you take my photos!" --- He is a model who does not like for his mommy to take his photos?! What is going on? :-)

My camera is not fast, so it takes several seconds to snap the photo...enough time for Josh to turn his head or cover his face...SILLY!!!

.....BUT I finally caught him!!!
We are having a lot of fun though... Tomorrow, we are going to have breakfast and will go and see his apartment. I will get to meet his other model roommates. I imagine them to be worse than teenage girls. :-)

I am leaving back for San Diego tomorrow evening at 6:30 p.m. Overall, New York seems to be a lot of fun, lots of great shops, restaurants...and it is so very busy out there on the streets. Maybe we will have time to visit Central Park tomorrow.

P.S.

2008-02-08T06:38:00.000-08:00

I still need copies/information about the immigration laws pertaining to adopted children from the following countries:
1) The Netherlands
2) Germany
3) Spain

IBESR & Parquet

2008-02-08T06:21:00.000-08:00

By the way... I am leaving tonight for NYC to see my son Josh. I am only staying until Sunday evening though. I am really looking forward to seeing him. :-)

Okay...on to the topic...Quite a few families are wondering why they have been stuck in IBESR for over 6-9 months now without being approved for adoption. Upon further checking, I have learned that families' files are stuck because they have biological children and need a "presidential pardon" letter. Some families with "too many children" are having their adoption request denied because IBESR knows that Mr. Gassant (the man in charge of Parquet - The Chief Prosecutor) is enforcing the old law of having no bio children.

I know what you are thinking...it makes absolutely no sense to me either. What future do the children have in the alternative from the adoptions that have been denied by Mr. Gassant? All we can do is pray and to remember that God is control. Also, some families are talking about petitioning President Preval regarding this situation.

Some files are taking longer to get through IBESR because of UNICEF's pressure regarding child trafficking in Haiti. As a response, IBESR is going through the adoption file documents with a fine-tooth comb and are rejecting documents for typos or misspellings. Having to obtain new documents (often they are in need of new Archive documents) can take a while, sometimes several months.

Once the files are approved by IBESR, they have to go through Parquet (Mr. Gassant's office) who is currently only signing adoptions for families without biological children. Other files sit around for months without movement.

I get emails from people asking what to do about the situation regarding Mr. Gassant/Parquet. I cannot give answers to that...aside from: pray!

My heart breaks for those families and children because there is a future for an abandoned child and that is being prevented by one person! The Haitian adoption process is one that is unpredictable and it reminds me of the staircase in the Harry Potter movies (you know, the one that constantly moves around and changes). It is frustrating and discouraging, but I am hoping that the situation will resolve itself. After all, how can one person (who is not the elected president) have what appears to be almost limitless powers, above the law and without any compassion for his country's children?!

Assistance needed....

2008-02-04T13:51:00.000-08:00

Before I get to the "assistance needed" part, I want to make all of you aware of the fact that this week Monday and Tuesday is Carnival in Haiti. It will end on Wednesday in form of Ash Wednesday which is the beginning of the lent season in the Catholic religion.

Thus, don't expect much work progress this week. Even if somebody was to try to work, streets are closed and traffic is stopped during processions of carnival celebrators. A couple of weeks ago, there was "carnival practice" and it was almost impossible to get from point A to point B in Port au Prince.

Okay, now to the Assistance Needed Part:

I was hoping that families who are adopting from France, the Netherlands, and Canada (specifically) could tell me about their immigration laws pertaining to adopted children. Do your children arrive on a visa? How do they get citizenship?

In the U.S., two types of visas are issued to adopted children, one is the IR3 visa that gives the adopted child automatic citizenship upon entry into the U.S.

The other types of visa is the IR4 visa that allows a child to enter the U.S. as a "permanent resident alien". Adoptive parents have to do what is called a "readoption" (a process that differs greatly between the different 50 U.S. states - varying from filling out a form and attaching the foreign adoption decree to having to basically go through another adoption again at great expens). Once the "readoption" is done, the adoptive family has to formally apply for U.S. citizenship from US Immigration. Without families taking these steps, their children remain citizens of their country of origin and remain on an immigrant visa.

Many families do not go through the readoption process which can potentially result in the deportation of the adopted child under certain circumstance (i.e. if the child is convicted of a felony crime).

IR4 visas are issued, for example, in cases where the adoption was done via proxy (as is the case for many adoptions in Haiti) where the adopting family did not meet the child in person prior to the adoption or where only one parent of two adopting parents met the child prior to the adoption.

How does France, Canada and the Netherlands handle this kind of situation? Thank you very much for your support and emails....

Joshua Bragging Time...

2008-02-01T16:04:00.000-08:00

Some of you already know that my son Joshua is into modeling... Well, he is in NYC right now, living in a model apartment in the Upper Eastside of Manhattan, doing his "modeling thing". He is only 16...

Anyway... here is a video of the Duckie Brown designer fashion show he did today. Also here is a photo of my baby boy... modeling at that show.

Click on the link for the video: http://www.mbfashionweek.com/newyork/fall2008/designers/duckie_brown/index.html

Once you are on the designer's page, click on the link to watch the fashion show video... Josh is the 5th model into the show.

I am allowed to brag a little bit...right? :-)

Save the Date - Invitation!

2008-01-23T20:37:00.000-08:00

Children & Women's Human Rights in Haiti Conference
San Diego, California
Thomas Jefferson School of Law
Friday, MARCH 7, 2008
1:00 - 6:00 p.m.
Admission - Free
RSVP to rward@tjsl.edu
* More detailed info below

Southern California Haitian Adoption Reunion
Mission Bay Park
Saturday, March 8, 2008

Afternoon -TBA
Admission - Free
RSVP to sunfunliving@yahoo.com

****************************

Women and Children’s Rights in Haiti

Thomas Jefferson School of Law
Courtyard Building
2120 San Diego Ave., San Diego, California 92110

Friday, March 7, 2008 1:00 – 6:00 p.m.

Conference Schedule & Topics:

1:00 Welcome
Moderator: Professor Susan Tiefenbrun, Director Center for Global Legal Studies at Thomas Jefferson School of Law

1:15 Ambassador Raymond A. Joseph, Haitian Ambassador to the United States,
“Setting the Stage for Reform in Haiti: Children and Women’s Rights, Corruption, and
Security”

2:00 Deputy Rodon A. Bien-Aime, Senator to Haitian Parliament
“Children in Rural Districts of Haiti: Orphans and Abandoned Children Have Human
Rights Too”

2:45 Ms. Barbara Walker, Head of NGO Reach Out to Haiti
“Improving the Lives of Homeless Women in Prostitution and Children in Haiti”

3:30 Coffee Break – Drinks and snacks available

3:45 Professor Mohamed Y. Mattar, Executive Director of Protection Project at Johns Hopkins University
“Trafficking of Children in Haiti and Haiti’s New Trafficking Law”

4:30 Vera Valdivia, Law Student at Thomas Jefferson School of Law
“Children’s Rights, International Adoptions, and UNICEF in Haiti”

5:15 Concluding Remarks
Women and Children’s Rights in Haiti

Admission is Free to the Conference.

RSVP to Randy Ward at rward@tjsl.edu or 619.297.9700 ext. 1415

At the Beach at Wahoo Bay

2008-01-22T18:14:00.000-08:00

My mother-in-law, Teddy, Emmanuel and niece in the rowboat.
Johnny & Teddy in the pool.
View of the beach area.
Emmanuel "battling" the waves.
Enjoying the sunshine.
Going on the boat ride.

1081 Signatures on Petition!

2008-01-17T13:14:00.000-08:00

I just finished editing the signatures of the petition. Unfortunately, I had the remove the "anoymous" signatures, but we still ended up with 1081 total signatures.

I will try to upload the finished petition as a pdf file to my blog --- if I can figure out how to do that....

The petition will be delivered to Haiti on Friday.

Petition - Proposed Haitian Adoption Law

2008-01-09T06:51:00.001-08:00

Update: http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/Haiti-Adoption-Law/

DEADLINE TO SIGN: Wednesday, January 16th,

Midnight, California Time

Quite a few people have signed the petition "anonymous" --- Unfortunately, those signatures will have to be removed when I put the petition together for the Haitian Parliament & Senate because "anonymous" is not a signature. We had this issue with a previous letter regarding MOI - there were some in Haiti that used the fact that there were "anonymous" signatures on the petition to try to discredit the petition.
Countries --- it is really important to add what country you are from. Hardly anybody did this in the comment section. It will be a much more powerful petition if the countries are listed. You can email me directly with your country (just give me your signature #) I will add it to the final version.
Two other issues have been raised, Article 32 - only allows adoption agency adoptions, eliminating all independent adoptions and there have been suggestions of raising the age limit to 55 instead of 50 as is currently proposed. After much discussion, including talks with some adoption organizations in Haiti, I have decided not to include the two additional issues in this petition. The thought is that if we have a list of things that we want to have changed, we won't be heard. But if we turn in a petition with one point and almost 1,000 signatures, then we might make an impact. (You have to look at this from the point of a sovereign government. You have a bunch of foreigners trying to tell you to change a proposed law in your country. I think that we would really be "pushing it" if we added the other points to the petition.)

Please sign the petition. In the comment section write whether you have adopted already, you are in the process of adopting or your are a prospective adoptive parent.

The deadline to sign the petition will be Wednesday, January 16 at midnight California time because the petition needs to get to Haiti on Thursday, January 17. Please help spread the word...we need as many signatures as possible from as many countries as possible.

We will need help to spread the word to the different countries. Scroll down to see the English, French & Dutch version of the petition.

Thank you for your assistance....
English Version:

Dear Members of Parliament,
Dear Members of the Senate,

We would like to humbly request to hear from us regarding the proposed adoption law that is under your consideration to be voted into law.

We represent the adoptive parents who have had the honor in the past to adopt a child, are currently in the process of adopting a child or are wanting to adopt a child from Haiti.

We come from many different countries, France, United States, Canada, the Netherlands, Germany, Belgium, Argentina, Switzerland, Ireland and Great Britain.

We have a heart and love for the children of Haiti and consider it an honor to be able to raise a Haitian child as our own child, to provide that child with a loving home, a good education, medicalc are, and all his/her needs.

However, with the proposed adoption law as it is written currently,many families would be prevented from adopting because of the two-child-limit. We would like to humbly propose that the child-limit be increased to four children.

In order to adopt internationally, no matter what country we are from, we all have to go through similar steps to get adoption approval from our respective countries. One of those steps is an examination of our finanical records, visits to our homes, interviews with friends, family members or employers, etc. to ensure that the family can financially and emotionally provide for an additional child or children. If the family would not be able to provide such care to the additional child or children, then our respective governments would not give the prospective adoptive family permission to adopt a child or children from Haiti.

Reducing the number of children in the prospective adoptive family to two children would severely decrease the number of families that can adopt from Haiti. This child limit would prevent many abandoned or orphaned Haitian children from being adopted into loving homes.

We plead with you to reconsider this issue and humbly request for you to increase the number of children to four children.

Thank you and may God bless you.

French Version:

Chers Membres du parlement,
Chers Membres du Sénat,

Nous souhaiterions humblement vous demander de bien vouloir écouter nos doléances concernant la proposition de nouvelle loi sur l'adoption qui est soumise à votre considération pour être votée.

Nous représentons les parents adoptifs qui ont eu l'honneur par le passé d'adopter un enfant, qui sont actuellement en procédure d'adoption d'un enfant ou qui souhaitent adopter un enfant d'Haïti.

Nous venons de nombreux et différents pays, la France, les Etats Unis, le Canada, les Pays-Bas, l'Allemagne, la Belgique, l'Argentine, la Suisse, l'Irlande et la Grande-Gretagne.

Nous avons du coeur et de l'amour pour les enfants d'Haïti et considérons comme un honneur de pouvoir élever un enfant haïtien devenu notre propre enfant, de fournir à cet enfant un foyer aimant, une bonne éducation, des soins médicaux et de pourvoir à tous ses besoins.

Cependant, avec la nouvelle proposition de loi sur l'adoption, telle qu'est est écrite actuellement, de nombreuses familles ne pourront plus adopter en raison de la limite de deux enfants.
Nous souhaiterions humblement proposer que cette limite du nombre d'enfants soit élevée à 4 enfants.

Pour réaliser une adoption 'internationale, quel que soit le pays d'où nous venons, chacun d'entre nous doit passer les mêmes étapes pour obtenir une autorisation d'adopter de nos pays respectifs.
L'une de ces étapes est un examen de nos ressources financières, des visites à notre domicile, des questionnaires à nos amis, aux membres de notre famille, à nos employeurs etc... afin de s'assurer que la famille peut financièrement et émotionnellement prendre en charge un nouvel enfant.
Si la famille n'était pas en mesure d'assurer de tels soins à un nouvel enfant, alors nos gouvernements respectifs ne nous donneraient pas la permission d'adopter qui s'appelle " l'agrément à l'adoption" d'un enfant d'Haïti.

Réduire à deux le nombre d'enfants pour les futurs familles adoptives fera considérablement baisser le nombre de familles qui adoptent en Haïti. Cette limite du nombre d'enfants empêchera de nombreux enfants haïtiens abandonnés ou orphelins d'être adoptés dans des foyers aimants.

Nous vous supplions de reconsidérer cette possibilité et vous prions humblement d'augmenter le nombre d'enfants à 4 enfants.

Nous vous remercions et vous prions d'agréer l'expression de notre plus profond respect.

Que Dieu vous bénisse.

Spanish Version:

Estimados Miembros del Parlamento
Estimados Miembros del Senado

Desearíamos humildemente la posibilidad de que consideren nuestra propuesta en la ley de adopción que está próxima a ser debatida para ser votada.

Representamos a los padres adoptivos que han tenido el honor de adoptar un niño, a los que están actualmente involucrados en el proceso, y a los que desean adoptar un niño de Haití.

Somos de diferentes países, Francia, Estados Unidos, Holanda, Alemania, Bélgica, Argentina, Suiza, Irlanda y Gran Bretaña.

Amamos a los niños haitianos y consideramos un honor el poder criarlo como propio, brindarle un hogar con amor, una buena educación, cuidados médicos y cubrir todas sus necesidades.

Sin embargo, con la ley de adopción propuesta como está escrita en la actualidad, muchas familias estarían impedidas para adoptar debido al límite de dos niños. Nos gustaría proponer humildemente que el límite de niños se aumente a cuatro.

Para adoptar internacionalmente, sin importar de que país somos, todos tenemos que atravesar por pasos similares para conseguir la aprobación de nuestros países respectivos. Uno de dichos pasos es una investigación de nuestros registros financieros, visitas a nuestros hogares, entrevistas con amigos, familiares o empleados, etc, para asegurarse que la familia pueda afrontar financiera y emocionalmente la adopción de uno o varios niños adicionales. Si la familia no estuviese en condiciones de brindar dichos cuidados al niño o niños, nuestros respectivos gobiernos no le permitirían a dicha familia adoptar un niño o varios niños de Haití.

La reducción a dos de la cantidad de niños en la esperanzada familia adoptiva, disminuiría gravemente el número de familias que pueden adoptar en Haití. Este límite haría que muchos niños abandonados o en orfanatos no puedan ser adoptados en hogares que les brinden amor.

Les rogamos que reconsideren este asunto y humildemente les solicitamos que aumenten el número de niños a cuatro.

Gracias y que Dios los bendiga.

Dutch Version:

Geachte leden van het Parlement,
Geachte Leden van de Senaat,

Wij zouden u nederig willen verzoeken of u ons zou willen horen aangaande de voorgestelde adoptie wet welke nu onder uw aandacht is en waar u binnenkort over zult stemmen.

Wij vertegenwoordigen adoptie ouders die in het verleden de eer hadden een kind uit Haïti te adopteren, die momenteel in het proces zijn om een kind te adopteren en die graag een kind uit Haïti zouden willen adopteren in de toekomst. Wij komen uit vele verschillende landen, Frankrijk, Verenigde Staten, Canada, Nederland, Duitsland, België, Argentinië, Zwitserland, Ierland en Groot Brittannië.

Wij hebben een groot hart en veel liefde voor de kinderen van Haïti en beschouwen het als een eer om een Haïtiaans kind op te mogen voeden als ons eigen kind, om dat kind een liefdevol thuis te geven, een goede opleiding, medische verzorging en alles wat zij of hij verder nodig heeft.

Echter, met de voorgestelde adoptie wet, zoals die nu opgesteld is, zullen veel families niet kunnen adopteren vanwege de limiet van twee kinderen. Wij zouden u daarom willen voorstellen of de limiet aangaande het aantal kinderen verhoogd kan worden naar vier kinderen.

Om international te mogen adopteren, ongeacht in welk land wij wonen, moeten wij allemaal dezelfde stappen doorlopen om goedkeuring te krijgen van onze respectievelijke overheden van onze landen om te mogen adopteren. Eén van deze stappen omvat een onderzoek naar onze financiële situatie, bezoeken bij ons thuis, interviews met vrienden, leden van onze familie of werkgevers etc. Deze stappen worden uitgevoerd om zeker te stellen dat een familie financieel en emotioneel kan zorgen voor een extra kind of extra kinderen. Als een familie een dergelijke verzorging niet kan verstrekken aan een extra kind of aan extra kinderen, dan geven onze respectievelijke overheden geen toestemming aan de aspirant adoptie familie om een kind of kinderen uit Haïti te mogen adopteren.

Het reduceren van het aantal kinderen in aspirant adoptie families tot twee kinderen zal het aantal families dat kan adopteren uit Haïti sterk laten dalen. Deze limiet zal ervoor zorgen dat veel verlaten kinderen of weeskinderen uit Haïti niet geadopteerd kunnen worden door liefdevolle families.

Wij pleiten ervoor dat u dit punt opnieuw bekijkt en wij verzoeken u nederig het aantal kinderen tot vier te verhogen.

Wij danken u bij voorbaat en moge God u zegenen.

Good News from Ministry of Interior (MOI) Visit

2008-01-05T14:48:00.000-08:00

I finally have some time to update my blog regarding the Ministry of Interior (MOI) “happenings”…. Actually, I have some good news to report.

There has been a bit of a re-organization inside of the MOI office regarding the adoption passport application files process. Mr. Guerdy no longer does the adoption interviews and no longer deals with the adoption files in his upstairs office. He has been reassigned to other duties.

In the meantime, Mr. Guignard’s office downstairs has been remodeled into three offices. One is his office, then there is the “interview office” (adoption file storage and adoption processing office) and a secretary’s office (that also doubles as a reception room).

The new person in charge of doing the interviews and who also reviews all files (taking a load off Mr. Guignard) is Madam Duret. I really like her and was impressed with her professionalism, hard work ethic, organizational skills and the way she has taken over the processing/reviewing/interviewing process of the adoption files.

Unfortunately, she has inherited a bit of a mess because as most of you know, the process, the way files were stored and processed had been a mess (no other way to describe it). Madam Duret has organized the files, has created a database of all files, with all pertinent information and is reviewing all the ones in the office. You can walk in and ask for a file and she can put her hand on what is going on with that particular file within a minute. All files are organized by the number that the Immigration Office has assigned to the files. Even if somebody walks in without a file number, she can find the file by name almost immediately. (Like I said, she is highly organized.)

Okay, now come the “bad news”… As I mentioned above, she inherited a bit of a mess. For example, I had to re-do interviews that I had done back in July and August because the second page or first page of the interview form was missing… or… passport photos that had been turned in were missing (that happened with one other file, luckily we had extra passport photos available), etc. Also, some files had their content mixed up if an orphanage had several files in at the same time, there is a chance that a paper from one file ended up in the file of another adopted child.

Thus, orphanage representatives need to go into the office and ask Madam Duret to check on the files to ensure that there is nothing wrong with the file, especially if the interview had been done already in the past and the file had been expected in Immigration and never made it over there….chances are that something needs to be corrected.

Additionally, in the past (at least for U.S. families) passport numbers were enough, but because Mr. Guignard realizes that a passport number is not a permanently assigned i.d. number, each adoptive parent must supply their Social Security Number. (I had to provide that for all the files that I had been assisting with and where I had already done the interviews back a few months ago.) Also, as I understood Madam Duret, she can accept a driver’s license number because they do not change, but SSNs are better.

So, if you are a family waiting and your interview had been done a while ago, maybe your file is still in MOI because they need another i.d. number aside from the passport number.

Also, please note that if there is nothing wrong with the adoption related papers, the turn-around time after the interview is done is much shorter now. HOWEVER, if there is something wrong with any one paper, those papers/documents have to be fixed prior to Mr. Guignard signing the letter for passport issuance. Most of the documents in Haiti are typed with old fashioned typewriters and/or are hand written, thus there is a lot of room for error. If there is even one misspelled word, that document will be rejected and a new one has to made. For example, one file that I was working on had the adopted child’s name spelled “Johnny” correctly on the top of the Archive paper, but in the next paragraph, the name was misspelled “Johny” --- and it was rejected. An entirely new Archive papers has to be made and re-submitted to MOI, and that can take several weeks if not a couple of months to get fixed.

I also saw Mr. Guignard who seemed to be in a much better mood, he was very polite and friendly this time around. He appears to have a close and trusting working relationship with Madam Duret and that is a good thing. Now he won’t have to be the only one to review all the documents which was happening before and caused the slow down. Files are being signed out and orphanages are able to know exactly what they need to do to get the files signed out. Also, no more files, papers, interview forms and/or passport photos will be lost.

Government Office Hours in Haiti

2008-01-05T14:45:00.000-08:00

I have received several emails of people asking for confirmation if Haitian government offices are closed for the first few weeks of January 2008.

The government offices were closed for a couple of days during Christmas and on January 1st and 2nd, all government offices were open again on Thursday, January 3rd.

UNICEF Meeting

2007-12-28T13:25:00.000-08:00

I do not have much time on the computer, but I wanted to give a quick update. I met with Adriano Gonzalez-Regueral, he is the main Unicef representative in Haiti. Also, present was Claude Mane, his title isAdministrateur adjoint de Project Protection de l'Efant.

I was told that UNICEF is concerned with trafficking of children in adoptions.

Adoptions to France came up in our discussion since 500+ children went to France in 2006 from Haiti. I need to know more about French adoption laws and their safeguards against child trafficking. For adoptions by families in the U.S. there is an orphan investigation before a child can come to the U.S. that is supposed to determine that everything was proper, etc.

Anyway... there is a lot more to tell... one of the comments he made was "There are too many children adopted in Haiti" for inter-country adoptions. (I think that comment was very telling.)

I told him about the problem in the Ministry of Interior (MOI) and he asked me to provide alist of kids whose files are still in MOI who have been there for more than 2 months. He also asked me to identify the kids that are sick and/or have special needs. He said that UNICEF cannot "implement but can only support"...but he agreed that the children should not be waiting this long for passport approvals.

I am going back next week Wednesday or Thursday with the list of kids who are stuck in MOI...please can you guys help me with that? He said that this was the first time hearing about an MOI problem and that he usually deals on the Minister Level and not in the lower levels where things "get done".

One other comment he made was that though he is sympathetic toward adoptive parents, his focus is on the children and he is not fighting for the rights of adoptive parents. I agreed with him and said that children should not end up being the victims of the cleaning up of a system of adoptions that supposedly includes children that have been sold to be adopted.

What is happening with children who are already adopted and are waiting for months for passport approval is one of the "fall outs" of the "preventing" of child selling/buying. Bottom line, the children are suffering and the children have a right to be with their families who adopted them.

In our discussion, he made a comment that there are women who sell their babies to adoption organizations and then use the money to provide for their other children at home. I asked him if he had concrete proof of that happening. He said, "Yes." But then he changed the subject and would not come back to that part of the conversation.

The positive part of the meeting is that the Unicef representative is willing to ask about the files that are stuck in MOI, though, of course he explained (as mentioned above) that he has no power, but he can support.

Brag Photos of Joshua

2007-12-24T08:56:00.001-08:00

These are photos of my son Joshua (16) were taken by a very talented French fashion photographer in Los Angeles. Here are some of my favorite photos... Isn't he handsome?!

Merry Christmas!

2007-12-24T08:33:00.000-08:00

I am on my way to Port au Prince, leaving today.

Please keep your fingers crossed for me as I have the meeting with UNICEF on the 27th (I keep asking myself what it is that "I" can accomplish by meeting with UNICEF, but at least I tried...right?).

I just got the updated numbers for U.S. visas issued to adopted children in Haiti for 2007. (Keep in mind that those are not "official" numbers yet.)

USA:
2004 - 356
2005 - 234
2006 - 309
2007- 195

In 2005, there were all the problems in IBESR, thus the lower numbers. In 2007, we can clearly see the effect that MOI involvement has had on the numbers of children who are stuck waiting for their passports.

As I was collecting statistics, I was really surprised as to how many children are adopted by French families. Absolutely amazing!

I still need numbers for Germany and some other countries. Scroll down to see which countries I still need statistics for.

Our church wedding is on the 29th. YEAH! I am nervous and excited. Poor Johnny has been having to make all the planning and arrangements. I have really not done anything to help prepare, aside from buying a dress. :-) Tamarah is traveling with me. This will be her last time as a lap-child. Joshua, Teddy and Emmanuel are already with Johnny, having a great time. They have been volunteering at the orphanage where he works, but they have also had some time for fun (i.e. swimming at the Visa Lodge).

UNICEF Meeting & Other Thoughts...

2007-12-13T22:17:00.000-08:00

We have a meeting scheduled with the UNICEF representatives who have been involved in changing the adoption laws in Haiti to discuss some of the unintended consequences of their focus on adoptions and the change of the adoption law. In preparation for the meeting, I would like you to email me if:

(1) You have had difficulty in Haiti (i.e. being stopped by the police and accused of child trafficking) while traveling with your adopted children.

(2) Your child's adoption file is currently in the Ministry of Interior (MOI) waiting for passport approval and your child is sick or has any special needs. (For example, IBESR expedites the adoption approval process if you are wishing to adopt a child that has medical needs or is ill. In MOI, this is supposed to happen also, but to what we have learned, it is not happening.) It would really help to have a list of those children's names.

Thanks! --- I was asked today why I am so engaged in this area when I already have my daughter home with me. One of the main reasons is that I believe that it is a child's most basic human right to grow up in a loving forever family, not an orphanage, an institution or in foster care.

Another reason is that I was really lucky to have adopted in Haiti when I did because with the proposed new law, I would not have been able to adopt her because she was(is) a baby. I wonder what would have happened to my Haitian daughter if I had not adopted her? Would she be one of the dead babies in the morgue? --- That is a harsh reality.

When I came home with my adopted son from Liberia in 2004, I took him to the hospital right away. He was so badly malnourished that the doctor told me that had he stayed in the conditions that he was living in, he would have been dead a few months later. Today, he is healthy, happy and thriving in school (he is one of the smartest kids in his grade)! He has a future!

I do not usually quote scripture on my blog, but I want to draw you to two quotes James 1:27 (Look after orphans) & Gal 4:5-7 (We are all adopted into God's Kingdom).

Need your help...

2007-12-11T05:44:00.000-08:00

In preparation for a meeting, I need assistance... According to sources quoting IBESR officials, a total of 1,900 Haitian children were supposedly adopted in 2006 in inter-country adoptions. I found that number a bit high? I would like to find out the numbers of children who were adopted to certain countries (see below) during 2005, 2006, and 2007. Please email me if you know... Also, please include your source information.

USA:
2004 - 356
2005 - 234
2006 - 309
2007- 195 *Source U.S. Consulate Haiti
Source: IMMIGRANT VISAS ISSUED TO ORPHANS COMING TO THE U.S. http://travel.state.gov/family/adoption/stats/stats_451.html

CANADA:
2004 - 159
2005 - 115
2006 - 123
2007- _____
Source: http://www.adoption.ca/ACCArticle_2006Stats.htm

FRANCE:
2004 - 507
2005 - 475
2006 - 571
2007- _____
Source: http://www.diplomatie.gouv.fr/fr/les-francais-etranger_1296/conseils-aux-familles_3104/adoption-internationale_2605/statistiques_5424/statistiques-adoption-internationale_14683.html
http://www.agence-adoption.fr/home/

Holland:
2005 - 51
2006 - 41
2007- 15 children came already home this year
- 3 children are coming home this month
- 9 children are out MOI now but won't make it to Hollandhis year
- at least 27 children are still in MOI
(Three Dutch licensed agencies that are involved in Haitian adoptions have about 128 in the adoption process currently.)
Source: http://www.adoptie.nl/pdf/Statistiek%202002,%202006.pdf

BELGIUM:
2005 - ____
2006 - ____
2007- ____
Source: __________

GERMANY:
2005 - ____
2006 - ____
2007- ____
Source:

LUXEMBOURG
2005 - ____
2006 - ____
2007- ____
Source:

SPAIN:
2004 - 36
2005 - 24
2006 - 15
2007- ____ I know that Spain has stopped adoptions from Haiti.
Source: http://www.la-moncloa.es/NR/rdonlyres/3EFCA355-DB79-4CD8-9B6C-6EF003F5B116/82719/adopciones2006.pdf

ARGENTINA:
2005 - ____
2006 - ____
2007- ____
Source:

IRELAND:
2005 - ____
2006 - ____
2007- ____
Source:

Did I miss a country?

Expressing my Opinion...Translation of the Proposed New Adoption Law

2007-12-09T07:22:00.000-08:00

(Scroll down for the translation of the new (proposed) Haitian Adoption Law.)

Adoptive families have been trying to find ways to get their adopted children home for Christmas. Adoption agency personnel from different countries, i.e. the Netherlands, U.S., Canada, France, etc. have been trying to gain access to the Ministry of Interior (MOI) offices to get files signed out. These files need to be signed out in order for already adopted children to receive their Haitian passports so that they can leave Haiti.

Adoptive families are upset with the personnel inside of MOI because many have been waiting for the passport issuance letter necessary to get their adopted child's passport for up to 10 months. However, the real culprit is not Mr. Guignard or Mr. Guerdy or Mr. Stanley Joseph in MOI, the real culprit in this mess seems to be UNICEF involvement --- therefore, UNICEF is whom we should start meeting with. I have asked to meet with UNICEF representatives, but so far, I have not gotten a response.

The more research I have been doing into this “mess”, the more I am learning that UNICEF's involvement into Haitian adoptions has basically gotten the adoptions to be at a stand still, especially in MOI. (Keep in mind that any adoption file that is inside of MOI, represents an already adopted child.)

Issues have been raised by UNICEF that adoptions in Haiti are not done with enough oversight and that there is child trafficking going on in adoptions. So, they have offered their assistance in the process since making this "accusation". If you do research, you will find that wherever UNICEF has become involved in the adoption process, adoptions have virtually grounded to a halt or have pretty much stopped all together.

UNICEF has a philosophy that children should stay in the birth country to be raised in "permanent" foster homes and or be adopted in the home country versus being "exported" for international adoption. However, in Haiti there are not enough in-country adoption possibilities, let alone "permanent" foster homes available.

Then there are the unsubstantiated accusations of child trafficking, the buying of children for adoption accusations, that are not backed up with any hard facts. (Instead the focus should be on actual child trafficking that is occuring, not in adoptions, but across the border to the Dominican Republic and other places within and outside of Haiti, where children are used for child labor and for the sex industry. This is entirely not adoption related.)

In Haiti, during the summer, there was an incident where a Haitian pastor had children that had been relinquished by their birth parents living in terrible conditions and that some of the adoptions he processing through IBESR were done illegally. However, no specific facts where ever published or reported other than the above. Also, there was no child buying going on. The main accusation appears that he was keeping the kids in poor conditions and that he was trying to take some short cuts getting files signed out of IBESR. There was no proof that the families in the adoption process were not qualified and had not followed rules in their home countries. Additionally, of the 50 adoption files that were mentioned in the Haitian news media, none of the adopting families have come forward to say anything. There was never any follow up reporting regarding this matter. No names of any organizations the pastor was working with were mentioned. It is making me wonder what happened there?

So, this kind of thing gives UNICEF ammunition. UNICEF reportedly investigated the incident and took the kids, gave them back to their birth families that had previously relinquished the children for adoption. The birth families received with some money from UNICEF. However, what will happen to the children and families when the money runs out?

Okay, let me go back to the topic of UNICEF involvement in IBESR and MOI (I cannot speak to Parquet since I am not too familiar with that office and Mr. Gassant).

IBESR is re-writing the adoption law with the assistance of UNICEF. The laws are supposed to make IBESR the central place that places children for adoption. It works in other countries like Colombia, but the referral process is slow in Colombia where it takes about two years to get a referral. Can you imagine how long it would take in Haiti without electricity or computers, and the necessary infrastructure, etc.

On a side note, you go into government offices like MOI that has wireless internet, but none of the desk computers are connected and the only ones who will touch a computer are the secretaries and clerks (not the directors or people in charge). Computers are used like typewriters were used in the old days... a director or person in charge will hand write out a letter and give it to a secretary to type. There are not such things as keeping a spreadsheet on a computer and updating it, but those things are written in big journal books. Just like in the old days...

That is what concerns me in having one central place receiving all dossiers from prospective adoptive parents and then receiving referrals of all adoptable kids into one central place... and then being the ones that determine who can adopt whom. To me, that leaves it wide open to bribery. If you are a creche/orphanage that is not in the good graces of the referring people, then your kids won't get referred out. So, how do you stay in the good graces with the IBESR people? (You fill in the blanks...)

On another side note, the current director of IBESR appears to be a very capable lady, but how long will she stay as the director?

Additionally, neither the Haitian government nor UNICEF fund the orphanages, creches, foyers where the children live. These places are funded mostly through faith based organizations, NGO's that get support for the countries where the children are adopted to. Adoptive parents's fees are utilized to not only feed, clothe and educate the children that they are in the process of adopting, but part of those fees go to the other children's care that are not in the process of being adopted.

It makes me wonder how something can be centrally organized and controlled when there is no central funding to take care of the children. Is UNICEF going to provide the funding for orphanages? In Colombia, orphanages are supported financially by the government.

Let me go back to MOI... all children whose files reach MOI have had their adoption finished. They are legally adopted children whose files have to be submitted to MOI from Immigration to have their Haitian documents (that includes everything from birth certificate to adoption decree) checked for accuracy and no errors.

UNICEF is putting pressure on MOI from what I can tell to ensure that all children have been legally adopted and that there was no child trafficking. Of course there are always the ever persistent rumors of adopted children being used for house slaves and/or for adoptive families to harvest their organs. I am not saying that UNICEF is perpetuating those rumors, those rumors have always been there because people cannot understand how a family can want to adopt to love and care for an abandoned or orphaned child. However, with UNICEF's scrutiny in the process, it helps those rumors along.

According to IBESR sources, it was stated that 1,900 children were adopted out of Haiti last year, 2006. Approximately 290 children came to the U.S. during that year. That means that a lot of children are adopted to France, Canada, the Netherlands, Argentina and some other countries.

When I have been in the MOI offices, there are hundreds of files in the offices. These files are supposed to be checked for accuracy and the parent interview form is to be filled out that lists the adopted child's information, the birth parent's information and the adoptive family's information, including the adoptive family's religion, passport or government i.d. number, address, telephone number, profession, work address and telephone number. That form has a passport photo of the adoptive parents and the adopted child glued onto it. This form is supposed to provide information on where the child went.

So, why is it taking so long for files to go through the MOI process?

There is one person, Mr. Guignard, who is in charge of signing the letter that accompanies each file back to Immigration for passport issuance that confirms that everything in this adoption was legitimate. That is a huge burden on one person who takes his job seriously.

Can you imagine doing this for 1,900 files per year? Keep in mind that he has lots of other jobs to do. Additionally, keep in mind that there is not the technologically advanced infra-structure that we are used to in the U.S. or other countries. The interview forms are done by hand. The person who is in charge of doing the interviews, Mr. Guerdy, has to get all the necessary information for the form from the adoption related documents. Only some information is provided by the orphanage workers. Most recently, instead of getting the address of the adoptive parents from the adoption decree, the orphanage workers are supposed to bring some sort of additional proof where the family lives.

This surprises me because every family has to go through a homestudy process where the social worker comes and visits the family multiple times and thus has been to the house where the family lives. That address is listed on the homestudy report and that is where the court gets the address for the adoption decree. This process is similar in each and every country.

Once the interview is done, the forms are hand written for a second time by somebody else, in "pretty writing" and the passport photos are glued onto the form. When I asked why this cannot be done utilizing technology, such as a computer, I was told that hand written forms are more accurate.

There are more people working on getting the interview forms done in the last couple of months. However, there is still no systematic filing system that is observable in place at the office. Files are in bundles and some really old files seem to have gotten "lost" to the bottom of the file cabinets in the shuffle. (At least the organization has gotten better over the past months.)

As you can imagine, as I have written in previously, this is a very time consuming process.

However, the most time consuming process is the Mr. Guignard has to go through each file a second time, after the lawyers at the Unit Juritique (in MOI) have already checked the paperwork, and after the interview form has been completed because his signature makes guarantees that all was legit in this adoption. That is a HUGE responsibility when "the UN is breathing down your neck" with their concerns.

What is the result? Because the infrastructure does not exist in the different government offices in Haiti to process things fast and efficiently, having this UNICEF pressure, is slowing the process down to a trickle of adopted children getting passports to leave the country to be with their adoptive families. Hundreds of children are waiting to have their passports issued to join their forever families.

Children languish in orphanages where they do not get the care of loving parents. (Many orphanages provide the best possible care for the children, but nothing compares to the love and care of a forever family.) They continue to stay institutionalized. Many adoptions have been in the process for over two years! Some are even taking longer now because their files have been in MOI since the beginning of 2007 and it is December 2007 now. The longer a child lives in an institutionalized setting the more damage they have psychologically. This leads to more disruptions because the children are more likely to suffer from RAD or other psychological issues. This is an outrage!

If hundreds fo children are stuck in their orphanages, then this means that hundreds of children are being turned away from orphanages because they are full of children stuck in the process. I wish that we could figure statistically out how many children have died as a result of being turned away from orphanages because of the slow down of issuance of passports. It is a crime!

Adoptive families are crying out to get their adopted children home. I see posts on discussion groups of parents who are now going through their third Christmas season without their adopted children because of the length of the process. I was at a friend's house recently who has been in the adoption process for over a year now. She showed me the nursery for the twin babies her family is adopting. It is fully equiped, beautiful, you can see the love that went into decorating the room... and where are her twin babies? In an orphanage nursery...waiting...It is heart breaking!

I used to donate to UNICEF. Trust me, they won't get a dime from me anymore...not that it matters much to UNICEF overall. I realize that UNICEF thinks that they are serving the best interest of the children by their watchfulness and involvement, but how come wherever they have gotten involved in the adoption process in sovereign countries, adoptions have slowed down to a trickle or have stopped all together. It is not because there are no more children to adopt because they are now well taken care of within the country and don't have need. The same number of children is still there, hungry, malnourished, sick and dying. The difference is that they are now dying in their home country instead of living and growing up with an adoptive family.

On another side note...many of the adoption organizations in Haiti are now raising the prices for their adoptions because of the long dragged out process and having to care for children for two or more years while they are in the process. Orphanages are no longer accepting dossiers from prospective adoptive families because of the backlog of adoptions. This increased cost and increased referral, let alone adoptive wait time is turning families away from Haiti and they are adopting elsewhere.

Changes need to be made to improve the lives of the children in Haiti, but it should be a fundamental approach to root out poverty and hunger, not by stopping inter-country adoptions.

English Translation of the Proposed New Haitian Adoption Law: (Thank you Amy for helping me translate this!)

FREEDOM EQUALITY FRATERNITY
REPUBLIC OF HAITI
Adoption LAW reform

RENE GARCIA PREVAL
PRESIDENT

Considering the Haitian Constitution of March 29, 1987;

Considering the Decree of December 22, 1971 governing the social works;

Considering the Decree of December 22, 1973 governing the status of the minors in children centres;

Considering the decree of April 4, 1974 on the adoption reinforcing the provisions of that of March 25, 1966.

Considering the Organic law of the Ministry of Social affairs dated March 6, 1983;

Considering the decree of August 28, 1987 creating the Ministry for the Social Affairs and integrating the Institute of the Good Social Being and Research among the technical and administrative organizations.

Considering the law of May 7, 2003 relating to the prohibition and the elimination of all forms of abuse violence, ill treatments or inhuman treatments against the children.

Considering the law of May 13, 2003 prohibiting the treatment cruel, inhuman and degrading against the children.

Considering the inter-American Convention on international traffic of minors sanctioned by the decree of November 26, 2003.

Considering the decree of December 23, 1994 ratification of the convention on the rights of the children.

Considering the additional protocol with the convention of the United Nations against organized trans-national criminality aiming at preventing, to repress and punish the draft of the people, in particular women and children sanctioned by the decree of November 26, 2003.

Considering the decree of January 12, 2004 with the convention of the United Nations against organized trans-national criminality aiming at preventing, to repress and punish the draft of the people, in particular women and children sanctioned by the decree of November 26, 2003;

Considering convention on the minimum age with employment (convention 138 of BIT) sanctioned by the decree of May 14, 2007.

Considering convention on the prohibition of the worst shapes of work children (convention 138 of BIT) sanctioned by the decree of May 14, 2007.

Considering that, promulgation of the decree of April 4, 1974 on the adoption at our days, the international adoption knew a fast growth which requires on behalf of the Haitian State of new laws and the procedures suitable for the reinforcement of the protection of the child in his biological family as well as in her own hearth of reception.

Considering that as regards adoption, it is advisable to respect the obligations which are made in the States signatories in accordance with article 21 of the Convention on the rights of the child.

Considering that certain fundamental principles governing from now on the international adoption, namely: the principle of the higher interest of the child, the principle of subsidiary which considers the international adoption like a measurement of last recourse, the principle of non discrimination drawing aside any distinction of race, sex, religion, birth, incapacity, of ethnic origin, national or social, or of any other situation.

Considering that it is necessary for the Haitian State to engage the process of modernization of its system.

On the report of the Ministers for Justice and Public Safety, Social Affairs and Work, and, after deliberation in the Council of Ministers:
The executive power
PROPOSED
And
The Legislative power
VOTED
The following law:

ARTICLE 1: The adoption is a solemn act which creates between an individual and a child who is not biologically it his of the family ties identical to those which result from paternity and filiations. It is regarded as a protection measure and is based on the higher interest of the child, by offering to him a permanent family and favourable with its blooming, in accordance with its basic rights.

SECTION 1 – The adoptive parents

ARTICLE 2 – Adoption can be requested jointly by a married heterosexual couple after 5 years of marriage when one of the spouse is 30 years of age and older.

If the request is from one of the spouse, the assent from the other spouse is necessary.

ARTICLE 3 – Two different sex persons living together for at least 10 years can present a request to adopt a child. The common life must be established with a certificate delivered by the competent authority of the welcoming country and the assent of the two is necessary.

ARTICLE 4 – Single women candidatures, of 35 years of age and older, are accepted. For men, he must be widow or divorced, without any biological children and must be 35 years of age or older.

ARTICLE 5 – The priority will be granted to married couples or those living common-law without any biological child at the moment of the adoption. When the heterosexual couples have at least 2 biological children, they can adopt children with particularity (handicap, health problems or children with more than 5 years of age).

If the couple already has biological or adopted children, they have to provide their assent if they are 8 years of age or older.

ARTICLE 6 – The age of adoptive parents cannot exceed 50 years for oldest of the two joint ones or the two people living in established free union.

ARTICLE 7 – Adoptive parents must be at least 16 years older than the child they want to adopt.

The minimum difference of age is 9 years in case of adoption of the spouse’s child or relatives at the degree of sister, brother, nephew, niece, uncle, aunt or relatives at the same degree.

ARTICLE 8 – Birth at home of one or more biological children is not an obstacle for the adoption by two spouses of a child or children previously supported and continues to receive their care.

ARTICLE 9 – When sisters, brothers, nieces, nephews, cousins, uncles, aunts or other from the same degree, even Godchildren, have been welcomed by close parents or godfather or godmother, following the death of their biological parents or long imprisonment, or when they are absolutely incapable to support the primary needs of their minors, the adoption is possible if their close parents already have biological children, following the conditions mentioned at Article 7.

ARTICLE 10 – A Haitian person can adopt a child following the legislation of the country of origin of the child.

A simple or plenary adoption is recognized in Haiti with the help of the recording of the aforesaid the adoption at the office of the Office of the marital status of the applicant's permanent address.

In the case of the conversion of a simple adoption into a plenary adoption, a request must be addressed to the senior of the Civil Court of the applicant's permanent address for obtaining a justified judgement.

The plenary adoption confers on the child the right to Haitian nationality.
SECTION II – The adoptive child

ARTICLE 11 – Only minors children until the age of 16 years can be adopted. As of 8 years of age, the child must give his assent for the adoption.

ARTICLE 12 – The adoption of a Haitian child by someone abroad is possible only in the case of absence of Haitian adoptive parents or an assumption of responsibility of relatives.

ARTICLE 13 - The adoptive child must be: an orphan child, a abandoned child, a child whose parents are in the total disablement to provide for its needs.

In the case of an orphan child of father and mother, it will be held a counsel of family to appoint a tutor having to grant the adoption.

When it is about a abandoned child, the Principal Mayor of the Commune declares the birth of the child and gives his assent to the adoption.

When the filiations of a child are established with regard to his father and mother, the assent of one or the other is necessary with the adoption.

When one of both has no possibility deceased or to express its will, assent other is enough.

ARTICLE 14 - The biological parents cannot validly grant the adoption that after having been the subject of a social evaluation on behalf of Institute Good Social Being and Research (IBESR) and after to have duly informed of the consequence of their act.

The assent with the adoption can be retracted during a 3 months deadline.

SECTION III - Legal form of adoption.

ARTICLE 15 - The adoption is considered simple when it lets remain the bonds between the biological adoptive child and his parents.

It is considered plenary when the aforesaid bonds disappear completely.

ARTICLE 16 – Simple adoption is authorized:

In case of national adoption
In case of interfamily adoption, national or international
In case of nationals Haitian living abroad
Plenary adoption is also possible in those cases.
The adoption is plenary during the national adoption of an orphan or abandoned child or an international adoption by foreign nationals.

PARAGRAPH I – The effects of the simple adoption

ARTICLE 17 - In the simple adoption, the adoptive child placed well under the parental authority of his adoptive family, preserves all his rights in his family of origin, in particular his hereditary rights.

ARTICLE 18 - The simple adoption confers the name of adopting on the adoptive child by adding it in the name of this last. No modification will be made when adopting it and the adoptive child has the same patronymic name.

In the event of adoption by husbands, the adoptive child takes the name of the husband.

ARTICLE 19 - In the request for purposes of judgement of the adoption, adopting it can, if it considers it necessary, request to modify or change the first name (S) of the child to adopt.

The Judge will analyze the request following of the specific criteria, year having cared to request the opinion of the child when this last at the necessary age.

ARTICLE 20 – The adoptive child has to provide assistance to the adoptive parent when necessary and reciprocally.

The obligation to provide assistance remains between the adoptive child and biological parents. However, the biological parents do not have to provide assistance to the adoptive child when the adoptive parents can.

ARTICLE 21 – The adoptive child and his descendants have in the family of adopting the same successional rights as a biological child, without however acquiring the quality of heir with regard to the ascending ones to adopting.

ARTICLE 22 - If the adoptive child dies without descendant, the goods given by adopting or collected in its succession and who exist in kind, at the time of the death of the adoptive child, turn over to adopting or its descendants, responsibility of contribute to the debt and without damages of the rights of the thirds.

The goods that the adoptive child received on a purely free basis of his biological father and mother turn over to the latter or their descendants.

The other goods of the adoptive child divide per half between the biological family and the family of adopting.

PARAGRAPH II - Prohibition of marriage and revocation of the adoption.

ARTICLE 23 - The marriage is prohibited between
The adoptive parent, the adoptive child and his descendants;
The adoptive child and the spouse of adopting and reciprocally between adopting and the spouse of the adoptive child.
The adoptive children by the same adoptive parent.
The adoptive child and the biological children of the adoptive parent.
The adoptive child and the members of his biological family.

ARTICLE 24 - The simple adoption is revocable.

The request for revocation can be formulated by the adoptive child for serious reasons such as:

misrepresentation at the time of the request of adoption,
ill treatments inflicted to the adoptive child,
sexual contact with the adoptive child,

And another facts prejudicial with the physical and psychic integrity of the adoptive child.

Adoptive parent cannot ask the revocation of the adoption only if it is established that the adoptive child made an attempt on his life, that of joint sound or to his other children.

ARTICLE 25 - If the adoptive child has the age of sufficient understanding, it can itself ask the Civil Court the revocation of the adoption. In the contrary case, the Public Ministry can, of office or on request of the IBESR, to present the request for revocation near the Civil Court.

ARTICLE 26 - The revocation puts an end to for the future all the effects of the adoption.

PARAGRAPH III – The effects of the plenary adoption

ARTICLE 27 - The plenary adoption definitively breaks all the bonds of filiations existing between the adoptive child and his family of origin.

It is irrevocable.

The adoptee loses his name of origin like successional straight in his biological family.

ARTICLE 28 - The adoptive child has, in the family of adopting, the same rights and the same obligations as a biological child.

ARTICLE 29 - The plenary adoption confers on the child the name of adopting and, in the event of adoption by two husbands, the name of the husband.

In the request of the adoptive parents, the Judge can amend the first name (s) of the child having cared to request the opinion of the child when this last at the necessary age.

ARTICLE 30 - The plenary adoption of the child of the spouse is allowed only with the assent of the mother or the biological father of the child or if legal filiations with regard to one or the other of the biological parents is unknown or that it deceased or disappeared.

SECTION IV – the adoption process

ARTICLE 31 - The IBESR is the supervisory authority of reference and for all the requests for adoption.

It centralizes all the files of the children like those of the candidates to the adoption and holds the relative registers.

It preserves all the data and provides, if necessary, of information to the consulates and/or the qualified official authorities.

The files of adoption are preserved during at least 80 years.

ARTICLE 32 – The files of adopting foreign must obligatorily be sent to the IBESR by an Organization of Adoption Approved of the host country and duly entitled by the IBESR.

ARTICLE 33 - When biological parents wish to give a child in adoption, they must be addressed firstly to the IBESR which will record the request, will inform the parents and will carry out the social evaluation.

The maintenance of the child in his family must be encouraged for the period of evaluation.

ARTICLE 34 - When the biological parents bring the child in an orphanage (place of lodging of transit), the persons in charge for the institution are held to announce the arrival of the child to the IBESR within 24 hour.

Using the information provided by the persons in charge for the Creche on the identity of the biological parents, the IBESR will contact the family in order to carry out the social evaluation.

ARTICLE 35 - The finished evaluation, the IBESR decides if the adoption serves or not the higher interests of the child, by taking account of the fact that poverty in itself does not constitute a sufficient reason for abandonment.

ARTICLE 36 – The biological parents must personally sign the assent for adoption of the child in front of the Judge of the Peace of their residence.

ARTICLE 37 – IBESR holds the parental authority after the biological parents signed the assent with the adoption.

Orphanages are given custody of children who are confided to them.

ARTICLES 38 - After the constitution of the file of the adoptive child, the IBESR proceeds with the decision of the grouping of electoral lists by attributing a child to a couple or a person candidate whose file reached him(her) beforehand and which was approved.

IBESR passes on the decision in adoptive parents when it is about a national adoption and in the OAA concerned abroad in the case of an international adoption.

ARTICLE 39 – The report of assent in the adoption, the decision of the IBESR and all other details of the file are subjected, for judgment, to the Civil Court of the place of residence of adopting him or that of the adopted, in the case or adopting him is a foreigner.

ARTICLE 40 - Later deliberated, the Court, by motivated decision, pronounces or refuses a simple or plenary adoption according to Articles 15 or 16.

In the first case, the device of the judgment contains the mentions prescribed by the article 812 of the Code of civil procedure.

In case of refusal, each of the parts can, in 30 true days of the pronouncement of the judgment, summon it to the Court of Appeal, which instruct in them even form that the Civil Court.

By a motivated stop, the Court of Appeal confirms or rejects the decision of the Civil Court.

ARTICLE 41 - The appeal against the Court decision of appeal is exercised by request of the providing in 30 true days of the meaning of the decision of the Court of Appeal. Providing him conforms in the conditions of shape and of delay common planned by the Code of civil procedure.

ARTICLE 42 - According to the obligation of registration of any judgment of adoption in registers, the Registrar of the place of residence of the adopted establishes a new birth certificate for the plenary adoptions.

ARTICLE 43 - The simple or plenary adoption produces effects as from the date in which the decision admitting the adoption is spent in strength of res judicata.

ARTICLE 44 - In all cases of adoption, the administrative and judicial authorities take all appropriate measures to prevent undue gains and are still trying to find interest supervisor of the Child.

ARTICLE 45 - It is a requirement for the adoptive IBESR Haitians and foreigners (through OAA) to provide reports on the development and integration of the child into his new family.

The reports must reach the IBESR every 4 months for the first three years and twice a year for the following years.

The Department of Foreign Affairs, through the consulate established in the host country, follows up on children in terms of full adoption.

The Ministry of Social Affairs and Labour, from information provided by the IBESR, will inform the Foreign Affairs for purposes beyond themselves;

SECTION V - Clause repeal

ARTICLE 46 - This Act repeals all laws or provisions of Laws, Decrees or all provisions of Decrees, all Decrees-laws or provisions of Decrees-laws which are contrary and will be published and implemented at the discretion of the Ministers of Justice and Social Affairs everyone in their respect.

From the Legislative Palace, in Port-au-Prince on _________________2007 204th year of Independence.
For the Senate of the Republic
For the Chamber of Deputies____________________________

iCARE & Other Updates

2007-12-06T11:25:00.000-08:00

I just wanted to post an update about some exciting developments. I am going to be writing a law review article about international adoption, UNICEF involvement specifically on Haiti over the next six months. Right now, I am in the research stage of the project.

One of the professors who is assisting me with the law review article feels that I should select a more narrow topic. He is encouraging me to focus the article on the different adoption laws in the different countries that adopt from Haiti. However, I feel passionate about the rights of children to have the opportunity to grow up in a loving family, no matter whether that family is of the child's nationality or race. That is why I keep coming back to the topic of UNICEF involvement in Haiti's adoptions.

UNICEF's stance is that all children should stay in their home country and be cared for there. In theory, I agree with that opinion whole heartedly... but there is a difference between theory and reality. Reality is that there are no foster homes for children in Haiti for children to be taken care of internally. The majority of orphanages are faith based and funded by churches. A foster home or an orphanage home are not substitutes for a "real family" --- a forever family.

When writing a law review article about this topic, I have to stay very research based and analytical all backed up with facts and quotable sources. I found one law professor at Harvard who has done a lot of work in this area. She is amazing! Her name is Elizabeth Bartholet, I have been in email contact with her and she is assisting me with my quest of writing this article.

Here is a link to some of her articles:
www.law.harvard.edu/faculty

Then click on her name and then look at her biography.

Also, my friends have been asking me about my upcoming church wedding and future plans. The date is December 29th and unfortunately, there will be about a two-year wait time until Johnny has a visa for him to live in the U.S. Unfortunately, since September 11th, 2001, the process to obtain a visa is so long and dragged out. It will be a difficult two years, but we can make it.

iCARE - international coalition of adoptive rights & equality

We need to do more with our grassroots group of iCARE. I welcome any ideas of how to become more of a voice for adopted children and children in the process. Right now, we have "membership" from the U.S., Canada, Holland, and France.

Important Security Notice

2007-12-02T07:54:00.000-08:00

Recently, there have been reports of harrassment by the Haitian Police of adoptive parents and/or anybody who is not Haitian traveling/driving with Haitian children. The police has tried to stop the car and to pull the children out of the car saying that the children have been stolen and accusing the non-Haitian of child trafficing.

Updated Edit:
I just received an email telling me that UNICEF security advisor cannot do anything in this case. If something happens like the above described, they cannot assist parents in such a situation. I was advised that the person is to call the Haitian Police (which is interesting advice, considering the Haitian Police was doing the above...)... Just know that UNICEF is not who you call for assistance.

I have biological and adopted children who are black or mixed with black. I have been harrassed before, but that was near and in the airport. I have had contact with a family who had this happen while they were staying at a hotel resort. This recent incident happened in Port au Prince.

Please write this telephone number down and keep it with you if you are traveling or going anywhere with your adopted children while you are in Port au Prince, Haiti.

Erna

2007-11-25T10:32:00.000-08:00

Here are some photos I took of Erna on Saturday, November 24, 2007. Isn't she a doll baby?!

Ministry of Interior Update - November 23, 2007

2007-11-23T14:04:00.000-08:00

During this week in Haiti, I went to the Ministry of Interior (MOI) two days. I am happy to report that things look so much better and much more organized these days.

Mr. Guerdy, the gentleman who in the past was the only one to do the interview form, is on vacation. At first, when I learned that he was on vacation, my first though was, "Oh no! No interviews for a month?!" -- But then I was happy to see that there are four people in MOI who are now doing the birth & adoptive parent interview forms.

There are two people who are re-writing the interview forms in pretty handwriting and are cutting and gluing the passport photos of the adopted child and adopting family onto the form.

In the past, Mr. Guerdy was the only person working in MOI who did the interview forms. At most, he could get 10-12 of these forms done per day, which created a backlog. Now, there are four people steadily working on interviews.

Things have really improved in getting the interviews done! These people are working 8 hours per day, they take two short breaks and a one-hour lunch break, but the rest of the time, they are working!

I asked why the interview forms cannot be done on a computer form because that would be a much faster process, but I was told that the director does not want computer generated forms. The director wants them to be hand-written. The reasoning is that if the forms are hand-written, they are more accurate.

While Mr. Guerdy is on vacation, only the clerks who are re-writing the forms in nice hand writing are working in the second floor office. All interviews in his absence are taking place in the Director of Political Affairs, Mr. Guignard's office downstairs.

His office consists of three rooms, one is his office, one is a reception/ waiting area and one is the interview room. Every day, it is slam packed with orphanage representatives who are there to get the interviews done.

There are three five-drawer locking (safe) tall filing cabinets that hold the adoption files. I was so glad to see that they are securely locked up. There are literally hundreds of files in the interview office. They are not organized by file number per se, but are bundled by orphanage lots. (I may be wrong in that, but that is what I observed.) Also, when you are asking for a file, you have to give its number. That also gives me an idea that they may be filed a little differently?

Anyway... while I was in the office, I saw a U.N. inspector. (I also saw UNICEF representatives at IBESR when I was there today.) Having inspectors in in the Director of Political Affairs office may explain his need to read through every file that he is supposed to sign off on. If the Haitian government offices that are dealing in adoptions are inspected by the U.N. then it is only logical that "all i's are dotted and all t's are crossed", so to speak.

In the past, I had been told that the reason that it takes so long for the Mr. Guignard to sign the adoption letter to Immigration is because he has so many other duties. As I observed in his office, I came to the conclusion that this is true. Even though 90% of the people who come to his office are there for the interview and to check on files. However, it appears that the adoptions make up about 10% of Mr. Guignard's total work load.

When I suggested that Mr. Guignard get some additional assistance, just like Mr. Guerdy got additional assistance, I was told that Mr. Guignard in his position as director is expected to get all the work done without assistance. (It did not make much sense to me, but that explains some things, wouldn't you agree?) In order to read all the adoption related documents and to issue the letter with signature, would require somebody to work full-time without any other duties. Thus, there is a big backlog of files....waiting and waiting...to be signed.

Suggestion....

2007-11-17T07:30:00.001-08:00

...to shorten the adoption waiting time line...

Especially with this long wait at the Ministry of Interior (MOI), parents can shorten their overall wait time by applying for their I-600s prior to their child's file being submitted to MOI for the passport approval.

Original adoption documents get turned into MOI.

Haiti I-600 Approval Process: This is only possible if both parents (or the single parent in a single parent adoption) personally submit their I-600 approval request in person to the USCIS office in downtown Port au Prince.

(Some families submitted their I-600 approval request prior to the summer when the rules changed about how to do the I-600 approval in Haiti. Prior to the change of rules, one parent could apply for the I-600 approval with a notarized power of attorney of the other parent. That is no longer possible to do.)

In order to finish I600 approvals in Haiti , you need to make photocopies of all the original adoption documents and relinquishment, etc. (just the Haitian documents that were generated through the adoption process) and show the original documents to the ladies that work in the downtown immigration office (the one next to Archives).

They look at the original documents and then keep the copies...after that, the orphanage can submit the original documents to Immigration for MOI.

I-600 Approval Requests filed in the U.S.: Many of the USCIS offices in the different locations accept photocopies of the adoption related documents (don't forget translations of each document) in order to approve an I-600 application.

If your local office is one of the offices that accept the photocopies (because they know that when you apply for the actual visa, the U.S. Embassy sees and examines the original documents), then you should apply for your I-600 approval while your file is in MOI.

(Some USCIS offices want originals. In that case, the decision has to be made to Fed Ex the original documents to the U.S. and back again so that they can be submitted to MOI...which I would not feel comfortable with since there is a risk of getting original documents lost.)

Then the I-600 approval process and the MOI process could take place simultaneously versus back-to-back, dragging out the timeline.

Just a suggestion....

Leaving for Haiti....

2007-11-15T20:23:00.000-08:00

I am getting ready to leave for Haiti in a couple days. This time, I am flying from Los Angeles to Fort Lauderdale, then from Fort Lauderdale to Port au Prince.

Because of my frequent flights to and from Haiti, I can purchase a economy class ticket and then can ask to upgrade. I am really hoping that I will be able to do that for the Los Angeles to Fort Lauderdale because I am taking Tamarah with me (still as a lap baby - she will be two in January). The plane is completely booked out in coach class and there do not seem to be any extra seats. :-( There are about four seats left in first class...let's hope that I will be upgraded.

I will be in Haiti for one week...full schedule for the entire week. I am also having to study for law school final exams that are coming up the second week of December. I have the full intention to study at least two hours per day while in Haiti...let's see if I will be able to follow through.

MOI Update...

2007-11-15T06:02:00.001-08:00

....19 files were reported delivered from MOI to the Immigration Office. That means good news for 19 adopted children who will be able to get their passport soon to join their families.

Reported wait time for the MOI process is averaging four (4) months right now.

Haitian Adoption Reform Meeting

2007-11-11T09:33:00.000-08:00

Please make sure to read the previous blog entry regarding Holy Angels Hospice Orphanage's plea for help. By adding entries to my blog, the older entries get "pushed down".

Here is a rough Translation into English regarding the meeting that took place on November 7th:
Towards the reform of the procedures of adoption in Haiti

The Institute of the Social Wellbeing and Research (IBESR), in liaison with the UNICEF and l'ONG Terres des Hommes, organized a workshop of work aiming at validating preparatory project of reforming the Haitian Adoption Law. This working session, took place on Wednesday November 7 in Port-au-Prince, in attendance were the Minister for Social Affairs, Gerald Germain, the Director of IBESR, the representatives of the UNICEF, some Creche (Orphanage) representatives and ONG.

With the technical and financial support of UNICEF, IBESR undertook the process of revising the legal framework relating to adoption in Haiti. Also it worked out a preliminary draft of law which was submitted to the partners occupying itself of the questions of childhood to be validated. This text, prepared by a technical team made up of people coming from governmental institutions and the civil society, will be then submitted to the Parliament for adoption.

This initiative aims to equip the country with "a more current legal instrument in order to make it possible at the State to better fulfill its function of social protection", remarked the director of the IBESR, Mrs. Gabrielle P. Beaudin. Indeed, according to the IBESR, "the majority of the international adoptions processed in Haiti do not respect the elementary rights of the child and the fundamental principles in regards to international adoption".

This dysfunction is related to the deficiencies of the existing legal framework since the law of 4 April 1974 governing the adoption in Haiti appears "completely unsuited compared to the extension which the adoption has taken", indeed underlined the Minister for the social Affairs. The 1974 Law is inadequate with the Hague International Convention relating to the protection of the rights of the child to which Haiti part of. Moreover, the 1974 Law does not treat questions relating to the criteria of adoptability and does not address any follow-up of the adopted child in his new family.

She did not envision a central authority either having to guarantee the respect of the standards and to establish the payments and procedures.
(I am not sure of the transaltion of this sentence. If you speak French, let me know...if this was a correct translation of this sentence.)

The "laxism of the legal framework" in existance, thus created possibilities of circumventing the standards. The minister stressed that "in a process of adoption, the checking of the cogency of the assent of the parents by the authorities is major. The assent is given by front a Justice of the Peace which is satisfied to check only the identity of the people thus making ' homologation of the adoption a matter of form ".

And Mr. Germain added: "this allowed the Creches (Orphanages) to control the entire process and to make adoption sometimes a mercantile (business) activity".

The new text proposes to be a tool which confers "the priority on the higher interest of the child". IBESR thus becomes the authority responsible for all the procedures of adoption. The social evaluation of the biological family is now obligatory in order to make sure that the adoption is necessary. IBESR also receives the post-adoption reports on the development and the integration of the child in his new family.

In addition, the adopting couples cannot address their requests to adopt anymore directly to a Creche (Orphanage) but to IBESR, via an approved adoption organization. The Creches (Orphanages) must also report, within 24 hour period after accepting a child following its arrival to the Creche of all new children.

There is an amendment to the age requirements and the marriage length (or living together) for the couples adopting.

An innovation in this new proposed law text is the introduction of "plenary adoption", the irrevocable relinquishment of a child that permanently breaks the family bonds. The biological parents must be well informed on the consequences of their decisions in order to be able to act with full knowledge of the facts. The child can take the name of his adoptive parents. The old law included/understood only "the simple adoption", one that lets the birth parents reconsider the adoption.

Here is the French text regarding the meeting:
Vers la réforme des procédures d'adoption en Haïti

L'Institut du Bien-être Social et de Recherche (IBESR), de concert avec l'UNICEF et l'ONG Terres des Hommes, a organisé un atelier de travail visant à valider un avant projet de loi devant réformer l'adoption en Haïti.

A cette séance de travail, réalisée le mercredi 7 novembre à Port-au-Prince, ont assisté notamment le ministre des Affaires sociales, Gerald Germain, la Directrice de l'IBESR, des représentants de l'UNICEF ainsi que ceux de crèches et d'ONG. Avec l'appui technique et financier de l'UNICEF, l'Institut du Bien Etre Social et de Recherche a entrepris le processus de révision du cadre légal relatif à l'adoption en Haïti. Aussi a-t-il élaboré un avant-projet de loi qui a été soumis aux partenaires s'occupant des questions de l'enfance pour être validé. Ce texte, préparé par une équipe technique constituée de personnes provenant d'institutions gouvernementales et de la société civile, sera ensuite soumis au Parlement pour adoption.

Cette initiative a pour objectif de doter le pays d'«un instrument légal plus actuel afin de permettre à l'Etat de mieux remplir sa fonction de protection sociale», a fait observer la directrice de l'IBESR, Mme Gabrielle P. Beaudin. En effet, selon l'IBESR, «la majorité des adoptions internationales faites en Haïti ne respectent pas les droits élémentaires de l'enfant et les principes fondamentaux en matière d'adoption internationale» . Ce dysfonctionnement est lié aux carences du cadre légal existant puisque la loi du 4 avril 1974 régissant l'adoption en Haïti se révèle «totalement inadaptée par rapport à l'extension qu'a connue l'adoption», a en effet souligné le ministre des Affaires sociales. Elle est en inadéquation avec les conventions internationales relatives à la protection des droits de l'enfant auxquelles Haïti est partie. En outre, elle ne traite pas des questions relatives aux critères d'adoptabilité et au suivi de l'enfant adopté dans sa nouvelle famille. Elle n'a non plus prévu d'autorité centrale devant garantir le respect des normes et établir les règlements et procédures. Le «laxisme du cadre légal» existant a donc créé des possibilités de contourner les normes.

Le ministre l'a mis en exergue en soulignant que «dans un processus d'adoption, la vérification du bien-fondé du consentement des parents par les autorités est capitale. Le consentement est donné par devant un juge de Paix qui se contente de vérifier uniquement l'identité des personnes faisant ainsi de l''homologation de l'adoption une pure formalité». Et M. Germain de renchérir : «ceci a permis aux crèches qui, d'ailleurs, fourmillent, de contrôler tout le processus et de faire parfois de l'adoption une activité mercantile». Le nouveau texte se propose d'être un outil qui confère «la priorité à l'intérêt supérieur de l'enfant». L'IBESR devient donc l'autorité responsable de toutes les procédures d'adoption. L'évaluation sociale de la famille biologique est maintenant obligatoire afin de s'assurer que l'adoption est nécessaire. Il reçoit également les rapports sur le développement et l'intégration de l'enfant dans sa nouvelle famille. Par ailleurs, les couples ne peuvent plus adresser leurs demandes directement à une crèche mais à l'IBESR, via un organisme d'adoption agréé. Les crèches doivent également signaler, dans les 24 heures suivant l'accueil, l'arrivée de tout nouvel enfant. Des modifications ont été portées au niveau de l'âge et de la durée de vie commune requis pour les couples adoptant. Une innovation de taille dans ce nouveau texte est l'introduction de la formule «adoption plénière». Celle-ci est irrévocable et rompt définitivement les liens de filiation existant. Les parents biologiques doivent être renseignés sur les conséquences de leurs décisions afin de pouvoir agir en connaissance de cause. L'enfant peut prendre le nom de ses parents d'adoption. L'ancienne loi ne comprenait que «l'adoption simple». Celle-ci laisse subsister les liens avec les parents biologiques qui peuvent revenir sur l'adoption.

Plea for Help for Holy Angels Hospice Orphanage

2007-11-10T08:59:00.000-08:00

Please go to http://www.holyangelshaiti.blogspot.com/ for some more photos of Father Tony's precious angels. I also have photos on this blog about Holy Angels Hospice Orphanage in Port au Prince, Haiti.

It is the orphanage that Johnny works for, so everytime I am in Haiti, I visit Holy Angels. Most of the children are terminally ill (or were terminally ill when they first arrived) or have Hydrocephalus (water on the brain - thus the children get brain damage since most of them came to the orphanage once it was too late to put a shunt in to drain the fluid in order to save the brain's normal development and function). Several of the children have Cerebral Palsy.

A couple of weeks ago, while Johnny was driving the orphanage car, flames started coming out from under the hood of the car. The entire engine part under the hood burned up! Luckily the fire did not spread to the rest of the car. How scary!

Father Tony has been trying to get the car fixed. The engine itself did not burn, but everything that has tubes, wires, etc. burned up and needs to be replaced. They can use parts from another car, a junked one that is the same make and model, to rebuild the burned car. However, the mechanic is using that car for somebody else's car and Father Tony has to wait to see what parts will be left over. The other option would be to purchase another car.

For now, Father Tony has to rely on others to give him rides with his kids to the doctors, hospital, to buy groceries, etc. Johnny has a car, but it is an "old clonker" (1991 Mazda Navajo) that breaks down every "five minutes".

In order to fix the car (if they can get the right parts from a non-operational car), it would cost around $1,500 - 2,000. To buy a "new" car would cost about $5,000. Father Tony has no money in his budget to cover either expense.

Please help! You can send a tax-deductible donation to:

Holy Angels Children Society
P.O. Box 2142
South Hampton, NJ 08088

Please put "CAR" in the memo portion on your check to designate your donation for the car.

You can also reach Father Tony directly by emailing him at:
brothertonyc@yahoo.com

Thank you for your help!

My most recent Haiti trip...part 1

2007-11-06T06:42:00.000-08:00

I just got back from Haiti on Sunday (November 4th). I had the opportunity to spend time and to speak with the Chief Cabinet of the Ministry of Interior (MOI) for several hours on Friday morning. I gave him the list of the children whose files are still stuck in MOI. I will meet with him again the week of November 19th.

Please, if you are a family whose file is stuck in MOI and has been in MOI longer than three months (i.e. prior to August 2007) can you check with your orphanage to see if all the paperwork is in order? According to the Chief Cabinet, the files that are inside of MOI for longer than three months are there because there are problems with a document. I told him that this was not the case for many of the files... but I need good information. I cannot just guess that there are no problems with papers.

My most recent Haiti trip...part 2

2007-11-06T06:30:00.001-08:00

On my quick trip to Haiti, I got to spend time with Erna. She had a really high fever, but she seemed to be doing better by time I left. It was so fun to spend time with her one-on-one. I have always had Tamarah with me who is so jealous of me spending any time holding Erna. I missed Tamarah terribly though.... I also spent time with my honey... :-) Here he is holding Daniel. We had a nice time. We stayed at his mother's house and I got to meet most of his sisters, brothers, nephews, nieces and some friends of his that I had not met before. It was a fun but also a short trip. I will be back in Haiti in less than two weeks though...so not long... I will be taking Tamarah with me this next time. My other kids are mad because they are not going. But, who can afford those plane tickets?! I told my kids that they need to get a job to pay for their tickets. ... LOL....

Tamarah with hair....

2007-11-06T06:26:00.000-08:00

I had to share this cute photo of Tamarah... yes, she only has short hair, but this is a wig that my older daughter wore with a costume. I put it on Tamarah for fun and took some photos. Isn't she cute?!

MOI Update --- October 25, 2007

2007-10-25T06:35:00.000-07:00

I again confirmed that 107 files did get delivered to Immigration. However, there are lots of families whose files are still stuck inside of the Ministry of Interior (MOI) and have been in MOI for months.

This week the Director of Political Affairs, Mr. Pierre Guignard had a meeting with several adoption organization directors and a delegate from the Dutch government. This was a similar meeting to the one that was held with U.S. Embassy personnel in August.

Mr. Guignard told the Dutch government delegate that 100 files were signed and taken to the Immigration Office on a weekly basis. This is similar to what he has said in the past. Some of you will remember what he posted in a Haitian Newspaper in April, namely that he had signed out 2,000+ files in one weekend.

Let's do the math, again! At the most about 800 children are adopted to various countries (incl. France, Canada, U.S., Holland, etc.) per year.

Many families are still waiting for their file to be signed out of MOI.

We are in the process of compiling the names and file information of the parents/adopted children who are still waiting on the MOI approval letter to have the child's passport issued. We want the waiting children home by Christmas!

To clarify, this is not a petition letter, this is a letter to show the Minister of Interior the exact numbers of files and who is still stuck inside of MOI.

Please go to the following link to update your MOI record:

http://www.2girlsandawebsite.com/blog_stuff/MOI.asp?piq=View

As far as the Chief Cabinet Stanley Joseph and the Minister of the Interior Bien-Aime have been told, MOI does not have a back-log of files and there are no parents who have been waiting for their child's passport for months!

Just a reminder of the MOI process:

1) The O-representative brings the child's file with the original Haitian documents (that includes birth certificate; archive paper - it is like a notary paper to authenticate the birth certificate; adoption documents, etc.) to the Immigration Office. The O-rep. is given a paper receipt that has a number on it = MOI number.

2) The file is taken to MOI and brough to the Office of "Unit Juritique" where two lawyers look over the paperwork to ensure that there are no errors. (Remember, that used to also be part of the "old" process before the Director of Political Affairs became involved.)

3) The file is then taken to the office of Mr. Guerdy who conducts the "parent interview". This interview consists of him filling out a two-page form by looking over the adoption documents, i.e. birth parent's or parents' name, where they live, their id#, child's name, address, date of birth, etc. and then the information about the adoptive parent (parents), which includes address, id# (passport or state i.d.), birth date, place of work, work address, profession, telephone numbers (work and home).
It is really important that the orphanage reps come to MOI on a regular basis because without their presence, the "interview" does not take place. The reps come and ask for their files by name and number. Mr. Guerdy goes downstairs and retrieves the file to get the interview done.

4) Once Mr. Guerdy is done with the "interview" and has filled out the two page form, the form, the child's and the adoptive parent's (parents') passport photos are attached to the child's MOI file. Then, somebody else within that office, re-writes the form in nice penmanship and cuts & glues the passport photos on the interview form.
Recently, additional personnel was assigned to Mr. Guerdy's office so this process should be going faster. When I was there in August, the people in that particular office were hard at work to get the interview papers done.

5) If there is a problem with the file, i.e. most of the time it is MOI requesting that new Archive papers are issued, the O-rep is then told by Mr. Guerdy what needs to be done. Though, there might be a "real" problem with a paper in the file, i.e. a mistake on the adoption decree, most of the time, it is a request to get a "new" archive paper.

Any birth certificate or death certificate requires an Archive paper. Like mentioned above, it is basically a paper that notarizes the authenticity of the certificate. However, the system is such that if a birth or death certificate is less than one year old (say in the case of a baby adoption), a "half-page Archive" is issued. When a certificate is issued, the local office that issues it logs the certificate into a big book that is kept for one year. The "half-page Archive" certifies that there is an entry in the big book that corresponds to the certificate.

The recording system is such that after the calendar year is over, the big books from the different recording offices are sent to the Central Archive Office that is located in downtown Port-au-Prince. Once the certificate is one year old, supposedly, it is to have a "full-page Archive" attached to the birth or death certificate.

This requires a person to stand in a line of about 300 people that are at the Archive Office daily. Once you get to the front of the line, if you are lucky at the end of the day, you request the "full-page Archive" . This paper is typed via old-fashioned manual type writer and is basically a full page that records the entire history of the originally issued birth or death certificate. It can easily take one to three months to obtain this "full-page Archive" paper. Why? Because even though according to the rules, the big book per office is supposed to be sent to the central office once per year, but often, that does not happen. Maybe the book is not full yet? Or, maybe they have not gotten around to getting the book? --- If that happens, somebody from the Archive office has to travel to the remote office to get the book. (It took me 12 hours to travel 100 miles, travel is not easy in Haiti.) Then, somebody has to do the actual typing. With about 300 requests of Archive papers per day... you can see why this can take months.
In my humble opinion (for what it is worth), if the adoption process was not going to take as long as it does, these Archive papers would not have ot be requested once the file is at MOI, the adoption is already finished. It is legal! --- Why request new papers at that point?

6) Once the file is finished with the interview, it gets sent to Mr. Guignard's office so that he can issue the letter to Immigration that a passport can be issued for the adopted child. The letter is composed on a computer wordprocessing program. It is not a simple form letter as each letter has to be edited with the child's specific information. The letter has to be edited and printed out by a clerk or secretary. It is attached to the file for Mr. Guignard's signature.

Here is another issue. Three clerks usually share one computer. Unlike what we are used to, only secretaries or clerks use computers. If somebody above a clerk wants to write a letter, they will hand compose and write the letter and then the clerk or secretary will typed the letter on a computer, very similar as it used to happen in the old days with a typewriter. Since several clerks or secretaries share one computer, not much work gets done per person because of the limited resources. However, I noticed that most of the computers and furniture were donated by the U.S. government because there are USAid stickers on them. Maybe we can ask for more computer to be donated so the work can get done faster? Just a thought...

It took my daughter's file three months to get from Mr. Guerdy's office through Mr. Guignard's office to the Immigration Office. That is an awefully long time to issue a letter and to send the file back to the Immigration Office.

From my observation, the slow-down is in that office. I have been told three reasons why there is such a slow down:

(a) Mr. Guignard is so overwhelmed with his work load because aside from the adoption passport letters, he has a lot of other work assignments and he is working as fast as he humanly can. - If this is the case, then why is not an additional person assigned to that office to take care of the letters? Somebody who has the authority to sign the letters and who can assure that the letters and adoption files make it back to the Immigration Office in a timely manner?

(b) Mr. Guignard is very thorough and he examines each file, including all the documents item by item. This takes a long time and it is because he takes his job seriously. If this is the case, then why have trained lawyers look over the paperwork in the first place when the file is inside the MOI - Unit Juritique Office?

(c) Mr. Guignard was not able to sign any letters because the letters have to be issued on MOI letterhead and they ran out of stationery paper. Please remember this is Haiti and sometimes this kind of thing does happen.

Mr. Guignard's superiors have received lists of names of files that supposedly were taken back to the Immigration Office. However, the names of the files that are on the lists are files that in reality were/still are in the MOI office, namely in Mr. Guignard's office! That kind of thing is incomprehensible for many of us.

Ministry of Interior (MOI) News! ;-)

2007-10-16T19:37:00.000-07:00

I posted the other day, that "apparently the Immigration Office received 150 approved passport files from MOI yesterday or today."

Updated information given was that once the files were counted, the number was corrected to 107 files. However, Dixie from GLA told her parents that only 30 files were released that day. Maybe she was referring to the number of files for her orphanage? If anybody has info, can you email me?

It was 107 files because if you add up the number of parents who have been informed that they are out of MOI from three orphanages alone, it is more than 30 files...thus, I believe my source of information. :-)

I hope that there will be LOTS of homecomings of adopted children soon!

Update...

2007-10-15T19:04:00.000-07:00

I bought my ticket today to fly to Haiti over the Christmas vacation. It cost $850...a fortune!!

I am going to be in Haiti for one week during the Thanksgiving week and for two weeks during Christmas/New Years.

My kids are begging to go with me, but with these prices, I can barely afford to fly by myself. I will be bringing Tamarah with me, but she can still travel as a lap child. It will be great for the nannies at the orphanage to see how big Tamarah has gotten. She is really eating non-stop!

We are planning a Haitian Children's & Women's Human Rights Conference in San Diego on March 7, 2008. I have secured two speakers already and have gotten two "maybe" speakers.

Lots of News & Updates

2007-10-06T16:08:00.000-07:00

I know, It has been while since I last posted any updates. Sometimes, I want to hold on because when you post your news on a blog, the whole world can see what you are up to. :-)

You are probably wondering who this handsome man is standing behind Tamarah's stroller... That is my fiance Johnny! We got engaged last weekend.

Johnny and I met in Port au Prince, Haiti last January and had been friends ever since. However, eventually we started "talking" on more serious terms than plantonic friends. What I like is that we were friends first, thus neither one of us was trying to impress each other and we were just ourselves.

Johnny lives in Port au Prince, but is currently in Canada on vacation. Tamarah and I took the opportunity to take a trip to Toronto, Ontario to spend some time with Johnny. We had a wonderful time. We did some sightseeing in Toronto. It really is a pretty city. It was my first time in Canada.

Here is a photo of Tamarah on the plane. I thought that it was too cute. Fortunately, I had enough frequent flier miles collected from my seven trips to Haiti this year. The flight for us cost us the taxes and fees, around $100. Not bad, don't you agree.

So, back to Johnny and my engagement... We had been talking tendatively about getting married. I guess that it was like feeling each other out on how we felt about being that serious prior to Tamarah and my trip to Toronto to spend time with Johnny.

I told Johnny that he would have to rent a plane and parachute out of the plane while holding a BIG SIGN with the marriage proposal. He simply asked me in response, "Well, how about I just get on my knees and ask you instead?" --- And that is what he did... :-)

When we told the kids, they were really excited. For example, Joshua said, "Mom, that is way cool!" I thought that was sweet. Teddy would not stop jumping up and down.... So, I was really happy for the positive reaction within the family.

So now, we are planning a wedding in Port au Prince, Haiti. Most of the planning will be left to Johnny and his mother (who was really excited as well). We are going to keep things simple. Johnny wants a wedding on the beach. He said that after the vows, he will be able to dunk me in the ocean... Maybe that one is not a good idea....we will have to negotiate this...no dunking! I like the idea of a wedding at the beach, but most beaches are resorts and we would have to probably have to pay a lot of money?

The other option is Johnny's friend's church. His friend is a pastor. We are planning a reception for his family and our friends. So, we have a lot of details to work out.

But, I did already find a nice wedding dress. I went to try it on at David's Bridal today. I had a Criminal Law Mid-Term exam this morning and my treat for finishing the exam was to go and try on the dress. I do not want to buy it just yet because I have been doing well on my diet and exercise plan and have lost about 25 pounds already. I will lose about another 25 pounds by time we get married. But, here it is... the one I am picking is actually an ivory color with a bit of a yellowish tint. Click on either link:

http://www.davidsbridal.com/bridal_gowns_detail.jsp?stid=3178&prodgroup=210

Here is the dress in the color that I want:
http://www.davidsbridal.com/bridesmaids_bycolor_detail.jsp?stid=2795&sid=12899&cfid=64

Interviewed on a Radio Show

2007-09-09T19:45:00.000-07:00

I was interviewed on the radio tonight http://www.1590wonx.com/ regarding the Haitian adoption issues.

I spoke of the continued long delayed waits for files to go through the Ministry of Interior and how the slow down is affecting the adopting families and the adopted children who are waiting in limbo.

I am glad that a radio station is taking this on! Also, the issue with the visas were discussed too, i.e. how our own Department of Homeland Security and Department of State failed to communicate with each other, resulting in delays in visa issuing.

I also spoke about how it is taking an emotional toll on the adopted children who finally have a family, but they cannot join that family because of the MOI waits to get the files signed and passports issued.

Check out the link: http://www.1590wonx.com/

My own computer is still in the shop. I have so many more photos to post and cannot because they are on that computer hardrive!

My weightloss is going well. I have been so "good" with sticking to my 1,200 calories per day diet and I am working out again at the gym. Once I am at my goal weight (which will probably take until March 2008), I will post some before-and-after photos.

Update from Beka...

2007-09-07T16:25:00.000-07:00

...I just got off the phone with our congressman' s office. I had called yesterday and was told they would look into the issue and call me back. She said that the State Department, DHS and USCIS have had a meeting and are currently working to come up with a solution in the next couple of days.

So, the calls are working. If you haven't already called, please take the time to call our senators and congressman as well as the Congressional Coalition on Adoption.

Call to Action - U.S. Families

2007-09-05T18:51:00.000-07:00

The following request has been made my several Adoption Agencies that process adoptions in Haiti....this pertains U.S. Families only:

"A bureaucratic nightmare has forced the stoppage of Haitian children fromreceiving their U.S. visa and joining their forever families here in theU.S.

A simple phone call from the U.S. Department of State to the U.S.Department of Homeland Security would quickly and easily resolve thissituation. To date, no such phone call has occurred and Haitian childrencontinue to suffer needlessly.

We are asking everyone with a heart forHaitian children to rally together, make some noise and help our childrenfind their permanent, safe and loving families.What can you do?

Make four simple phone calls.

1. Call your U.S. Senator.o You can find your Senators' phone numbers at www.senate.govo Ask to speak with the Legislative Director or Chief of Staff

2. Call your second U.S. Senator.

3. Call your representative to the U.S. House of Representative.

You can find your representative at www.house.govo Ask to speak with the Legislative Director or Chief of Staff4. Call the Congressional Coalition on Adoptiono Their number is 202-544-8500

When should you call? Today, Thursday or Fridayo For maximum affect, we are asking you to make these calls within thenext 72 hours - sometime before the end of the day Friday.

What should you say? Speak from your heart and give them the followinginformation.o The Department of State has stopped issuing visas to Haitianorphans.

o The problem behind the stoppage was fixed by the Department ofHomeland Security.
o BUT, no one told the Department of State.
o Your office must get involved and make the Department of HomelandSecurity communicate with the Department of State.
o Your office should contact the Office of Children's Issues at theDepartment of State. Their number is 202-736-9090

Can you explain the problem behind the stoppage? Here is some additionalinformation.

The U.S. Department of State (the consular office in Haiti) isruling that visas can not be issued to legally adopted children due to theabsence of the words 'irrevocable and unconditional' in the Haitian parentalrelinquishment documents. The Department of State is incorrect. USCIS has already resolved this issue and has been approving orphan status since June2007.

Sadly, USCIS has not communicated the resolution to the Department ofState. USCIS has already written a legal opinion that orphan status canlegitimately be granted to these cases, but the Department of State andUSCIS have thus far failed to communicate the information that will release the children.

We need to send the same concise message to each of these offices: there arelegally adopted children in Haiti who cannot get Visas and come home due tothe lack of communication between DOS and USCIS.

Please act on this message yourself, and pass it along to anyone you knowwho has children waiting, has adopted in the past, or just has a heart forHaiti. Each adult member of your household can call separately.We need to depend upon sheer volume to get our point across so please call today!"

Air Mobile Ministries & Barbara Walker Video

2007-09-03T20:50:00.000-07:00

Air Mobile Ministries can be found at http://www.airmobile.org/ and blog entries at http://airmobilejoeseditorial.blogspot.com/ You can see photos of GLA in one of the most recent entries.

Joe Hurston is the founder and director of Air Mobile Ministries. I have met and spent time with Joe on several of my trips to Haiti. He and Barbara are best friends and work together in deploying donated Vortex Voyager Water Purifiers to Haitian Orphanages, Hospitals, Schools and remote Villages. Most of the orphanages that do adoptions to U.S. families use the Voyager to clean the drinking water for the children and babies.

Barbara goes out and teaches people who receive the donated machine ($2,000 each machine). I have been with Barbara multiple times when she takes trips to give the machine to an orphanage for clean drinking water. It is truely a blessing!

Weightloss Website

2007-09-02T22:09:00.000-07:00

I found this great weightloss website a few years ago. With its help, I lost a lot of weight...just to gain it all back when I busted up my left knee at work. But, I am back in the weightloss saddle again. When I got the Giardia parasite and was so sick from it, I could barely eat anything... the good thing about being sick was that I lost some weight.

What do you do when life hands you lemons? You make lemonade with Splenda. :-)

I am using my weightloss from having been sick to jumpstart my new weightloss. I went back to the website and I still had an account. It is a great website that lets you add up your daily calorie consumption via a daily journal, work out calories burned, etc. It does not cost a thing and you don't get a bunch of junk emails. www.fitday.com Check it out!

Quick Update...

2007-09-02T08:08:00.000-07:00

I have been sick (am doing much better now) with Giardia, a parasite that I picked up while traveling in the mountains in Haiti. Darn it....and I was so careful in regards to what water to drink. But it seems that I probably picked it up when I ate some raw vegetables that might have been washed with contaminated water. When I was not getting better and seemed to be getting more ill by the day, after about one week, I finally went to the doctor. She perscribed two types of antibiotics and within one day, I started to feel better. I am not 100% yet, but I am getting there.

Tamarah is doing really well. She has had an easy transition from life in Haiti to California. The other kids totally love her and it helped that Joshua and Teddy were in Haiti with me for the summer. Tamarah is really bonded to Joshua and me.

All the kids are "fighting" right now on who gets to go back to Haiti with me during the Thanksgiving Week. I have been trying to explain that unless they can travel as a lap-child on the airplane, they cannot go because of the cost of the tickets! Tamarah is going with me because she won't turn two until next January.

Erna's file is held up in IBESR because there was a spelling error on one of the Archive documents. Instead of "la", the word was spelled "le" - which means that the Archive document has to be replaced with a new one. (Isn't it - If it is not one thing, it is another - when it comes to adoptions in Haiti?)

My regular computer is at the "computer doctor" right now and all my Haitian trip photos and kids photos are on that computer. I won't be able to post photos until I get my regular computer back.

Law School has started back in full swing. It was really tough the last two weeks because I have been so ill. But, the good news is that I got my summer semester grades and learned that I got the "highest grade award" with a 4.0 GPA. :-) This means that I finished my first year of law school with an overall GPA of 3.8 --- not bad considering --- LOL

Work has been super hectic since we will be opening the school back up on Tuesday. We have had about 250 new students enroll for the beginning of the school year. My school has many military families that move into the area over the summer and then wait until the last minute to register their kids.... don't they know that we need some time to get ready and prepare? So, last week from one day to the next, with had 50 more students enroll. That is tough on a little elementary school!

Good News to Share

2007-08-31T22:57:00.000-07:00

Today, 40 files actually and physically arrived in the Immigration Ministry from the Ministry of Interior (MOI). This means that 40 adopted children will be going home to their new families soon! This is wonderful news!

Additionally, files are being signed out of IBESR again! --- Adoption files are moving through the system!

Praise GOD!

Teddy & Tamarah

2007-08-22T09:11:00.011-07:00

Both, Tamarah and Teddy are wearing blue cotton dressed, just like Barbara Walker!

Old Man on the Donkey

2007-08-22T09:11:00.010-07:00

When we had our third flat tire on the way to Cerca Carvajal, I took some photos of the people passing us while we were changing the tire.

This old man on his donkey got really loud and kept telling me that he wanted me to take a photo just of him alone. I obliged and told him in Kreol to "smile big" which had everybody around us in stitches laughing because the old man had no teeth. He was cracking up too and tried to smile as big as he could.

I had to dedicate a separate post to the old man on the donkey and I am sure that he would be happy that I did.

While we had the 3rd flat tire...

2007-08-22T09:11:00.009-07:00

While we had our third flat tire, about one hour outside of Hinche on our way to Cerca Carvajal, I took some photos of the people who passed us by as we were changing the tire. People liked having their photos taken.

Notice the big tree on the side of the "road". People in this area live from farming and you will see women and children sitting under a tree alongside the road to sell refreshments and/or some of their produce.

The "road" from Hinche to Cerca Carvajal is especially bad, it is more of a donkey trail than a road and the people who were riding their donkeys or horses were faster in traveling than us in a truck.

From Hinche to Cerca Carvajal

2007-08-22T09:11:00.008-07:00

On the way to Cerca Carvajal from Hinche, we had our final (third) flat tire. The road from Port-au-Prince to Mirebalais was okay. At first, the road was smooth and there is construction to fix the road into a smooth drivable one. But that ends once the road has climbed the Montagnes du Trou D'Eau mountain pass. The road gets progressively worse, especially after it has rained. The roads will turn into mud puddles that are deep and it is easy to get stuck in one.

The City of Hinche

2007-08-22T09:11:00.007-07:00

On our way to Cerca Carvajal, we passed through the city of Hinche. It was in Hinche that we had to get our truck repaired because the axle broke because of the roughness of the road. I did not get to take too many photos of Hinche itself, but I noticed a marked difference between Port au Prince with all its polution and traffic and the rural nature of Hinche. Also, it was much cleaner in Hinche.

According to Wikipedia, Hinche (Ench in Kréyòl) is a city in central Haiti, near the border with the Dominican Republic. It has a population of about 50,000. It is the capital of Centre department. Hometown of Charlemagne Péralte, a nationalist leader who resisted the United States occupation of Haïti (1915-1934).

The city of Hinche (Spanish Hincha) has at different times belonged to either the Dominican Republic or Haiti. The border treaty agreements of 1929 and revisions to the treaty in 1936 left it permanently in Haitian territory.

Lac de Peligre

2007-08-22T09:11:00.005-07:00

Lac de Peligre was beautiful and breath taking. It is a HUGE lake that has an edge that borders the Dominican Republic.

Our trip across country to Cerca Carvajal - Haitian Version of Survivor

2007-08-22T09:11:00.004-07:00

One weekend while we were in Haiti, we traveled 100 miles from Port-au-Prince to Hinche across the Plateau Central and then across the Chaine des Paincroix to the small town of Cerca Carvajal. The trip took over 10 hours (not counting the times that we had to stop to get a new axel for the car, in Hinche, but including the three times that we had to repair a flat tire.) The entire trip, including our stay in Cerca Carvajal took 4 days.

The trip started out on National Route 3 and at first, the road was fairly smooth only to end in a dirt road and areas where there was no road at all. We traveled through more than 13 river beds.

The trip took us up into the mountain ranges of Montagnes du Trou D'Eau, through the town of Mirebalais, pass the big lake of Lac de Peligre, through the little towns of Carrefour Peligre, Barrage, Thomodne and onto Hinche. Pass Hinche, the road turned into a complete donkey path and there were times were I did not think that the truck could pass or get through. It was quite an adventure.

Trou Caïman, sometimes called Eau Gallée by locals, is a lake in Hait known for its excellent birdwatching opportunities. The lake is 9 km (5.6 mi) long, 3 km (1.9 mi) wide, and approximately 16 km² (6.2 mi²) in area. It is located northeast of Croix-de-Bouquets in the Ouest Department of Haiti.

Erna Photos

2007-08-22T09:11:00.003-07:00

IBESR Update...

2007-08-22T09:11:00.002-07:00

Unfortunately, I have some "not so good news" about what is going on in IBESR right now.

Apparently, a Haitian Pastor from Carrfou (spelling?) had some sort of an adoption scam. Somehow, he got 40 or 50 adoption files through IBESR and then submitted 40 or 50 adoption files, all at once, to Parquet/2nd Legal. At that point, there were questions raised about the files because it is too unusual for any one organization to submit 40 or 50 adoption files all at once. They did some research and now UNICEF is going to audit IBESR because the files had made it through their ministry. In the meantime, no files that were ready to come out IBESR (including mine that I had hoped would come out last week or this week) can come out of IBESR until after the UNICEF audit is completed. Keeping in mind that UNICEF is really not in favor of adoption, it concerns me in terms of how long this audit will take.

I had read reports of a scam orphanage in Port au Prince on CNN news and somebody had emailed the article as well. However, because it did not mention the name of the orphanage in the newsreport, I had not give it much attention and dismissed it as anti-adoption propaganda. However, it turns out that it was that orphanage and that pastor who tried to process these sham adoptions.

Flying over the Carribian Sea

2007-08-22T09:11:00.001-07:00

We are home...

2007-08-22T09:11:00.000-07:00

We got home last night at 9:30 p.m.

It was quite an adventure getting home. Tamarah did really well traveling, but we hit a lot of "little snags" on the way.

Because the aiport in Port-au-Prince had closed down on Sunday because of the hurricaine, about 1,000-1,500 travelers were left stranded. Most of them go rebooked for later flights, but it seems that most did not get tickets out until almost 5-7 days after their originally booked flight. Their other option was to go via stand-bye...thus the large crowd of people trying to trample their way into the airport! I had to carry Tamarah's stroller when trying to get into the airport, otherwise she would have been trampeled. It was absolutely crazy. Fortunately, we had decided to go VIP into the airport (it costs $15 per person plus luggage fee) when we had seen the crowd the day before. With VIP, we were able to get in without standing in line, but people in line saw us going in and tried to get in as well...it was like a stampede.

In Fort Lauderdale, we ended up standing in line at immigration for over one hour! Once we got through the passport control and were sent to the little side room to process Tamarah's IR3 entry visa, etc. it only took about 15 more minutes.

However, then we hit a snag in Customs. I was not aware that U.S. citizens coming from PAP were only allowed 2 bottles of rum (I had 10 bottles that I had declared on the customs form). Instead of just telling me that I had to pay $18.50 of custom fees/tax on the rum, they made me open my suitcases, etc. Of all times traveling, this is the time that they had to do this to us! I was really mad because that delayed us for another hour.

Fort Lauderdale airport is a PAIN in terms of rechecking luggage once you exit customs. Most airports have a re-checking for luggage after customs right outside of customs...but not FLL... We had to walk to another terminal altogether and get upstairs to re-check. (I had forgotten about that part and so I was not too happy pushing heavy luggage, three kids in tow, and rushing to make our connecting flight.) Thus, we did not get to stop to eat lunch.

However, I was able to upgrade/stand-by to first class on the next flight from FLL to DFW (Dallas). Tamarah and I were in first class where we were fed a nice lunch. Joshua and Teddy remained in economy class, but had three seats to themselves. Being able to travel first class on that leg of our journey allowed me to 'recover' from the previous mess! :-)

We had a two-hour layover in Dallas and then continued on to San Diego. This time, I was not able to upgrade my ticket since I am only a lowly "Gold Advantage Member" on American Airlines and was 'bumped' by the platinum members....but that was okay because I had recovered by then. :-) We got home at about 9:30 p.m. (after having been on the road for 16 hours).

We were able to take some beautiful photos from the plane... The Carribian Sea is absolutely beautiful...

Photos of the kids....

2007-08-20T07:54:00.000-07:00

Erna Marie... I am holding her in this photo. Unfortunately, she got sick because of the temperature drop from Hurricaine Dean. I was up with her all last night because she was crying, congested and running a fever.

It will be difficult leaving Erna behind, but her file should be coming out of IBESR any day now. I am keeping my fingers crossed that the rest of the process will run smoothly so that she will be home with us before or at Christmas...wouldn't that be great?!

Tamarah sitting on my bed, sucking her fingers. I am so excited that I will be able to bring Tamarah home with me when I leave Haiti. Her adoption took 1 year and 1 week and that was with being "stuck" in the Ministry of Interior for four months!

Joshua and Teddy on the way to Port-au-Prince. We took about 300 photos during the four weeks that we have been in Haiti, unfortunately, I cannot figure out how to upload the photos. Joshua uploaded some onto Barbara's computer...but only his favorite ones.

I will have to wait until we get home to upload more photos.

Hurricaine Dean

2007-08-20T07:45:00.000-07:00

Hurricaine Dean only skirted Haiti. Some of the southern parts of Haiti sustained some damages, but Port au Prince, as a whole, did not.

On Sunday early morning, at around 3 a.m. the area where I am in, just outside of Port au Prince toward the north, experienced some really really strong winds and lots of rain. At one point, the winds were so strong that it was raining horizontally! I have never seen anything like that! Horizontally falling rain! The wind was really loud!

Fortunately, the really strong wind and rain only lasted for about 2-3 hours. During Sunday, there were isolated showers and gail winds blowing throughout the day, but nothing like it had been during the early morning hours.

American Airlines canceled all flights from and to Haiti for Sunday. It was way to windy for any plane to fly. I know of one person who was booked to return to the U.S. on Sunday, she was told that the earliest flight for her was one week later! I cannot believe that American Airlines would do that! Hopefully, they will provide additional planes to make up for the missed day.

During the rain and wind, the temperature really dropped. It was nice and cool and we did not even have to use fans. The funniest thing was when LuWanna went to stand on the balcony and let the winds wip around her. She said, "I really am enjoying the breeze." --- Breeze? --- I have never known anybody to call strong stormy winds - "breeze" - I thought that was so funny!

I drove to get some ice on Sunday afternoon and looked around to see if there was any damage around this area, but there was none.

MOI Update

2007-08-18T10:20:00.000-07:00

We met with Chief Cabinet Stanley Joseph Thursday afternoon. One of the things discussed was the MOI's failure to send finished files to Immigration after the interview has been done.

Mr. Joseph pulled out a paper with a list of dossiers (the 8 that I had done the interviews on were on the list), and said that these dossiers (about 45 files were listed) had been sent to Immigration. We told him that this was not true because we knew for a fact that our 8 had not been sent to Immigration. Mr. Joseph told us that he had even let them use his personal car to drive the dossiers over to Immigration (I felt bad for him). So, he sent an email to the Dir of Pol Affairs (who actually called him on the phone just as we were leaving).

We shared with Mr. Joseph the excuses that I had been told as to why the dossiers had not been sent to Immigration:

1) The office had run out of stationary paper and thus could not write/print out the individual letters.

2) The DOPA takes his job very serious and reads all the papers in each dossier.

3) The DOPA is so overloaded with all his other jobs that he does not have time to sign the dossiers.

I do not think that Mr. Joseph was too happy to know that he had been lied to. He also shared with us that he got a list of 50 names from the U.S. Embassy of the files that had been in MOI for more than one month (that is the same number that Mr. Duffy from the U.S. Embassy had told me about). He said that he had made it his priority to get those files out.

We also talked about how Mr. Guerdy is working really hard to get interviews done (which he really is doing) and how he really needs some additional help to get more interviews done per day. Mr. Guerdy had told me that as of September 1st, two more people will be assigned to his office so that three (3) people will be doing the interviews. Mr. Joseph told us that his goal is to have files only stay in MOI for 15 days.

Mr. Joseph said that some of the problem is that there are "mistakes" in some of the files that have to be corrected and thus the files cannot be released until the mistake has been corrected.

Barbara Walker, who was in the meeting also, brought up the "mistakes" are usually related to Archive papers and that MOI is making a very unnecessary and expensive request.

Let me explain...when there is a birth certificate or death certificate issued, they are recorded in a book that is located in the issuing office (which are small local offices in the different geographic areas of Haiti). Once per year (though it usually does not happen until once every two years) the recording book is sent to the main Archives Office/Library in Port au Prince. If the birth or death certificate has been issued longer than one year ago from the point it reaches MOI, the MOI office is requesting that the certificate is accompanied by a full page of Notary paper (that is typed and basically states that the certificate is recorded in a particular Archive book).... It is raining hard and the satellite goes out when it does....so I will continue this later.

If the certificate is less than one year old, it receives a "Half Page" notary (half-page archives) that certifies the signature of the offical that issued the certificate. That one is quick to get and many times the child's birth certificate or a parent's death certificate only has a half-page. HOWEVER, by time the file gets to MOI and especially with the long wait inside of MOI, it has usually been longer than one year since the certificate has been issued. So now, MOI won't sign out the file and say that they have to have a "Full Page" notary archives.

To get the full-page, it is expensive to get and also takes a long time. Most of the time, Archives does not receive the books that the local offices record in every year, but every two years, especially from remote places. Then somebody has to get paid to go and get the book from the town. It can take up to three months to get that document. Barbara explained the full process to Mr. Joseph. It can cost up to $1,200 Haitian extra (about $300 U.S.) for one full-page archive paper or more if you end up having to "pay" somebody to go and get the book (transportation, food, lodging) and it has to be an Archive employee who has to get the book to PAP.

I am sure that you guys get the picture.... Mr. Joseph was very attentively listening to Barbara as she explained the process to him and why they should not be asking for the full-page Archive paper for the birth or death certificates that were perfectly okay with a half-page archive paper for IBESR and the courts, including the U.S. Embassy that accepts it like that.

We are really hoping that he understood and agrees and that he will put a stop to asking for that additional document.
The good news is that he is very pro-adoption and wants to get the kids to their families.

Also, he said that he read something about the "cake story & MOI" on the internet, so he might be reading Haitian Angels? I told him what I did and that the cake came from me...LOL

Okay --- what else....while I was in the "country" with the senator this weekend, a newspaper journalist and TV reporter/cameraman came with us the entire time. I spoke with the newspaper guy about the issues in MOI and adoptions...he told me that because the kids are used for body parts, the process had to be detailed to avoid those kinds of things. I almost lost it! Nice educated guy and he says that?! So, I explained to him the process a US family has to go through, how there are adoption reunions and follow up photos that families send to Barbara Walker to give to birth families....etc. He said that he was interested in doing an article on that, I am hoping to set this up before I leave so that Barbara can meet with him, etc. (It is so hard to type on a sticky keyboard!!!)

Also, Hurricane Dean is supposed to come across Haiti tomorrow and into Sunday. Port au Prince is kind of protected because the storm has to travel across some mountains from where it is coming from, so there probably will be a lot of rain and wind, but not a Hurricane level storm through PAP.

The southern part of Haiti might get it though...

I will be back in the U.S. on Tuesday night with Tamarah and Josh & Teddy. It will be hard to leave Erna behind, but she is with an excellent nanny.

Update...

2007-08-15T17:31:00.000-07:00

We got back from the country side last night, late. It took 8 hours to drive the 100 mile distance from the little town outside of Hinche to Port au Prince. Today was a Haitian holiday, thus all the offices were closed.

For the record, for some of the "email people" - you know who you are...

Barbara busts her butt every day in Haiti working...she surely runs circles around me.

This weekend....

2007-08-09T13:37:00.000-07:00

This weekend, my kids and I are going to take an 8-hour car ride from Port au Prince to one hour's drive outside of the twon of Hinche (see map). There, we will spend the weekend with Rodon who is a member of the Haitian Congress and is also a lawyer. Over the past several months, we have become friends and I am excited to have been invited to his home to meet his wife, son and extended family. I am not sure if I am looking forward to the bumpy ride, but I was told that it was worth the 8-hour ride.

I am debating whether I should only take Joshua and Teddy along and to leave Erna and Tamarah with their nannies. I am not sure how they would do in the car for that long. We are leaving on Friday morning at 6 a.m. and are not scheduled to return until Monday evening. If the ride is too much, I might catch a "puddle jumper" plane from Hinche back to Port au Prince on the way back.

Today (Thursday), I stayed in Barbara's village, home while in Haiti. Barbara came back from the U.S. yesterday. I picked her up from the airport. A couple of hours later, a large family came from Michigan to meet their new daughter and to secure a visa to take home a child that needs surgery. Too many people in the truck for my "big butt". I welcomed the break. I was able to check my email messages and return some emails. I took a long nap, spent some time with my girls and did some office work for Barbara.

What happened at MOI on Tuesday...

2007-08-08T16:04:00.000-07:00

On Tuesday morning, I got to MOI early before the employees arrived with a big chocolate cake in hand, freshly backed, early in the morning.

The cake was such a hit that I got seven (7) adoptive parent interviews done! Now those files are on their way to Immigration for passports. Everbody loved the cake. As a thank-you, I brought another freshly baked cake this morning to MOI.

In addition, I got about two marriage proposals while in MOI from gentlemen who sampled the cake...after all, a woman who can bake such a delicious cake.... LOL

What is the saying? You catch more bees with honey...

I was so grateful for getting all those interviews done. I wanted to sing and dance! I wanted to celebrate....instead, when I got back to the village in the afternoon, I was told by Lawanna that we needed to take the village's trash to the dump... so much for celebrating...LOL

Thank you GOD for making it happen and for giving me the idea regarding the cake. :-)

Tamarah has her Visa :-) - August 6, 2007

2007-08-07T03:46:00.000-07:00

Tamarah got her visa! It was processed by the U.S. Consulate in Port au Prince, yesterday!

I was really impressed by the courteous treatment that I received by the visa staff. They are very pro-adoption and really try hard to make the process the least stressful as possible for the adoptive family. I am not easily impressed, but they impressed me with their professionalism and kindness.

I spoke with Mr. Duffy and he told me that he was sorry that he cannot email individual parents who have emailed him regarding having had their child's adoption file in MOI longer than one month. He just does not have the time. The U.S. Consulate compiled a list of names of U.S. families affected by the wait ("only" about 50 families emailed - I know there were more out there). Ms. Joan Logan, the new chief over the adoptions unit in the U.S. Consulate met with the Director of Political Affairs from MOI last Thursday. She was promised that the MOI staff will work as fast as possible to get the adoption files processed.

Haiti Update - August 5, 2007

2007-08-05T08:21:00.000-07:00

Kaliko Beach Club:
We are spending the weekend at the Kaliko Beach Club. I do not have the right software to upload photos that I have taken, but you can see the place on its website:
www.kalikobeachclub.com

I am staying here with Josh, Teddy, Tamarah and some "new" friends who are adopting also. Their names are Rebekka, Mike and Kerwin. They have posted some photos onto their blog:
http://haakehome.blogspot.com

We are staying in a bungalow right next to the beach. It was so nice to sleep in air conditioning.

I am leaving today and the kids and Rebekka and family are staying for another day. Tamarah has her visa appointment tomorrow morning (Monday) at 7 a.m., so I have to go back to Port au Prince this afternoon.

U.S. Consulate News:
I spoke with Mr. Duffy on Friday. He told me the reason for the "changes". He said that a few years ago, things were very dangerous and a lot of U.S. Personnel were pulled because of safety concerns. Because they did not want to slow down or stop adoptions, they made necessary chanages where the U.S. Immigration Office in downtown PAP took over the orphan investigations. That office is mainly staffed by Haitian employees.

Now that things are calm in PAP, the U.S. Consulate is taking back the responsibility for the orphan investigations as it is supposed to be.

They are working hard to get a system established. Though they have established a "new" system, there are also lots of exceptions to the system.

As posted earlier, if the I-600 was applied for in the U.S., the Consulate will conduct the orphan investigation. If the I-600 was applied for in Haiti, then the Immigration Office will conduct the orphan investigation.

It is important that adoptive families call ahead of time to find out exactly who has their adoption file... U.S. Consulate (Mr. Duffy's Office) or the U.S. Immigration Office in downtown PAP? Make sure that they have located the file and all its contents before coming to get your child's visa.

Ministry of Interior:
I spent enough time waiting in the MOI office last week to read a 500-page novel! Yes, there is a LOT of waiting involved in getting the necessary adoptive-family-interview done. I spent over 6 hours waiting to do two interviews on Friday. The office is HOT, there is no air-conditioning and there is one person conducting the interview, Mr. Guerdy.

On Friday, I sat in front of his desk while I waited for the entire six hours.

He has to look for the files that the O-reps are asking for. When he comes back with the files, it goes "first-come-first-served". Unfortunately, I was the fourth person to have come in that morning, thus the long wait time. He does about 5 interviews per O-rep. However, these interviews are constantly disrupted with phones ringing or people coming to talk to him.

He has a two page form that has to be filled out. The information of the child must be looked up in the original adoption related documents, even if the O-rep has the information on a piece of paper already. The same goes for the adoptive family information, it gets looked up on the adoption decree, except for some of the adoptive family information that is provided by the O-rep.

Mr. Guerdy fills out the two-page form and then tells the O-rep if there is anything wrong with the adoption related papers. It seems that they are finding more and more things "wrong" that are not really wrong (at least in my opinion). For example, they are requesting to speak with the family representative for a full orphan that has been adopted. Now that person has to be found...how long will that take? 2-4 weeks maybe?

They are requesting different types of notarization of birth and death certificates. One is called a "half-page" and another type is a "full-page" that comes from Archives. Many of the documents have the half-page certification for the document. To get a full-page certification takes several weeks.

Archives is ten times worse than the DMV office, the line to speak with a clerk is several hours long! In 100+ degrees heat inside of the building.

To get a full-page certification, the book where the initial birth or death certificate was documented has to be found. If the document was issued in one of the villages, outside of PAP, the process can take months! The books are sent to the PAP Archives' office once per year. Nothing is computerized and somebody has to go and look through the archives to find the particular book. Once the book is found, the entry has to be found...and then a full page is typed up on an antiquated typewriter to certify that the document is real.

Once that is obtained, it has to be legalized at the Parquet and at the Foreign Affairs Office.

Okay ... so assume that there is nothing "wrong" with the file and it content. The interview has taken place. Now what?

Next, one of the two elderly gentlemen in Mr. Guerdy's office take the paper that he filled out and re-write it in nice penmanship (nothing is typed - everything is hand written). They also cut out the adoptive parents' and the adopted child's photo and glue it onto the form.

Once that is done, the nicely written paper/form is attached to the dossier file envelope and then it goes for final signature. I believe that the Director of Political Affairs signs the final letter that everything is okay with the file and that the passport can be issued.

Once that letter is signed, then the file is hand carried by an MOI employee to Immigration. It took six weeks for my daughter's file to reach Immigration after the interview had taken place.

My honest opinion is that there should be another person besides Mr. Guerdy who does the interviews. I might just suggest that.

I have to say that he worked non-stop on Friday. He was in the office at 8:30 a.m., came back with files at around 9:30 a.m. and did the interviews non-stop until he was finished with my two interviews at 3:00 p.m. By that time, both he and I had basically melted from the heat. Add to that, the electricity kept going off leaving all of us in a dark office several times during the day.

Several orphanage reps got interviews done on Friday. GLA and NLL got the most interviews done, the rest were from French adoptions.

July 27th - Haiti Update

2007-07-27T18:06:00.000-07:00

We got to Haiti yesterday morning. American Airline upgraded our tickets to Business/First Class. --- Yeah! :-) --- They are super nice to me everytime I fly.

Today, we went to MOI...because we did not get there until about 10 a.m. there were too many reps from other orphanages in front of us that we did not get much accomplished. We did get one dossier signed out though. :-)

There were about 30 dossiers signed out to Immigration today. I asked the guy who carries them to Immigration if he was taking them right now? He said, "Yes." --- So, there will be some happy families.

MOI has gotten super picky regarding birth certificates and death certificates. Some dossiers are rejected over simple document dates...for example, if the child's birthcertificate was issued when the child was first born...and the child is a toddler now...they want a new "more formal" birth certificate now.

Also, lots more orphanage reps were at MOI today then I had seen during my previous MOI visits.

My girls are doing well. Tamarah went swimming for the first time today and she did not like it at all! :-)

Joshua and Teddy are doing well, especially since they got to go swimming today. They are looking forward to the beach next weekend.

Who to contact....

2007-07-20T18:19:00.001-07:00

If you are a U.S. family whose adoption file has been inside of the Ministry of the Interior for more than one month, please contact the U.S. Embassy in Port au Prince, Haiti at:
papadoptions@state.gov

If you are a Canadian family in the same circumstance, please contact:
Helen.Harris@international.gc.ca

If you are a Dutch family in the same circumstance, please contact:
Dhr. B.W. Schortinghuis
Fax : +1 809 565 4685
STD@minbuza.nl

When you email, please include the following:

Name of your child(ren)
Date of Birth of your child
Orphanage Name
Orphanage Address and phone number
Contact Name for the orphanage
Your MOI number (if you have it)
The date that you entered MOI

I know that the French Embassy in PAP is involved in the conversations with the Ministry of the Interior as well, however, I do not have a contact information for French families.

Getting ready to leave for Haiti...

2007-07-20T18:19:00.000-07:00

Everytime that I leave for Haiti, I try to be packed and prepared way in advance...but it never works out that way. The same is true this time around. Joshua and Teddy are coming with me. In total, we have six suitcases that we can bring, plus our carry on luggage. The carry on luggage is devoted for our personal belongings. The suitcases are dedicated to carry formula, playpens, diapers, baby wipes and sheets. ... altogether 300 pounds!

This is a photo from our March 2007 trip. Teddy and my friend Yolo went with me.

I have a really long "to do" list before I leave:

1) Make sure that I have all our passports and any papers I might need for Tamarah's visa.

2) Make sure to weight all suitcases because none can be more than 50 pounds each.

3) Make sure that all the bills are paid. (Wouldn't it be something to come home and the electricity is turned off because I forgot to pay the bill prior to leaving?)

4) Study for law school exam --- yes, you read correctly! I have a 4-1/2 law school exam from 10 a.m. until 2:30 p.m. on Wednesday. Our plane leaves at 6:00 p.m.!

5) Study for law exam... LOL

6) Make sure to remember to pack several warm outfits for Tamarah for the airplane ride home. It is cold inside of the airplane. She is not used to air conditioning.

7) Make sure that I have all the small gifts for the nannies, etc.

8) Check to see what Joshua has packed for himself...he is a fashion conscious young man... Definately check what he packed!

9) Don't forget the camera!

10) Bug Spray! --- The mosquitos just LOVE to eat me!

11) Pack my law books so I can get a head start on studying for the Fall semester.

I am sure that I am forgetting something...

More Files Relased from MOI

2007-07-18T16:22:00.000-07:00

Today, more files were released from MOI. I do not know how many but was told "lots". I do not know what "lots" means? 10? 20? 30? .... 100?

Dare we hope that things are moving? I cannot wait to find out how many files were released today.

So...what happened today?

2007-07-17T22:14:00.000-07:00

I totally deleted my membership on Haitian Angels, so I cannot read any messages. :-)

Maybe I was hasty to do that, but I had just had it! I think that some people think that because the groups have an anonymous environment of sorts that it sometimes has mean spiritness come out. In person, the same persons would probably never remotely communicate in that manner face-to-face.

Somebody emailed me some of the postings and in addition, I received about 50+ personal emails of encouragement. That was really nice and I am very humbled.

I will keep my blog updated with any news. Thanks for all those sweet emails of support and encouragement!

Tamarah Update

2007-07-17T06:15:00.000-07:00

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.

Haitian Adoption Process Steps...

2007-07-10T21:49:00.001-07:00

Obviously, there are lots of steps to take before your dossier is ready to go to Haiti to start the adoption process there... The process takes a long time and here are the steps:

1. Dossier arrives in Haiti at the orphanage. Adoptive parents should send 1 set of originals and 4 sets of copies of the entire dossier.

2. Any document that had to be authenticated by the Haitian Consulate has to be taken to the Minister of Foreign Affairs for further legalization. They legalize the signature of the Haitian Consular Officer that legalized your dossier at the foreign Haitian Embassy in your country.

3. If the child to be adopted is already identified and/or as soon as the child is identified, the child's portion of the adoption dossier has to be compiled. This dossier portion includes the social history on the child which is prepared by a Haitian Social Worker, a Psychologist report, a Medical report and a Lab Report is made. Additionally, the child's birth certificate, parent's death certificate or relinquishment papers are added to the dossier at the time. Additionally, any birth or death certificates have to have Archive Papers attached to the document. this certifies that the signature on the birth certificate and/or death certificate corresponds with the signature of the official who signed it.

4. When all the papers are back from Legalization and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and the child's paperwork is finished, the dossier is prepared for the National Office of Social Welfare (IBESR) and send it to the lawyer. The dossier consists of one original document dossier and three copy dossiers.

5. Dossier is given to IBESR. The dossier has to get approval from three offices within the IBESR office.
*About 500+ dossiers from various countries (U.S., Canada, Spain, France, Netherlands, Belgium, etc.) are in IBESR at any one time.

6. Once the dossier is approved at IBESR, it must be studied and signed at the Parquet Office.

7. Courts (2nd Legalization)
Once the dossier is released from the Parquet, the dossier comes back to the Lawyer. The court papers are typed and turned in to the court for the finalization of the adoption process. There are several steps that have to happen.

- Attestation of the signature on the act of adoption. This is when Archives in Haiti says that the signature on the act of adoption corresponds with the signature of the judge who signed it. Just legalizing the signature.

- Legalization at the Minister of Justice Office. Papers must be legalized here for all countries, saying that the signature is the legal signature of the Judges involved on ALL papers.

- Legalization at the Minister of Foreign Affairs. Legalizing the signature of the Minister of Justice.

8. Application for the child's Haitian Passport. The Orphanage representative submits a "mini" dossier that contains all the adopted child's and adoption documents to the Ministry of Immigration. From there, the dossier is sent to the Ministry of Interior (MOI).

- Dossier goes to the Minister of Interior for study and approval. This is the portion in the current process that has been very slow. The average wait for the MOI portion is about 4-5 months but hopefully that will change soon. Inside of MOI (as I posted before, there are 4 steps).

- Approved Dossier is sent back to Immigration from MOI. The Orphanage submits some additional paperwork so that the the passport can get printed.

9. Child is taken to have a Visa Medical Examination which is required as part of the visa application. Usually the medical exam has to be done after the passport is issued because the Embassy Doctor has to ensure that he/she is examining the child who is applying for the visa.

10. At the same time that the passport application is in the works, the U.S. Immigration process must be completed:

- Haitian adoption papers are translated into English, so that an I-600 can be filed in the United States or in Haiti if the adoptive parents come to Haiti.

- As soon as the family receives the I-600 approval in the mail from USCIS, the Orphanage needs to get a copy of it so that the U.S. Immigration Office in Haiti can finalize the orphan investigation process, which is necessary for the granting of the child's visa that allows him to travel as an immigrant to the U.S. (If the family participated in the Adjudication Orphan First Pilot Program, the orphan investigation has already taken place.)

10. The Orphanage submits the Visa Application with copies of certain documents to the U.S. Consulate. Mr. Jeff Duffy at the U.S. Consulate reviews the completed dossier before approving the visa.

11. The adoptive parents' have their appointment in Haiti to receive the visa.

12. Get on the plane and go HOME with your child! :-)

Passport! :-)

2007-07-10T21:49:00.000-07:00

Finally --- Tamarah's file has come out of the Ministry of Interior and her passport was approved. I am expecting to have her actual passport "in hand" by Wednesday, July 10th.

I won't be leaving for Haiti until July 25th and will stay until August 21st. I will be working with Barbara and will be spending time with the babies. I will be able to bring Tamarah home with me. It will be so exciting to be able to get onto the plane with her. But, Erna's adoption won't be finalized for a while yet. So, it will be bittersweet since I have to leave her behind.

New Photo of the Kids

2007-07-04T06:53:00.002-07:00

I had this photo taken on the 4th of July.

Joshua is 15...I have posted photos of him before. He is going to Haiti with me on July 25th. He really has a heart for children. Recently, he did an internship at a child development center. Joshua would come home every day bubbling with stories about the kids. It is great to have a son who loves others.

Amie is 12...Her birthday was on July 1st. She is 5'11" tall! She is excellent in school, straight A-student. Additionally, she plays basketball. She is no longer playing in the girls' league because she is "too good, and any team she'd play on would give an unfair advantage to that team" --- that is what the coach told me. So, for the past three months, Amie at age 11 was playing in the teenage boys' league, 14-17. She totally holds her own and she fits right in with her skill level. She is an amazing girl.

Teddy is 7...on paper...in reality, she is about 9. (Long story...but basically when I adopted Teddy in 2004 in Liberia, the birth year was written wrong.) Teddy just finished first grade. The teachers love her because she is a hard worker and she is always helpful to others. She is really kind. Teddy will come to Haiti with me too. This will be her second trip. Last time, she made lots of friends and loved helping with the babies. Teddy has been such a blessing.

Emmanuel is 5...on paper...in reality, he is 6. (Long story...see above.) He is very talented with languages and is really smart. He speaks Spanish fluently alongside of English. Amie, Teddy and Emmanuel attend the Language Academy and their instructions are in English and Spanish. Emmanuel has a mind of his own and gets into trouble accordingly. :-) He is an independent spirit. Emmanuel (or "Man-Man" - his nickname) makes sure life is never boring.

My son Joshua

2007-07-04T06:53:00.001-07:00

I just realized that I did not post a photo of Joshua with my last entry.

Well, here he is.... Joshua will be going to Haiti with me during July & August. He is 15 years old, a 10th grader in high school.

Here is a photo of Joshua with Emmanuel - being silly!

I have very handsome sons' -wouldn't you agree?

Going back to Haiti in July 2007

2007-07-04T06:53:00.000-07:00

I took some photos of my June trip to Haiti, but I have been so busy that I have not had the chance to upload them onto the computer. Thus, here are some more photos from my April trip.

Tamarah is 18 months old now! I have to get the newer photos because her face is slimmer now and she is losing her "baby look".

Teddy (7) and Joshua (15) are going with me on my next trip. We will be staying for three weeks. This will be Teddy's second trip. She loved her first trip. Haiti reminds her of West Africa where Teddy was born and where I adopted her from.

I love this little photo of Tamarah. She is walking much better now. When I was in Haiti in June, when she saw me as I arrived, she yelled, "Momma!" and literally jumped out of the nanny's arms. Talk about a 'tear jerker'! :-)

Back to Teddy... Teddy really has a love for babies. When we were in Haiti over Easter, she just loved helping care for the babies. She made a lot of friends with other little girls her age.

Emmanuel, Teddy's full bio brother, who is 6 wanted to go also, but I could not afford it. I keep telling him, "Next time." --- I feel bad about leaving Emmanuel behind when I go to Haiti.

Joshua is 15, he is as tall as me, 5'11" and this will be his first trip to a Third World Country. He has been to Germany, England, France, etc. but never to an impoverished country, aside from Mexico. He is excited about teaching the kids.

Here is another photo of Teddy feeding Erna Marie when she was about six weeks old.

I bet you are reading this entry and you are wondering? What about the passport and Ministry of Interior Issue?

Well, it is getting resolved. The MOI is actually working on files. To my knowledge a stack of files was moved from MOI to Immigration on Monday (July 2nd). Tamarah's file was not one of them, even though I had been promised that it would be. So much for promises.... :-)

I have to say that the Haitian Government Officials that I have had contact with , in person and/or via email and telephone have been really nice and polite. There is a genuine feeling of wanting to help the situation, that is clear every time there is a conversation exchanged. However, the system is not efficient. Bureaucracy is bureaucracy. Government Employees have the same reputation all over the world, no matter what country your are in, the U.S., Canada, Germany... Haiti.

My general opinion is that the passport issue and MOI hold ups will get resolved within the next couple of months. According to the Haitian Ambassador to the United States, Raymond A. Joseph, the MOI step was included because there was talk of "child trafficking" --- mind you, that should be IBESR's responsibility, right? Well, we cannot tell another country how to run their affairs. However, it would be encouraging news if one ministry communicated with the other ministry, instead of repeating the same steps over and over again. Some streamlining of the process would be great.

It is so hard to not be able to take home your child, especially when the adoption was final in March 2007. I have her I-600 approved, she already has an approved Orphan Investigation by the U.S. Embassy... and we are still waiting for a passport. The irony of it all is that as soon as her feet touch U.S. soil, Tamarah will be a U.S. citizen. Sometimes, I feel like screaming!!!!

It has been over four months now, waiting for her passport approval from MOI. She is even on my U.S. health insurance because as soon as her adoption was finalized, I was able to add her.

I know that there are about 350 other parents in the same frustrating MOI phase. Hopefully it will be resolved soon and when it is time for Erna Marie's file to go through that MOI stage, it will be smooth sailing. .... Hey, I heard that comment!.... Be positive! :-)

Haiti Update - June 16, 2007

2007-06-16T16:09:00.000-07:00

I am on my way to Haiti again, this time only for a few days. Both babies have been really sick. It is so difficult to be thousands of miles away from your children under normal circumstances, but it is especially difficult when they are sick. I was especially worried about Tamarah because she has sickel cell. Well, how can I say that - because Erna is only four months old. I was just as worried about her.

About three weeks ago, I had been told that my file was signed out of the Ministry of Interior, just to learn that this was not true. This short trip was planned in response to these news because I was going to get Tamarah's visa next week and bring her home with me. I was so sad to learn that her file had not been signed out of MOI, in fact, it is still in the Director of Political Affair's office.

A letter was written last week, currently on line at http://ibesr-updates.blogspot.com/ to petition the Minister of Interior, Mr. Bien-Aime, pleading him with him to put a stop to the Ministry of Interior's holding up of the children's passports. So far, over 200 parents have signed the letter. This is the second petition, the first was sent to the President of Haiti in May.

President Preval will be in Washington next week, asking for funding for Haiti. He wants to eradicate corruption and give Haiti a "jump start". We should definately pray for his plan to eradicate corruption, it will take God's intervention, I am certain.

When I was in Haiti, I met with the Chief Cabinet Stanley Joseph, a really nice man, however his promises did not come through for a variety of reasons. He has been told that all passport files were signed out of MOI. Well, the adoptive parents waiting for their children's passports would know about that, don't you think?

The Ambassador of Haiti to the United States, in Washington D.C., Mr. Raymond A. Joseph has tried his best to help the adoptive children passport hold up to no avail. When he meets with President Preval next week, he will give a copy of the petition letter to him as well.

I find it absolutely amazing that one person can hold up all these passports. I find it amazing that this person does not get checked on. He has made claims, including to a Haitian newspaper that published the claims, that he signed out 2,000 adoptive passport files. He has made claims that there is no waiting passport file in MOI because he is signing 100 files per day. If somebody would take the time to check on his claims...

I find it amazing that adoptive parents from all over the world have gotten together to put together this letter and to petition the different Haitian government officials. The internet is amazing. By the way....that is how we know that no 100 files per day are being signed. There were about 200 files for passports waiting inside of MOI in May, now that number is closer to 300 as adoptions have been finished and children are ready to join their families.

I hope and pray this problem will be resolved soon.

Orphanages are filled to their capacity because the children waiting for passports, children who are legally adopted, children who have parents cannot leave. As a result, children who need to be in the orphanages are sent away. What happens to those children?

Prospective adoptive parents are turning away from Haiti. They no longer want to adopt from Haiti because there seems to be so many delays and issues. Those parents could have become parents of the children that the orphanages had to turn away. It breaks my heart.

I have some photos of a morgue in Port au Prince, Hait that has dead babies stacked like dolls on bookshelves that reach from the floor to the ceiling. Dead babies! The photos are surreal. I had contemplated posting those pictures, but I think that it would be too shocking for anybody.

It makes me wonder why the world, as a whole, does not seem to care so much about children? Children are dying in the thousands each day, all over the world. Adoption is a drop in the bucket, so to speak, if you look at the big picture. Why are babies thrown away at birth? Why are children not regarded as worthy lives? Why do we live in a country where food is thrown away, where doggies are carted around in little strollers or carried around in little purses? Yet we, as a society, look away to the plight of starving and dying children?! (No offense to owners of little doggies...I have one too. It is just so ironic.) There is enough wealth in the world to where everybody would have health care (incl. everyone who goes without health care in the U.S.) and where everybody has enough to eat.

One a side note --- I finished this year of law school with a 3.71 GPA. Great isn't it?! I was having lunch with a friend who is a lawyer, went to the same law school as me, and he was asking me what area of law I am interested in. I really want to do children's rights law, especially on an international level. I have found a program in Miami, Florida where I can get my doctorate in international human rights law. The professors are the most famous and most recognized law "brains" and activists in human rights law. Funny thing is that when one finished regular law school, one gets a "juris doctor" degree, but you cannot call yourself "Dr." unlike somebody who earned a Ph.D. or E.D. However, the program in Miami give you the official doctor title. Fancy that...a "Dr. of Human Rights Law".

One of the things that I noticed while trying to assist in overcoming the passport "impasse", there are so many organizations that fight for human rights, but really very few to none fight for children's human rights. Why is that?

Hait trip - Ministry of the Interior - May 2007

2007-06-03T06:30:00.000-07:00

I has been a while since I updated my blog. I came back from Haiti last week from a 10-day trip. Tamarah's finished adoption file was stuck in the Ministry of Interior (MOI) for almost three months. I had called the Director of Political Affairs' (DOPA) office in mid-April to find out my daughter's file status and was told that my dossier was okay and if I came in person, it would be signed out to me.

Tamarah has sickel cell trait and her red blood count is low. Erna was really sick in May, she kept running fevers that medicine would not lower. It was scary. Both girls are doing fine now. Baby Erna has gained 3 pounds since mid-April and she is filling out. She was really sick just now, high fevers that would not go down, etc. It is scary when a baby is sick. She still does not eat well. I do not know how she gains weight. Her face looks chubby, but her body is skinny.

On to my MOI & DOPA adventure... When I got to Haiti, I went to the MOI to see about getting Tamarah's file signed out. (Erna's adoption has just started and she just entered IBESR.) It took two days just to locate her file. There are three offices in MOI that deal with the adoption files.

Office #1 is the Unit Juritique. This is the "original office" where all finished adoption files went through prior to the other offices being added in January 2007. In this office, there are one or two lawyers who review the files for accuracy. The lawyer makes sure that all Haitian documents, from birth certificate to adoption decree do not have any mistakes. Once that review is done, the file used to get signed out and was ready for passports. Now, once the lawyer has reviewed the file, a letter is typed by the secretary and the file plus unsigned letter goes to Office #2.

Office # 2 is an upstairs office in MOI. I do not know the name of that office. The director of that office goes to the Director of Political Affairs (DOPA) and gets files that are kept in the office. He takes the files back upstairs and then interviews one of the orphanage workers/lawyer/representative about the adoptive parents and the birth parents. The orphanage worker brings copies of dossier documents, passports, driver's license, employment verficiation, homestudy report, letter from pastor, etc. for this interview. The interview is guided by a form questionaire that has to be filled out. Instead of allowing orphanages to take a form with them to fill it out, it has to be done with that director. It takes about 60 minutes to fill out one form. Once the form is filled out, the form is re-written in nice penmanship by one of the MOI workers. Then the entire file goes to Office #3 (where there seems to be a real slow down...)

Office # 3 is the Director of Political Affairs (DOPA) Office. This is where the letter is signed by the DOPA. Once the DOPA has signed the letter, the dossier file and letter are taken back to Immigration. (It takes months to get the DOPA to sign the letter because, according to him, he has to read each document in each file prior to signing the letter and he has a lot of other work to do as well. So, he gets to reading the files whenever he has time in his schedule.)

Once the file comes out of MOI, all the original documents are taken back to Immigration. That is when the passport is issued.

Once the papers are submitted, the child (depending on his/her age) has to go to get fingerprinted at the Office of Immigration for his/her passport.

Once the child has the passport, for a U.S. adoption, she/he can get the visa physical and once the sealed envelope with the physical is received, the application for the visa is ready and can be submitted. A child can have his/her visa phsyical started prior to the passport being issued, but has to return a second time with the actual passport to verify the identity.

In addition to dealing with a sick baby which is scary in itself, the trip was very stressful because of the MOI issues. At the time that I got to MOI with Mirlande (adoption facilitator's Haitian assistant), approximately 200 finished adoption files were sitting in one of the first two offices in MOI. I had been told of a family that has been waiting for nine months for their file to be signed out of MOI. Keep in mind that this was a rumor, but I knew that my file had been in MOI for three months.

What is so frustrating is that once papers are submitted to MOI for signature, the child has already been legally adopted and carries the adoptive family's last name. The child is no longer an orphaned child and has a family. However, that child cannot join his/her family until MOI has signed out the file. It really felt like our children were held hostage. At least that is how it felt to me.

The first two days, we spent in Office # 2, sitting and waiting for adoption files to come upstairs for interviews. Most adoption workers sit in Office # 2 to wait and see if any of their files are ready for interviews. They come every day, sit in a hot office and wait.

The people who work in that office are nice. One clerk was especially polite. I really liked him. One day, I had to use the bathroom. He walked to me to where the bathroom was located in another part of the building and even gave me some of his personal toilet paper that he had kept in one of his file drawers. Now that was polite! He did not have to make the effort.

When I asked the director, who was not working on any files for the first two days, about the adoption files, he told me that he only works on files when "they send them." I asked him who "they" were and he would not answer that. He was polite and would laugh at me and my frustration. I asked him to please consider my position... I had been told that my file was ready if I came in person, I could get it signed out. I had a sick baby. I had to take a week off from work, pay $1,000 for an airline ticket, just to sit in a hot office and be told that maybe "they" would bring my file. He would just laugh and tell me not to be upset.

At the end of day #1, after having waited in office #1 for most of the day without seeing any adoption files worked on, Mirlande and I went downstairs to the DOPA office. It was locked. We were told that somehow the door had been locked and nobody could get into that office, not even the Director of Political Affairs. (I do not know if that was the truth, but that is what we were told and the door was obviously locked.)

We went back upstairs to office #3 and asked again for the adoption files. At that point, I called the Haitian Ambassador in Washington D.C. and asked for help. I had had some contact with his office prior to coming to Haiti. I explained the situation to the Ambassador's secretary and gave her the necessary phone numbers in MOI.

Mirlande and I went home...I had a sick baby to tend to. The Ambassador called me back and said that he had talked with the DOPA in person and that he was told my file was ready and to come back on Tuesday (day #2).

On day #2, we went back to the office #3. Again, we sat for a long time in that hot office. We asked about my daughter's file but got no answers. We went downstairs to office #2 of DOPA and again found that office locked. So, we went to office #1. We found that my file was still in office #1 after three months! The secretary in that office had a legal pad with a list of names and Tamarah's name was on one of the pages. She confirmed that her file was in their office.

I asked about having the file sent to office #2. She was not sure about that. Mirlande and I decided to go to the waiting area of office #2 and wait for the DOPA. At least that area was comfortable and not so hot.

In the meantime, we had contacted our friend Rodon who is a "depute de la circoncription" - member of Haiti's Congress/Senate. He came to office #2 and after an explanation of what had happened, he went to office #1 and spoke with that director. The director confirmed that my file was okay and said to come back on Wednesday (day #3) to get the letter issued so it could be taken to office #2 for the DOPA to sign it.

We came back on day #3. We went to Office #2 and sat and waited for several hours. Since we did not see any "movement" for several hours, we went to office #1. We asked the secretary about the letter. The director and lawyer in that office told the secretary to finish the letter so that my file could be sent to office #2 with the DOPA. She secretary refused to type the letter. She would not do it and there was an argument between the secretary and the lawyer and director because both were directing her to do the letter. She continued to refuse.

We went back to office #2 and sat in the waiting area. Rodon, in the meantime came back to the MOI and spoke with the people in office #1 and also with the DOPA.

After a while, the Director of Political Affairs (DOPA) walked passed me as he was entering his office area. When he saw me, he said some derogatory comments about me in Kreyol. He must have thought that I did not understand.

About an hour later, Mirlande was called into his office. I followed her. As the DOPA saw me, he said that he did not want me "La Blanc" in his office. I stayed on the outside of the doorway. He proceeded to scold Mirlande. He told her that he had signed 2,000 files in the past month for adoption passports. He also told her that he was upset that the Ambassador had called him. He said that I could wait all that I wanted, he was not going to sign the letter for my daughter's file.

Okay, let's do the math. Approximately 300 children are adopted to U.S. families per calendar year. I am estimating that about 100 children are adopted to Canadian families per calendar year, another 300 children to French families and maybe 100 more children to families in other countries in Europe. That adds up to approx. 800 adopted children per calendar year. I asked if the DOPA has sign for other passport permissions as well but was told that he only signs the letters for adoption passports. Considering that 200 files were waiting and had entered from January 2007 through April 2007, the math was just not adding up!

Moving on... It really concerned me that the DOPA was so angry about the Ambassador calling him. After all it had been the DOPA's office that had confirmed with me three weeks pior to day #3 that my daughter's file was ready for the letter to be signed, just to find it still sitting in office #1 in a file cabinet...three months later!

So, back to the "drawing board" - It was obvious to me that the secretary would not just disobey her boss in her office and that she was following orders from "above"... the DOPA maybe?

I contacted the Haitian Ambassador's office again, spoke with the secretary and explained what happened. Also, three moms in the U.S. were contacting the Haitian Embassy as well regarding this issue. They were waiting for their files as well. I did not dare ask for their files while I was in MOI since I did not want them to be "black listed" like my file had been. Two of the moms were able to talk with the Haitian Ambassador and relayed messages to me. He was working on it and was upset at the treatment that I had received. It seemed that instead of it being "no problem" it now seemed that it was a problem.

The good news was that by day #3, I saw people walking around in MOI with adoption files in hand. The director from office #3 came out of office #2 with about 20 files! Those files were ready for interviews and were ready to be signed out. At least there had been some effect to my efforts.

On day #4 (Thursday), we came back to the MOI and were told that my file was not ready. We were given the run-around again. We were told by some of the clerks that the DOPA was very upset that the Ambassador had called him. Even though Rodon came back and tried to get something to done, we walked away empty handed. Again, the Ambassador was called and this time, he decided to go higher up. He contacted me and I was told that he had spoken with the Chief Cabinet Stanley Joseph (CCSJ) who is the head of MOI. He told me to go and see the CCSJ on Friday.

On day #5 (Friday), Mirlande went to office #3 and office #2 and then to office #1, found that nothing had "changed" and then called Rodon to accompany us to see the CCSJ. One thing about Rodon, he can get you into literally any office.

Sure enough, he was able to get us to see CCSJ, also, it seemed that he was expecting me since he had spoke with the Ambassador.

I did not know what to expect...would I be yelled at again? Would I be told that my file would not be signed out?

I was pleasantly surprised. The CCSJ was a kind, educated, sharp and compassionate man. We explained the situation to him and he (on the spot) got up and said that he would look for my file. This was the moment to tell him about my friends' files also. One girl needs spine surgery and one boy has terrible Astma....I was able to give him a total of seven names and file numbers.

He came back and said that it would be done. He also told me to ask all the parents to please be patient because he had just been appointed to the position and had not officially started yet. He had looked through the copies of my papers that I had been carrying around for the interview and noticed that I was born in Germany. It turned out that he had attended university in Germany and that he married a German lady. He spoke fluent German and we held our conversation in German.

I was beginning to have hope again. He seemed very concerned for the sick children and promised that the files would be signed out as soon as possible. He told Mirlande to come back the following Tuesday for the files. I was leaving on Monday.

We left his office with a lot of cautious hope in our hearts!

However, when Mirlande went to MOI on Tuesday, nothing had been done. As a matter of fact, the DOPA waived my file in front of Mirlande and told he that it along with the other 7 would never be signed.

Mirlande called me in tears! ---- Back to the "battle stations"! ---- We called the Ambassador again. He made his calls and reported that our files would be signed and ready by the end of the week.

Finally Progress! - On Friday afternoon, two of the six files were signed out following the form interview. One of the files was mine. (PRAISE GOD!) The other four files did not get signed out because there wasn't enough time to do the form interview, but they are ready!

The only thing is that the little boy who has Astma so badly - his file was not among the files. His number is higher, but his mom got the telephone number of CCSJ and spoke with him. That file will be coming out soon too.

Mirlande is taking a few days off and will be back at MOI on Thursday for the other files. I really don't know how she does this, day after day. It is exhausting. I was exhausted! I was sad to have to leave Haiti without Tamarah, again. But now I know that it won't be long for her to get her passport and visa. I hope to come up with the money to take a weekend trip to Haiti during June so that I can check on paperwork and put some together for other families as well. It is $1,000 and right now, I do not really have $1,000 to spare.

On a side note --- I know my way around Port au Prince now and this time, I drove myself on a daily basis. Also, I gave Mirlande some driving lessons. She is doing well. She is a quick learner. My goal is to teach her how to drive when I am in Haiti for three weeks this summer.