8 months to a year...

please wait...

"How's the adoption going?"

"...slow. We wait until... "

We are in the midst of a waiting game where we are powerless to move forward. Now that Leika has been chosen and we get all excited about our daughter, the painful long wait begins. Our paperwork must make the long journey through Haitian government and courts. As of now (and since we accepted Leika) our seven pounds of paperwork is sitting in pre-IBESR. What is that you ask? IBESR is the Institut du Bien Etre Social et de Recherches (duh, of course). It's the equialent to the department of family and children's services - also referred to as the black hole of Haitian adoptions. This means our papers are just waiting to fall into the Black Hole.

We are watching other families paperwork move from pre-Black Hole to Black Hole and wonder why we can't fall in to the hole as well. Once we are in IBESR it is about an eight month to a one year journey. We want to start that journey.

In addition to the journey through the system, there is another hurdle to get over. Because we already have kids, the president himself must sign off on our adoption. Why does the Haitian president care... I don't know, but apparently he does. As of now, he has not signed off on any families from GLA. The upside is he is new at his job and maybe just has not gotten around to it yet.

So lots is happening with us as we restrain ourselves from badgering the orphanage and practice unnatural levels of patience. Very little is happening that we can see of our adoption moving forward. Pray for continued patience and peace, the process to move along at ludicrous speed, and Leika as she waits to come home to our family.