Isaiah's adoption

No news to report about deployment so I thought I'd explain where we are in the process of getting Isaiah adopted.

Even though Isaiah is living with us, he is still not legally our son. If anything were to happen that forced us to leave Haiti, Isaiah would not be able to go with us. This concerns us greatly. We are blessed to be with him and would not change that for anything. But, we also pray that his adoption gets finished quickly so that if the unimaginable happens, he could remain in our family and leave Haiti with us.

We are currently waiting on Presidential approval in order to be declared his legal parents here in Haiti. Because Jody and I have biological children we do not fit the criteria set up in 1974 for adoptive families. This law has caused more problems with the adoption process then any other... in my opinion!! I would estimate that 90-95% of the family's that adopt from Haiti have bio kids. This law was set up when international adoption was fairly new and there were few children from Haiti available for adoption. It was designed to allow couple's unable to have children of their own to become parents. The process then was much faster and easier to do so parents could still bring home "a baby". Now, the process is so long and difficult, even if an adoption is started on a newborn, it is likely that child will be a toddler before ever joining their forever families in the US. Most "first-time" parents are not willing to wait. The law has not been enforced in the past but once again it is. We waited for Presidential approval for Landon and Sutton for months and never received it. They changed the enforcement in the middle of the process and it was no longer required.

After we receive approval the next step is to apply for a new birth certificate, then passports, then final US approval and finally a visa can be granted. This is several months, possibly even a year away. We know we are blessed to be able to live here in Haiti with Isaiah, however the thought of leaving him behind in order to protect the rest of the family if something were to happen is scary. Three Angel's is an exceptional orphanage, he would be loved and cared for if we needed to place him back there... BUT... it is still an orphanage and not a family. So... we wait... we pray... we pray some more... that his adoption is completed soon. We pray that we are not forced to make the decision that would take us away from him. And we hang on to the fact that God is bigger then any of this and He has the whole situation in the palm of His hands!!