November 25th. That’s the day we got submitted!
When you adopt a child from Haiti, your dossier has to go through a series of steps before you’re matched with a little one. First, it has to be authenticated here in the US. Then it has to be legalized in Haiti. Then it gets submitted into IBESR’s system. (IBESR is Haiti’s department of family and children’s services.)
We didn’t expect to hear that we had been submitted until early next year, but it seems like things are really moving along down there right now, and it’s all so very amazing to me!
It’s been one year since we first applied to adopt, and if things keep truckin’ along, it sounds like we *may* be traveling to Haiti to meet our Sweet P within the next 6 months. That will *hopefully* be the first of a few trips back and forth next year. From what I understand, we’ll have to appear at a couple of different court dates in Haiti to finish out our process in 2014 (2015?), but we’ll be able to bond with our little guy/gal while we’re there each time, too. 🙂
We spend a lot of time staring at this collage on Three Angel’s Facebook page these days:
Those little faces give me so much to think about. It’s still so unreal to me that one of them will be my babe! 😀
I’ve always felt like if I was going to have a child, it would be through adoption. I can even remember daydreaming about it several times when I was a little girl.
But now there are actual faces…and emails from friends who have cradled them all in person. There are actual voices captured on video…and very soon, I’ll know which one we’ll be hearing all around this house.
That’s so, so wild to me, y’all. 🙂
I had a dream it was one of the little boys in that collage last night. I was sitting with him on the floor in the orphanage. His back was curled to my front, and his tiny legs were stretched out on top of mine. I was running my fingertips across the tops of his baby-smooth feet. It was Haiti-hot & humid, and I figured out that he liked it when I blew on his skin in an attempt to cool him down. I can still see it so clearly: he would watch his feet as I blew towards them over his shoulder, and as soon as my breath reached them, he would squeal with glee! He’d turn to me, and I would gasp and make a surprised face, and then he would point at his feet so that I’d do it again. It was very vivid, and I’m feeling very thankful for that Image today. 🙂
The next step is to be unofficially matched with Sweet P. Once that happens, we’ll fly to Haiti and spend 14 days loving on him/her. Assuming that goes well, the next step is to be officially matched, and assuming that goes well, we’ll schedule the first of those court dates I mentioned above and fly back to Haiti for another visit.
When I sit and really think about what’s really happening (even when it sometimes feels like nothing is happening), I find myself in complete awe. It’s such a HUGE opportunity/responsibility/blessing, ya know? I was a little overwhelmed by all the options in the beginning, but right now, it feels like all we really had to do was really step into it. Things are coming together just like folks said they would, and I feel lucky to be living this out alongside them.
Last Christmas I was thankful for the beginning of this mysterious-meets-marvelous adventure. This Christmas, I’m thankful for the opportunity to continually extend one fearful-meets-faithful foot in front of the other, and to finally know (really know) this thing was Set from the start. Like it was inscribed into my life, and that there’s a whole part of my heart I haven’t met yet.
🙂
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