We've been Published!!

We've crossed another hurdle!  Wanted to give you a little background of what we've accomplished lately and what the next step is for us :)

With the outdated 1974 law in Haiti, there are 3 requirements that you must meet in order to be permitted to adopt from Haiti:  1- Must not have biological children  2- Must be at least 35 years old  3- Must be married for 10 years.   If you don't meet these 3 requirements then the Haitian President must 'sign off' on our adoption file in order to continue.  Without his signature, then we can't adopt from Haiti...period.  Well, as you know we have 3 children...who are anxiously waiting for their brother & sister to come home... so we fall into the category of needing "Presidential Dispensation".   Well...we exited IBESR (the Haitian Court) on May 28th with Presidential Dispensation!!  However, before we could move forward the Dispensation had to be published in the Haitian Legal Newspaper.  On July 27th (Nick's Birthday) we found out that it was published!!  It's been approved and printed...so we can move forward!  It took two months, but it's another step forward...another hurdle crossed :)

Where do we go from here...our next step is to enter 'Parquet'.  Below is a list of steps that occur while in Parquet (copied from All Blessing International Adoption Agency).

Parquet Court
The 'step' we refer to as Parquet court is actually a very complex series of steps and processes involving multiple offices and repeated trips between them.

1. Attorney addresses a Request for Judgment to the Chief Justice of Parquet Court
2. Birth parents are interviewed in Parquet Court
3. Parquet Court signs off on "approval judgement for adoption
4. Facilitator takes approval to DGI for stamp of authorization
5. Back to Parquet for enforcement of the approval judgement
6. Authorization and redaction from the Civil Registrar Officer for legal Adoption Decree
7. Verification in parquet of the adoption documents by the Civil Registrar before signing the adoption decree
8. First Legalization of the Adoption Decree, in Parquet Court
9. Second Legalization of the Adoption Decree, at the Ministry of Justice
10. Third Legalization of the Adoption Decree, at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs
11. Obtain attestation of Adoption Decree from the National Archives

We have heard this step can take anywhere from one to four months.  We haven't heard if we have "entered" Parquet yet or not.  It has been 2 weeks since we received word that we had been published and that we could move forward.  We hope we have entered & they just haven't emailed us to let us know...that does happen...several families were not notified that they had entered until they received the email saying they had exited.  I would love for that surprise!  So, at the end of this stage (as we understand it) we will have an adoption decree...which means the adoption is legal in Haiti!  The kids will have our last name...they will be OURS!!!

In the meantime, you know what we are doing...waiting!!!  We wait for the next email that tells us we have moved forward again.  There seems to be a lot of movement in the adoptions of friends we have made during this journey, so we hope to hear good news soon. Thanks for staying with us along this long journey...we will keep you posted when we hear that we've crossed another hurdle :)