Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer.
Romans 12:12
Francesca turned "5" on February 10th
It has been an amazing process as each step came with some incredible stories and craziness, most of which you were able to follow. But as we went along and as we realized more and more how little control we had in this process, and how the next complication was more unthinkable than the last, the easier it become to turn it over to God. We now are 100% OK with whatever happens, and that meant on some days thinking God possibly was/is wanting Francesca to stay in Haiti. If that is the case, then that too would be OK, in fact we believe that if that was the outcome, it would be the best outcome for Francesca. Once we relinquished control and trusted God was going to do with her what He wanted, and once we took our own selfishness out of the equation, it became easier to get comfortable with any outcome.....and that is where we are today.
So now to the crazy stories......and these follow the crook who took our money, lied to us about the progress only to find Francesca’s paperwork was at the exact same place it was when we gave it to him 5-6 months earlier, in some drawer in his desk!!!
After our time with Agent Jean Louise McCrooked, we found a new agent, Mirlande who really did good work for us and got Francesca to the point of getting her passport. This theoretically, was to leave a week or two review of the paperwork by the US Consulate and then a two-four week wait for our appointment to go and get her. So, we spent another Christmas thinking she may be home in time to unwrap presents....why did we do that to ourselves?
First amazing tale, Francesca’s mother was required to show up at the US Consulate with her photo ID and have a final interview. After several hours of waiting, Francesca’s Mom went to the consulate with an ID with no photo. We warned our Orphanage Director OD), she needed a photo ID, he said it would not be a problem. Guess what, it was a problem. She was told to go get a photo ID, so what she did was went out with our Orphanage Director, took a passport photo and taped it on to the same ID she was already rejected with. We told the OD this likely would not work, but he told us it would be no problem...guess what, It was a problem. So after another long wait she was rejected again......So now we were told we would need to wait for her to get a country approved Photo ID, (which by the way even in Haiti a photo ID is needed to vote, so we should not complain about it in the US). She told us she had been trying to get the photo ID for over a year! Uh-oh...here we go again, a very long wait for the ID. But, thank God, Kim found out that a DNA test would suffice, so we went down that road. This whole process took many weeks.
So we call a firm in Maryland, pay the hefty fee and send the DNA kit down to the US Consulate in Haiti. Francesca and her Mom wait for a third time, three hours in a crazy long line and incredible heat with no shade outside the consulate to get the test done. They overnight the kit to Maryland, Maryland gets the kit and informs us that the Consulate did not fill out Francesca’s paperwork at all...left it all blank, soooooo, we need to overnight another kit down to Haiti, Francesca needs to get back in that long hot line (trip 4), and take the test again. They then overnight the kit back to Maryland and we then get a call from the DNA company....the information is still not filled out correctly!! After Kim spent time on the phone to Maryland and Haiti, after wailing and gnashing of teeth they allowed the information to be transmitted by phone....great job Kim!! And thank God, they passed the test!!
As that was going on, we were met with some gut wrenching news. The US Consulate told us that after going to check our paperwork at the courts, they found that none of our paperwork was filed at the those courts, none!! The Consulate told us they have had issues with our Lawyer in the past and they suspected fraud!!! Our you freakin’ kidding me?!? They cautioned us on the fact he may have taken our money, created the documents himself and never even went to the courts and appeared before the judges, and if so, we were looking at starting over.....starting over.....needless to say, lots of time in prayer that week...............
Last week I went to Haiti and met with the ladies at the Consulate and with our OD and they told me if our lawyer did in fact appear before the various courts, (they were very skeptical), then he for some reason did not take the final step of filing the paperwork with the courts. If it was just a matter of him filing the documents, they were going to allow him to go back and file the existing documents which would take a few weeks and we would not need to start over or, possibly, even likely be banned from adopting in Haiti since we were involved in fraud! We were shocked. However, It appears now thank God, the problem is fixable and all the lawyer needs to do is re-file the paperwork properly in the courts.
So, as we sit here today, we are told that all of the paperwork is filed, our OD is taking all of the filed paperwork to the consulate on Friday, February 14, 2014. They have told us they fully understand the crazy process we have endured and that they will expedite our file and if it all is legit, they will set up our visa appointment to go get Francesca!
So we are looking at anywhere from three weeks, to never, and never only goes off the “possibility” list the day our airplane touches down in the US and she is sitting next to us.......
There you have it....if you read all of this you are likely exhausted......I think losing the distribution list saved us a lot of embarrassment as we would have kept coming back with bad news and broken promises and most of you would likely think that we are suckers and Francesca is never coming home, but I can end with one great story:
Our friends Amy and Wayne went into the adoption process about a year after Kim and I and their baby was home before Thanksgiving!! We were so blessed to spend time with Nadedge and her new family when we went home to Cleveland for Thanksgiving. We realized that it can happen, we saw it in action and really got the feeling of what it will be like with Francesca running around.
I also spent a week in Haiti with all three of our girls last week and all three girls are awesome. I cannot tell you what it feels like to hear one of them yelling Papa, Papa or when Francesca came to me saying she wanted her Papa to walk her to school, or Misslanda, our 9 year old asking me, “what things does Mama like”?....very cool stuff......and if God wants them here, they will be here in a perfect time....if not, they will do amazing things for Him in Haiti, and no matter where they are, they are Francesca, Bebej and Misslanda Liberatore.
Thank you for your thoughts and prayers!!!
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