Legally Liberatore

It appears the incentives we offered last week are paying off as Francesca has already passed thru the legalization process and a pre-Christmas "get-her-home" date still seems possible.  The exciting news about the legalization process is that Francesca is not only a Liberatore in our hearts and minds, but legally!  Her name has been changed and she is officially a Liberatore! 

Next step is passport...then visa...then HOME!

It was surprisingly emotional when Kim got the call and hung up the phone and told me, "she is legally a Liberatore!".....still brings tears to my eyes.......so here she is, Francesca Liberatore:

Ready for soccer practice!

Getting Closer

On October 10th, Francesca exited IBESR, which is the first and longest phase of the process, (In our case, it took 13 months)!!

Our Sweet Francesca!

Exiting IBESR is a HUGE relief for several reasons......

First, given the general state of the Haitian government and the lack of regular communication and our inability to get good intel from the adoption agency, we could not help but wonder if in fact our dossier was really where it is supposed to be...is it lost?  has it slipped between desks? has it been accidentally destroyed?  You simply did not know and had no way of tracking the process or calling someone who can confirm that "yes we have it, we just have not gotten to it yet".

Secondly, you never know if the President will sign your paperwork initially or at all.  We have heard reports of paperwork missing or incomplete and being sent back.  And then there was always the possibility that the President could reject our application because we did not meet 100% of the criteria, which is why we needed the dispensation in the first place.

And finally, any unrest, any disruption in the government for any reason would bring everything to an abrupt halt and our dossier would simply sit somewhere until whatever "issue-du-jour" would be cleared up.  For example, things as minor as the President needing shoulder surgery in Miami meant he was not in-country to sign paperwork.....

So, getting out of IBESR is really, fantastic, wonderful, great news!

Now moving forward we have been able to commission some extra help and attention to our paperwork and God willing take months off of the remaining process and possibly, hopefully, and again, God willing have Santa deliver her to us by Christmas!  We are managing are expectations as best we can and we have turned this over to God and regularly acknowledge that we do not want her here before God wants her here, but we are excited to see things progress!

Please keep praying, this is still a third world country, the government remains very, very fragile and there are still hurdles that need to be cleared.  We thank you in advance for those continued prayers.....

But, we are getting closer and we have butterflies in our stomachs just thinking about her smiling face running around our house, (most likely, from the dog)!

A happy day

Bad news, Good news

Let me start by saying we just spent another week with Francesca and with each visit, the bond deepens and we become more and more ready to get her here, (as if we already weren't!). We feel by the way she acts that she becomes more and more ready to be with us.  The downside is, it is really getting hard to leave her......

                                                Francesca and Papa looking for butterflys
                                             
Anyway, the news from Haiti is that the nation is going to institute the Hague polices for adoptions and the rules for these adoptions will be published on 7/13.  Herein lies the "bad news, good news".

The bad news is that the Hague in conjunction with UNICEF has historically made international adoptions far more difficult.  There are very important reasons as to why this is so, such as combating child trafficking, but there are also very unfortunate ramifications, such as UNICEF's anti-adoption stance.  There are many people and agencies that feel adoption in general is a bad idea and UNCIEF is one such agency.  The feeling is that children born in Haiti, or wherever, should remain in Haiti (or wherever).  I think we can rap our brains around that general concept, yet with 750,000 orphans in Haiti, and maybe a few thousand adoptions pending, it really seems adoption in the end will be a solution for Haiti, not a problem. One reason among many is the idea that adopted kids may one day return to Haiti with an education, and a myriad of ways to potentially help their nation.  For Kim and I this may mean our hope to adopt more Haitians will become more difficult as several Hague nations are no longer adopting kids at all.

The very good news however is that we are being told every kid in the system, including Francesca, is not only grandfathered into the pre-Hague standards, but the desire for the Haitian government to get all of these kids thru the system quickly so Haiti can begin the transformation to the Hague standards.  They have targeted 7/31 as the day they want all the kids out of IBESR, the first step, and then on to the step of getting Visa's. 

If this governmental plan unfolds as we are being told, and that is a big IF, we theoretically can count on Francesca being here by the fall, this winter at the latest.  If our contacts in the US government can help, who knows, maybe she will be here in August/September.  The difficulty now is managing expectations!

We also continue to understand that there are several more hurdles, which for us is why, knowing God in in control, makes all of this far easier than it otherwise would or could be.  Which reminds me, PLEASE KEEP PRAYING FOR US...we may be getting close!

In the Political Crossfire

As you may have read, the current Prime Minister of Haiti, Connelle, resigned this weekend. What this means is that until there is a new PM appointed, all adoptions and the entire adoption process, stops.

In real terms and unless we are the benefactors of miraculous intervention, (which we always believe is possible), this will delay our process by 3-6 months, maybe longer if the Haitian Parliment cannot agree on an acceptable PM, ending our hopes of getting Francesca home this spring/summer.

Kim and I are viewing this as an opportunity to increase our capacity for trust and patience and our ability to live and believe that God, from His superior vantage point, has a plan and as always, is working that plan for good, be it our good, Francesca's or the people and government of Haiti.

thank you again for your continuing prayers, God bless you

Happy Birthday Francesca

February 10th is Francesca's birthday, so this year, Kim and I went down to celebrate her third and hopefully last birthday in Haiti. This was the third time we have taken her out of the orphanage for a week "vacation" and this is the trip we really feel we crossed the threshold of simply being two nice people who take her for occasional trips, to officially becoming "Mama" and "Papa".

The idea that she calls us "Mama" and "Papa" is really the least significant indicator of this realization, as it is more the non-verbals that speak volumes.  Many times this trip while talking to various Haitian friends or members of the visiting team, I would feel her come up to me and lean on me or ask to crawl into my lap.  Several times she would simply come and sit next to me on the stoop and lean against me while softly singing or murmuring to herself.  As she was learning to dribble a soccer ball like a basketball, she ran into our bedroom to find "Mama" so she could show her new skill.  She is talking to us non-stop in both Creole and some pretty decent English.  She also would seek out Mama when it was time to use the bathroom, as potty training is well underway!!

It is hard to explain what it feels like to be blessed with the opportunity to get to know her this way before she comes home, but much more of an impact for me was the idea that for the first time in my life,  I am recognized as "Papa"....wow...words cannot express....

She is an adorable, energetic, strong, fun and funny girl with a very big personality and an incredible spirit.  At times she will sit back and observe and you can see the smoke coming out of her ears as she is probably trying to understand what all is happening...and then at times she jumps in and takes over.  We love both of those aspects of her personality

As far as getting her here, Francesca's paperwork is in the first in-country phase and we are told we are getting very close to advancing to stage two.  Stage two is in the hands of our lawyer and he feels they can do that work in a week.  After that it goes to the Haitian Ministry of the Interior and is out of our control which will be very uncomfortable.  We are told that this phase at a minimum could be 3-6 months!  However, and where we are asking for prayers, Kim and I have established a "two degrees of separation" contact with Secretary Hilary Clinton, and IF we can get Secretary Clinton to write a letter, email or place a phone call on our behalf, a nebulous, black hole minimum period of 3-6 months could turn into one week!!  That would be incredible so please do remember us in your prayers.

We are not sure when we are going back down, it may be a short trip in early May or a week in June or both, I do not know, but we are really looking forward to seeing Francesca again.  It is getting very exciting!


May God bless you all.....

Beautiful Papers

Kim and I never thought we would look at paperwork as "beautiful", but this paperwork truly is gorgeous in more ways than one.  First, the lovely gold stickers, the red ribbons, the neat stamps and signatures.  It really is lovely.  More importantly, much more importantly, this is the paperwork that is going to bring Francesca home!

Kim has worked so hard on all of this and after hundreds of phone calls, many hundreds of hours and thousands of dollars capped off by a trip to Columbus to personally usher our papers thru the Ohio Secretary of State's office and then phone calls and hiring a company to personally usher it thru the US Secretary of State's office, (yes, Hillary signed each packet!), and then the Haitian Consulate, the completed paperwork was returned to us in a very short period of time.  On Monday, a friend and employee of Christianville took it all to Haiti in his carry-on bag and hand delivered it to our facilitator waiting for him at the Port Au Prince airport.  Today it will go to get all of the seals verified and we are off.....

The process has been incredible and at times extremely frustrating. However you can at least understand why you need to do all the they ask of you.  It is of note that the US and Haitian government will now know exactly what is in my bank account and criminal record, to what is in my colon!, (nothing of note in any of those, by the way).

While the paperwork is off and running, it is important for us to remember there are still several things that can derail this process and we have heard the stories.  So, please continue to pray for us if you would.  Please pray that the process continues successfully and on God's timing, (hoping of course God's timing is the same as ours!), and pray Francesca remains happy, healthy, well fed and comfortable......

thank you all and may God bless you......

Strengthening Family Ties

Wow, what a great week! Kim and I along with my sister, my niece and two of her friends spent last week in Haiti working on a school sponsorship program, (coming soon), but also spent the week with our daughter, Francesca. We packed her up and took her out of the orphanage to spend the week with us at Christianville, It was awesome being with her night and day for a week and for the first time in my life I began to feel like a dad. A dad who already is proud of his little girl. I cannot tell you what it feels like to hear her say "Papa"....it feels like God touching me.

I hope I can do justice in telling you how amazing Francesca is, and I will try. She is strong both mentally and physically, she is independent, she has an incredible spirit and she is really smart. In fact Kim and I have spent a lot of time since we have been back discussing and praying that we do not ruin her by bringing her here, seriously. She has such a beautiful spirit and you can tell her hardships have in many ways have made her a stronger, special, unique child, a unique person. She has a smile and a giggle that force a smile and warm the heart. We loved spending time with her knowing at the end of the week, leaving her was going to be rough, and it was, trust me. But, if all goes as planned, we will be back in October.

Just to prove I am not completely blinded, I can also tell you she is spoiled, big time. In her orphanage, every girl of about ten years or older takes on a mothering role and kind of caters to her needs. When she cries, she is picked up, when she is bullied, she is defended, when she wants something, she likely gets it. You would think that living in a tent city and then a Haitian orphanage that this may not be the case, but it is true. As soon as things did not go her way, she had a very clear and loud way of showing her disapproval! However once we simply left her alone and allowed her to cry, I think she quickly understood that Toto was no longer in Kansas!

The last night when she was having one of her mini tantrums, we took her to another room and sat her on the ground and let her cry. She realized we were not coming to rescue her and in about five minutes she was back up and playing. You could almost see her thinking, "well shoot, that didn't work".

Hopefully in the next week our paperwork will be making its way thru the US side of the process and will be in Haiti by mid September. Also, concurrently, our guys in Haiti have begun the process down there. They tell us it could be as long as a year, (UGH!), but could be, should be sooner than that. We are working every angle to make it sooner, God willing, much sooner.

Thanks for your continuing prayers!! I hope you all meet her very soon!