how much longer will this take

Ok, before I launch into my description of this last trip (which was, if I had to describe it in one word, horrifying) I want to give a little run-down of the adoption process down in Haiti. Several people have asked me where I am at, how much longer will it take, etc. So, here is a little insight. It can basically be broken down into 5 steps...


1. Get oriented with your agency and orphanage (if you are adopting from an orphanage of course)

2. Home study (done, months ago)

3. Get matched

Maybe the trickiest step with Haiti's unique circumstances right now. Usually a match is made after your home study is complete. Gina evaluates you and your home study and feels out which child might be the best match for you. But, right now, and as I have described in past posts, many of the children cannot legally be matched because they do not have legal orphan status yet. Waiting to be matched is proving to be more a question of gathering all the child’s legal documents at this point (I did get some updates from Gina this time though on me being matched, which I will write more on later).

4. Dossier/child’s dossier (long and tedious albeit necessary process; more fully described back in my “documents” post)

My dossier is almost complete at this point. Even if I am still waiting on being matched, I can get my dossier ready in the meantime to hopefully speed things up once I am matched. The child also has a dossier completed and this is happening while they are finding documents regarding their orphan status as well. So steps 3 and 4 are kind of simultaneous.

5. IBESR (the “black hole”)

The last step, IBESR, is where the adoption applications go once they are completed and submitted to the Haitian government. The wait time here ranges anywhere from a few months to a few years. Kind of like a UPS delivery estimate (um, can you just plan on staying home all day?).