What's next?

I love "showing off" our baby girl! We have had so much fun showing her pictures to our friends and family. The boys even have their own brag books and take them everywhere they go.
Immediately after the "AWWWWW......she is sooooo cute! What a precious smile!" comments, the next question is always,
"So, when will you get to bring her home?"

It's frustrating to try to answer that because the real answer is:

we don't know. 

The answer I try to always give is, "Well, only the Lord knows that." It's the truth. I can tell you the time span of what adoptions have typically taken in the past (very discouraging). But, what's the point of that? God has never worked on an "it's always been this way" plan.
The Haitian government is undergoing a lot of changes right now. They are for the better. The orphans of Haiti will greatly benefit from these changes. However, that means we are treading on unknown waters. What we hope and pray is that the "new" will mean "speedier". But, the truth is, we just don't know.

I thought it might help to lay out the map our dossier must take before we can bring Grace home. Right now, it is still at the orphanage being prepared to enter IBESR (Haitian Social Services). This is from GLA's website: (* where we are now)

Steps of an adoption in the order they happen:

*Pre-IBESR = We are preparing your dossier to go into Haitian Social Services.  There are some legal documents that must be made after you accept your proposal and some of them must be legalized at the Ministry of Justice.  If we have problems getting a document, this can delay this step.

IBESR = Haitian Social Services

Parquet = Pre-Courts, they interview the birth parents and give permission for the dossier to go through the Haitian court system.

Courts = The dossier is in the Haitian Courts having the actual adoption declared and legalized.

Attest or Attestation= After court papers are finished, the Act of Adoption must be sent to the National Archives and they declare that the signature on the Act of Adoption is legal.

Legal or Legalization = All court papers must be sent to the Ministry of Justice to be legalized.  They declare that the signature on all of the paperwork actually is the signature of the Judge who signed it.

MAE = Ministry of Foreign Affairs must legalize the signature of the person in the Ministry of Justice who signed your paperwork in the step above.

MOI = All Adoption passports must go through the Ministry of the Interior for approval before Immigration will print the passport.

Printing= Your dossier is in Immigration waiting for the passport to be printed.

Visa=Your dossier is in your country's Embassy waiting for a visa to be issued!