A Child's Life in Limbo

I received some incredibly frustrating news today. It turns out that our dossier has still not been submitted to IBESR. IBESR is the government branch in Haiti that process the bulk of the adoption paperwork. Having your dossier go through IBESR and be approved is the longest portion of the adoption process. That means that 18 months after beginning the paperwork to adopt a child from Haiti, we have not yet even begun the longest portion of the wait time. I am sad, frustrated and angry. Not because of me, but because of the child whose life this depends on. I wish I could say that this has been the only frustrating part of the process but it has been one thing after another. The dates speak for themselves and here they are:

6/27/10 Application to Lifeline Haiti Program
10/11/10 Homestudy Update Approved
10/26/10 Dossier Sent to Lifeline
10/28/10 Referral Received!
12/1/10 I-600a Application Submitted to USCIS
2/7/11 USCIS Fingerprints
2/12/11 I-171H Granted from USCIS
5/1/11 Dossier Sent to Haiti
? Dossier to IBESR

It took us only 3 months to obtain our homestudy update and gather our dossier documents, only to send our dossier to our international placement agency who then took an entire 6 months to get the dossier translated and authenticated. In the time being we had thankfully began working to obtain a medical visa so that Vanessa could come to the US for her surgery. That visa was denied in Haiti, then denied in the US and only by a miracle and the hard work of people who I do not even know, she was granted a parole visa to enter the US in May of 2011. Our dossier was sent to Haiti that same month and now 9 months later has still not been submitted to IBESR. I believe that adoption agencies and adoption facilitators should be held to the same standard as any professional working in a human service field where lives are on the line. The fact is we have paid a large amount of money for people to do their jobs. If I took 9 months to complete a psychological assessment and turn in the report to the agency that requires it, I would either not get paid or more likely be fired.

Honestly, there have been days that we considered throwing in the towel. Parenting a 10 year old child with physical and psychological needs is no easy task. She has challenged us, not trusted us, and presented just about every adjustment quirk that we faced with our much younger children. Now that we are finally making grounds and forming a attachment the clock is ticking. We are 8 months into her parole visa and no where close to completing the adoption process in Haiti. So who would like to look Vanessa in the eye and explain what is going to happen to her?