Adoption Update #11

Two new families from my agency, Carolina Adoption Services (CAS) received referrals last week! Unfortunately one of them did not belong to us, as we have had a setback with the child that was chosen for us. The birth mother did not respond to requests initiated by the creche and/or IBESR, so they had to start with a new match for us :( The two families that did receive referrals have been in IBESR >24 months, both children are around 2 years old. 

We have been in IBESR 21 months now. Supposedly we are next in line to receive our referral, but at this point I'm just really unsure. As I have felt for a long time, it seems like there is no end in sight for this adoption :( In April we have to file the I800 if we do not have a referral by April 1st. So that means more paperwork, time, and money after two years of waiting with no child. Below is the December update from our agency:

Haiti Program December 2015 Update

Dear Haiti Families,

Hope all of you and your loved ones had a wonderful Thanksgiving and are enjoying this festive holiday season!

In this the last Haiti Program Update for 2015, we would like to share some exciting news with our families who have been patiently waiting for increased activity in the Haiti Program.  Two of our families have received their referral matches from IBSER in early December! The families have submitted their acceptance letters to IBSER and are making plans to travel for their bonding visits in Jan. 2016. Our attorneys Daniel and Silvia continue to advocate diligently with IBSER on behalf of our families with frequent visits to IBSER. 

Families need to know that historically during the holiday season in December, governmental offices in Haiti experience a slowdown in processing of cases. Due to the fact that there is an anticipated slowdown in activity, Daniel and Silvia have decided to take a brief vacation and will be out of the country from Dec. 15, 2015 to Jan. 10, 2016.  They will be back in Haiti in time to assist the two families with their US Embassy visits for filing of their I-600. CAS is very pleased with these referral matches and we are optimistic that more matches will be forth coming in the near future.

All of us here at CAS would like to take this opportunity to wish all of you and your loved ones a joyous holiday season! Happy Hanukkah, Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Warm regards,

Tania Griasnow

Haiti Program Coordinator

Adoption Update #10

Another update from our coordinator today. 20 months this month in IBESR, with no update or status on where our adoption stands. There are a lot of people with my agency who are very frustrated and upset about this process. Now that the holidays are here, it's best to assume there will be no progression until after Christmas :(

Haiti Program Nov. 2015 Update

Dear Haiti Families,

Now that the holiday season is fast approaching, we would like to wish you and your loved ones a Happy Thanksgiving and to let you know that we are thankful for the opportunity to be able to assist you with your adoption journey!

We also wanted to share with you that on Wed. Oct. 28, 2015, Interim Executive Director Angela Jackson and Tania Griasnow, Haiti Program Coordinator, participated in a NCFA Haiti conference call.

This conference call was designed to allow agencies with Haiti Programs the opportunity to share and compare their recent experiences and concerns. Some of the main topics of discussion were the processing of “simple” and” plenary” and referral matches.  CAS was pleased to receive confirmation from our attorneys that all of our present cases are plenary cases and the “simple” versus “plenary” adoptions should not be an issue of concern. A few of the agencies stated that they had received referral matches, however, most of the agencies had not received recent referral matches. There was concern expressed by most of the agencies in regards to IBESR’s ability to process cases effectively and several shared the difficulty in completing some of the birth parent interviews.  Some have experienced the issue of birthparents being brought in for interview, only to find that the person scheduled to interview them that day did not come in the office.  Others have experienced different information being given by IBESR to their representatives than has been given to USCIS/DOS.  All participants in conference call agree that they found it quite helpful and agreed to schedule such conferences on a quarterly basis.

Our attorneys Silvia and Daniel have informed us that they are able to visit with the IBSER on Mondays and Fridays.  They make a concentrated effort to visit very Monday and Friday and let us know what information they were able to obtain.  Haiti had elections on October 25.  As an aftermath of the elections there were some demonstrations in the streets making it difficult in some instances to reach IBESR. We had a scheduled skype session with Daniel and Silvia on Nov. 11, 2015 to discuss the status of our Haiti cases with IBSER.  We received notification from Daniel and Silvia on Nov. 10, that they were both quite ill with a tropical fever and would not be able to participate in the skype session at the scheduled time.  They assured us that they would resume visitation to IBESR and would reschedule the skype session as soon as they were feeling better.

We hope that Daniel and Silvia will have a speedy recovery and will be able to provide us with much awaited updates on status of our Haiti cases.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Tania Griasnow

Haiti Program Coordinator

Adoption Update #9

            

Summer is almost over, and it's back to school for me. I figured I would post this update that I received from my agency in August. I have been so lazy lately, recovering from surgery and our wonderful trip to Maui, Hawaii (pic below). Not much news, just continuing to wait. It's been 17 long months since our dossier was submitted to IBESR.....sigh. 

Road to Hana

Haiti Family Program Update

August 2015

Dear Families,

Hope all of you are well and are enjoying your summer!

We at CAS have had a busy summer, with a lot of activity and changes happening in the agency as well as the Haiti Program.  Julie Glandt, who has been with the agency for the past 16 years and has served in the capacity of CAS Executive Director for the last four years, has left the agency to begin a new chapter in her life.  Angela Jackson, who shared the responsibilities of the Haiti Program with me and who has worked with many of you on your adoptions from Haiti has accepted the position of Interim Director of CAS as of August 1, 2015. As Angela will be focusing on the responsibilities of her role as Interim Director, all of her Haiti cases have been transferred to me, Tania Griasnow. I am looking forward to assisting all of you with your adoption journeys from Haiti and will continue to send you the Haiti Program Updates on monthly basis.

Our attorneys, Silvia and Daniel, have been apprised of the changes in Program and have assured us that the “vintage cases”, those who have filed I-600-A, will remain a top priority with the IBESR as well as Silvia and Daniel.  Daniel and Silvia have been visiting the IBESR several times a week to check on status of their cases and to see if there is any other documentation that is required by IBESR to move the cases along.

Families have been expressing concern about the length of time it is taking the IBESR to schedule birth parent interviews and making official matches of referrals. Our attorneys as well as agency representatives from the U.S. and other countries that have programs in Haiti acknowledge the validity of this concern and have met to discuss these issues. Those present at the meeting have submitted a letter to IBESR listing their concerns and requesting that action be taken by the IBSER to implement changes to expedite the adoption process. All concerned parties hope that the IBESR will take steps to expedite the adoption process, however, it is expected that there will not be much activity or information coming from Haiti in the month of August as most IBSER officials will be on vacation and IBESR will be operating with a skeleton crew. It is anticipated that IBESR will resume full operation in the beginning of Sept.

Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions regarding this update or your particular case.

Tania Griasnow

Program Coordinator, Haiti Program 

Adoption Update #8

It has been a while since I posted any updates to my blog. A lot has been going on the last few months outside of waiting for our referral. I had surgery a month ago out of state in Atlanta, so that has taken a lot of planning and the recovery was a little more tough than I thought it would be, so I'm now back to feeling somewhat normal again.

It has been 15 months since we entered IBESR and still no referral. So sad, I don't even know how I feel anymore. I guess just kind of numb about it, even though I think about it daily. Below are two new updates from our agency. One in May and one in June. 


We leave for Maui, Hawaii in two weeks for out 10 year anniversary trip! It's going to be AMAZING!!!

Haiti Family Program Update

June 5, 2015

Dear Families,

We have some great news to share with you!  

We have two families who have recently returned home with their children from Haiti.  One family returned home just last night with their son.  These are the first two adoptions completed with CAS families since the new IBESR regulations were implemented and our first families’ home from Haiti since November 2013.  Both families were non-Hague transitional cases with an approved I600A. 

These two families submitted their dossiers to IBESR in June 2013 and received their official match from IBESR in September 2014.  Their bonding trips were completed in October 2014.   The Haitian court system approved their adoption in February 2015 and the US embassy gave final approval for the child’s adoption files in May 2015. 

Once the adoption files were approved by the embassy, the families were appointed a visa interview date.  Our legal representatives along with Gladys from MDA and the child attended the appointment as we have to apply with IBESR for the child’s exit permit once the embassy approves the visa and this can take 3-5 business days. The visas for the children were approved the same day.  The families then made plans to travel to Haiti.  Once they arrived to Haiti and received their children, they went with Daniel, our legal representative to the US embassy to pick up their child’s passport with visa and immigration documents to present to US immigration officials once they arrived to U.S. They also received IBESR’s exit permit which is required for the child to be allowed to leave Haiti.  

We are so happy for both these families.  As you can see from their timelines above, both families received their official referrals within the current estimates of 12-24 months after registration of dossier. The adoptions received final approvals 8 months later and they are now home!

We remain hopeful that other families will receive official matches soon and that the slowdown in processing of cases at IBESR that the US State Department discussed in their recent notice sent to you on May 18^th will be resolved. 

We hope you all have a wonderful weekend!

Tania Griasnow

Angela Jackson

Program Coordinators for Haiti Program

Adoption Update #7

Haiti Family Program Update

May 7, 2015

Dear Families,

We have a short update from our legal representatives in Haiti that we want to share with everyone.  If a child’s file is presented to IBESR by a crèche to be considered for adoption and the child has a living birth parent, IBESR officials will meet with each biological family considering making an adoption plan for their child.  A multi-disciplinary task force will work with the family to learn about their social history and current issues.  Every effort is made to keep the family unit intact.  If despite education and counseling the biological family receives, they remain committed to place child for adoption, and IBESR agrees that an adoption plan is in the best interest of the child, a one month waiting period ensues.  Only after a full month can a full consent for adoption be granted.  After a second interview with the biological family, IBESR may choose to issue a request to the Children’s Court to issue a Process Verbal terminating parental rights and authorizing the child to be adopted.

In the case of children who are found abandoned, the child will remain in institutional care for six months in the hopes the biological family can be found or will come forward.  If no family can be found, IBESR may choose to grant the crèche permission to present the child for referral for adoption.  In such cases, the Mayor of the zone in which the child was born must appear in Children’s Court to sign the Process Verbal for his eligibility for adoption.

Our legal representatives have indicated that IBESER has not been scheduling birth parent interviews recently as they wanted to work on the backlog of cases and also because the director had been on leave and not available to sign the referral letters.  They indicated they will resume scheduling of birthparent interviews in May and our legal representatives were informed that these will resume next week. We are hopeful that some of the children’s files presented by MDA will soon come out of IBESR so they can move forward with the matching process.

Please feel free to contact us if you have questions about this month’s update.

Tania Griasnow

Angela Jackson

Program Coordinators for Haiti program

Adoption Update #6

Haiti Family Program Update

April 2, 2015

Dear Families,

Happy spring!  It is so nice to see the flowers blooming and the weather getting warmer. 

Just a short update on a few things happening in Haiti

1)      According to the new protocol regulations of IBESR, post adoption reports will now be required at the following intervals and sent with translations to IBESR.  IBESR is now requiring 9 reports over an eight year period unless the child reaches age of maturity before the 8^th year (age 18).  These reports are as follows: 

·       Social worker written reports at 6 months, 1 year, 2 years

·       Reports at 3 year, 4 year, 5 year, 6 year, 7 year, and 8 year which may be completed by the            family and submitted to their agency to send to Haiti

·       Each report in addition to either the social work written/family written report must also        include a medical report and report from school (if child is school age) along with photos of the child with adoptive family

·       Each report must be translated into French.  Families will have the reports translated into French as with their dossier and sent to CAS to submit to Haiti.

·       These are the required country reports going forward for families adopting from Haiti.  Families will receive specific instructions from our post adoption department once they have arrived home with their child/children. 

2)     Effective immediately, families submitting dossiers to IBESR will be required to fully authenticate six documents instead of the previous four. The documents which must be fully authenticated are psychological evaluations on both adoptive parents, home study, powers of attorney, letter of introduction to IBESR, medical evaluations with lab results attached and the USCIS approval letter. 

3)     According to the new quota established by IBESR, our agency is able to submit 12 dossiers between October 2014 and September 2015 for regular, non-special needs adoptions and 5 additional dossiers during this same time frame for families open to special needs adoptions defined as children older than age 6, sibling group adoptions, or children with medical special needs.  We are closely monitoring the number of families in the program to ensure that as we receive dossiers we can submit them without delay to Haiti. 

4)     For those families who have registered dossiers with IBESR, our agency representatives in Haiti check with IBESR on a weekly basis to see if any registered families have received a match.  IBESR continues to move slowly with the official matching process and have indicated they wish to clear up the backlog of dossiers submitted prior to October 2014 when the new regulations took effect before moving forward with applications submitted after October 2014.   We continue to anticipate that once your dossier is registered with IBESR the wait time for a proposed referral is between 12-24 months.  The last three CAS families that received matches each waited between 12-13 months from registration of dossier at IBESR.  Those families who are open to older children/sibling groups may receive matches sooner due to the delay with IBESR and the children at the crèches getting older.  

Please feel free to contact us if you have questions about this month’s update.

Tania Griasnow

Angela Jackson

Program Coordinators for Haiti program

Adoption Update #5

Haiti Family Program Update

March 9, 2015

 

Dear Families,

 

We hope you are doing well and hopefully getting some warmer weather!  We are all ready for spring!

 

Things continue to move along in Haiti at a slow pace but we were excited to receive an official referral from IBESR for a family at the end of February of an older child from MDA.  The family’s dossier had been registered with IBESR for a year.  The family is making plans now to travel to Haiti for the required two week bonding period time.  Our other two families that had received official referrals from IBESR in September 2014 have completed their adoption in the Haitian court system and are waiting now for the final approval from US embassy so they can return to the Haiti for the Embassy process and visas for the children. 

 

We are hopeful that IBESR will continue to process cases that have been registered for some time and provide referrals to families. 

 

We want to remind everyone to keep an eye on your immigration approval and make sure you keep that current.  If you are in the process of renewing your immigration approval, please make sure that when you receive your notice extending approval that you make a photocopy of the approval letter from USCIS, attach an affidavit that you sign and have notarized and then translated into French.  Please send this to your program coordinator as soon as you have it so that they can submit to IBESR to update your file. 

 

Also, Silvia and Daniel recently signed the new protocol for adoptions in Haiti allowing our agency to continue assisting families with adoptions from Haiti.  There have been a few document changes to the Haiti dossier for families submitting dossiers.  If you have not yet submitted your dossier to Haiti, you will need to follow the new dossier guidelines.  Your program coordinator will be in touch regarding the changes that will apply to you. 

 

If you have any questions about this update, feel free to contact your program coordinator. 

 

Thanks,

Tania Griasnow

Angela Jackson

Carolina Adoption Services         

 

 





Adoption Update #4

Okay, so another update was sent to all the CAS families today (see below). The updates are not really any new, exciting news, but just kind of a "we have not forgotten about you guys" kind of email. I have connected with several CAS families that are waiting and we are all in the same boat. There has not been an official referral from our agency since September 2014. But it's comforting to know the other gals who are in the same agency. We are somewhat like a support group for each other. We talk through email, Facebook, and text :)

Our current home study expires in a few weeks, so my agency emailed me today with all the forms to fill out to update our home study. It's actually not as bad as I thought it would be. The worst part is having to go back to the doctor for the blood tests. The additional forms we have to submit are our taxes from last year and criminal background check. Our social worker then has to do one home visit. Again, praying that we have a referral soon!! None of this even seems real because all we have done is give money and paperwork to our agency, and we started this process in August of 2013 :( I can't wait to meet the little boy who will come live with us. 

Non adoption news - only 159 days until we leave for Maui, Hawaii!! Our 10 year anniversary trip!!

Haiti Adoption Update #4

Haiti Family Program Update

February 4, 2015

We hope this update finds your family well and hopefully not facing too much cold, winter weather.  We know some of you have been hit hard by the storms in the northeast.

Silvia and Daniel continue to check in with IBESR regarding our families who have dossiers registered to see if any have received matches yet.  They also continue to inquire about the new regulations being implemented.  If we receive word that a family has been matched with a child or if IBESR has requested any additional information, we will notify individual families.  Otherwise, families who have dossiers at IBESR continue to be on the waiting list for referral with little information available on timeframes for specific cases or status other than IBESR is working through registered dossiers.  

Our representatives did report they learned that IBESR has recently had to reduce staff due to a loss of funding. They had been receiving some financial support to implement The Hague but that funding has apparently ended and they have had to reduce staff which is causing things to move more slowly than hoped for.  As a result, we have not received a list of waiting children from IBESR and do not anticipate it for some time now.

For those families who had their dossiers already registered through our partner crèche MDA prior to implementation of the Hague convention, we are still hopeful you will receive a match through MDA depending on the children they have available that match your approval.  Silvia and Daniel are contacting other crèches to see if they have children available for adoption whose files can be submitted to IBESR.  Some of these crèches have higher fees for the care of the child and processing than MDA, so families receiving a match or referral from another crèche may have increased international fees upon referral that is due to the particular crèche where the child is residing.

In regards to those of you who have not yet completed your dossier, Silvia and Daniel have just informed us, that generally IBESR requests that documents be signed in blue ink so that they can tell that the signature is an original one.  They have not up to this point rejected any documents signed in black ink; but for future families submitting dossiers you need to be aware of this recommendation. 

We understand the changes in Haiti are taking time and that is hard for families; especially those whose paperwork is already submitted to IBESR.  We suggest that during this waiting time you continue to network with other families adopting for support as well as continue to prepare yourself through seminars, books, educational events.  Creating a Family (www.creatingafamily.org ) is a great resource for different adoption topics and radio shows.  We would encourage you to visit this site for topics of interest.  

If you have any questions about this update, feel free to contact your program coordinator. 

Thanks,

Tania Griasnow

Angela Jackson

Adoption Update #3

New update from our agency today.....

Haiti Family Program Update

January 16, 2015

Dear Families,

Happy New Year!  We hope each of you had a wonderful holiday season.  We received good news right before Christmas that we are one of the agencies that IBESR renewed accreditation to continue working in Haiti.  We are one of 18 US agencies reaccredited along with other countries including 2 in Germany, 3 in Belgium, 5 in Canada, 2 in Spain, 10 in France, 1 in Holland, 1 in Ireland, 5 in Italy, and 2 in Switzerland.  To this point, IBESR has re-accredited 49 international agencies to assist families with adoptions of Haitian children.

We were also pleased to hear that in addition to the quota of 12 dossiers per year our agency may submit for regular adoptions (children under age 5), we may also submit 5 dossiers per month for those families open to sibling groups, children over age 6 and children with special needs. We are still waiting on the list of waiting children from Haiti and are hopeful we can place some of these children with families. 

We do want to take time to remember the Haitian people this month as they remember those lost in the Haitian earthquake 5 years ago (January 12, 2010).  There were times of remembrance this week throughout the country.   There has also been some political unrest in Port-au-Prince with demonstrations related to the disbanding of parliament due to a stalemate between lawmakers and the President of Haiti.  A new prime minister has taken office in Haiti by the name of Prime Minister Evans Paul.  He is organizing the government and has stated a new electoral council will be appointed within weeks and legislative elections will be held this year. 

Due to the political climate, information from IBESR related to status of adoptions and family cases has been limited, but Silvia and Daniel are hoping to have an update on status of adoptions and particular cases soon. 

As we receive information on your individual case, your program coordinator will contact you. 

We also want to remind you to keep an eye of your immigration approval and keep that current.  You may want to contact your immigration officer 6 months prior to your expiration date if you are an I600A case to determine if you can renew under the I600A process or will need to switch to an I800A application.  

Please contact your program coordinator if you have questions about your particular case and we will be happy to talk with you.

Your Haiti Program Coordinators,

Tania Griasnow

Angela Jackson