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