What a difference a week can make. A week ago this past Friday we discovered that there was another error on our birth decree that we had not noticed. Remember that document that we were SO excited to get because it declared that Tarah is legally part of our family? Yes...well when that document was originally issued there was an error in Shawn's name, so at that time it needed to be fixed before we could enter MOI (Ministry of the Interior). This delay was somewhere around 2-3 weeks, but it was fixed and our file was in MOI.
So now back to a week ago last Friday...we were trying to get a translated copy of our decree so that we could add Tarah to our insurance. When our translated copy was sent to us we were told that our orphanage director was expecting our file to be wrapping up in MOI...yay!! This is great news. As we reviewed the English version of the decree we noticed that Tarah's birthdate was listed as March 12th in one spot on the document and March 17th in another spot. Mind you...her birthday is April 17th!! We contacted our agency to find out what needed to happen to get it fixed and what does this mean for our file exiting MOI. I could hear in our agency rep's voice how disappointed and extremely sorry she was that this error was made and that it was not caught. We left work that day not knowing exactly what this would mean in terms of delay.
At this stage of the process any delay is cause to push an adoptive family right over the edge. Almost 5 years into the process we are so ready for everything to just move smoothly so we can get our girl home. I put the word out to a couple of our adoptive support networks requesting pray that this would be fixed quickly without an impact to us exiting MOI and moving on in the process. Shawn and I made it through the weekend mostly hopeful and not too shaken up. Given the challenging journey that we've had with this adoption, we've finally learned that we just need to give it to God and trust that He is in control. He's gotten us over every other bump along the way, so why would we think He can't take care of this?
On Monday we reached out to our agency to see if they had heard any updates. Our agency rep confirmed that the document in MOI went in with the wrong birthdate. (She had hoped that maybe they caught it when the name was corrected and that the orphanage just hadn't given the correct copy to our agency...that was not the case.) So the plan was to just wait to hear from MOI and the orphanage would get the document fixed.
By the end of the day Wednesday our agency rep called to let us know that our file had exited MOI and Tarah's passport application had been submit. It EXITED without being flagged or delayed!?!?! Wait...what?!?!? MOI is the place on the Haiti side of the process where they are checking to make sure all i's are dotted and t's are crossed and everything is legal and legit. They said everything is good so on we go to passports!! Yahoo!! Thank you, Lord!
Our rep explained that although the passport would not be delayed, we still need to get the decree fixed by the courts because we cannot submit Tarah's file to USCIS (US Immigration) with an incorrect decree. So, although moving to passports was great news, there was still uncertainty of what the turnaround would be for the correction of the decree. Our orphanage director gave an estimate of a week, but our agency was not confident that it would be that quick of a turnaround given how unpredictable Haitian courts can be. So we were back to a wait and see situation.
Friday afternoon came and we heard from our agency rep again. She called to let us know that the decree is FIXED!!! There have been very few times in this process when things happened faster than expected. We are thrilled that this is one of them. We are completely blown away to say that this puts us on track for a homecoming of late May, early June if all continues to move as expected. (After 5 years, we know that until we are back on US soil there is always a chance of unexpected delays.) All weekend I've had moments where my brain fast forwards a couple months and I can actually see our girl with us and in our home. I feel like someone needs to pinch me. This.is.happening!! Praise God that He continues to be in control of all things!!
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