Paper cuts & Delays

UPDATED 1/22/16 @ 8:30pm

Well my friends, I had really been hoping our adoption was entering a calm and drama free phase, at least for a while. No such luck. Excitement is how we roll, apparently. ;-)

It appears we are facing a delay entering the next step of our adoption process.  The Ministry of the Interior (MOI) is where they go over all of our adoption documents with a fine tooth comb, and if everything is in order, they approve us to get Wisly’s Passport (woot!). I have seen this step go as quickly as 1 month for some families, and take as long as 4-5 months for other families.

Our son’s crèche hired a new adoption lawyer a few months ago and he needs to have a POA (Power of Attorney) document from us that is:

1) Notarized
2) County certified (it’s a Tennessee thing..)
3) Secretary of State of Tennessee authenticated
4) Haitian Consulate in Washington, D.C. authenticated
5) Translated into French
6) FedEx’d to Haiti

We were told by our agency before Christmas that we might need to take care of this. Since we hadn’t heard anything in so long, honestly I forgot about it. Then yesterday morning we received an email that did in fact confirm we needed to take care of this important detail asap.

So for two days I’ve been back in The Paper Chase!

This is what international adoptive parents “affectionately" call that phase of life when you spend lots of time making phone calls and searching online for information, typing cover letters, filling out forms, tracking down signatures and notaries, writing checks, making copies, driving around town, emailing questions to the adoption agency, posting questions on Facebook groups (“Did I do this right??”) and spending more cash at the local FedEx…where they know you at least by face, if not by name.

This is all done at such lightning speed that there is, indeed, a great risk for paper cuts.

And chapped fingers. And carpel tunnel syndrome. And road rage. And the occasional, “Don’t talk to me right now—I’m busy/concentrating/emailing/etc.”

Steps 1 and 2 are done. Step 3 should be done tomorrow, since the POA’s should arrive at the TN SOS office in the morning…and sent directly to our agency, who should receive them Monday morning. Our agency will work on steps 4, 5 and 6. These steps could go FAST…or they could go S—L—O—W.

My understanding is that the faster these documents get to Haiti, the faster we can move in MOI! As far as I know, the new lawyer is the person who will be submitting our adoption file to MOI. I am praying he gets these into his hands very, very soon. Oh please Lord!!

UPDATE:  Due to major storms around Nashville, FedEx was unable to deliver our documents to the TN SOS this morning.  Our envelope is sitting in a holding facility somewhere.  Bummer. :(  I understand totally, but still, bummer.  It looks like our "paper chase" is pushed off until Monday.  Still praying!