i wrote this post in August and never posted it!
I have sat down a number of times to write this post. Every time I do, I think... I'll wait because we are about to move to the next step I'll wait till then, or I am so negative about our process that I don't want to come write a negative post.
I sat down and started this post last Thursday but didn't finish it. Today... I am happy to report I was able to delete half of what I had written. Because we did FINALLY move to that next step!
In May we had received our exit letter (authorization to adopt letter). This letter allowed us to move forward and into the final courts process of our adoption. We were told this part of our process would take 2-4 months. We really prayed we would be close to the 2 months and hopefully, for once, we could be on the short end of an estimated timeline. It would really be nice to say "wow, that was quick" for once, even if it were just for one step in this process.
In July we began hoping and praying our judgement would come any day! I jumped every time the phone rang just praying it would be our agency but it never was. We had been telling ourselves all year that we needed our judgement and adoption decree before Aug 1st if we had any hope of bringing him home by the end of the year. August 1st came... and it went...
Just before that (end of July sometime) I had started hearing rumors from a few people that the Haitian courts were on strike. This was a little concerning but our hearts sank when we received an email from our agency that indeed the courts were on strike. However, there was a 2 week stay to the strike Aug 4-18. This basically meant we had a chance of getting our judgement during those 2 weeks. I of course jumped on the phone and BEGGED our agency rep for an update, I just needed to know if there was any chance, any chance AT ALL of us getting the judgement and decree. She couldn't tell me much except our orphanage director told her we were in our 30 day wait period so there was a chance. The 30 day wait period is a mandatory wait period after the birth parents appear before a judge and sign their rights away (for what seems to be the 1 millionth time). We didn't know when our 30 days started but we knew we were in it somewhere.
Aug 18th came... and went... no judgement. Once again our hearts sank and we became discouraged once again, we were now into our 3rd month of our 2-4 months, a quick part of our process was not going to be happening. I started telling Ethan we would not be bringing him home till he was 6 (he is 3). I became sad, angry and frustrated! We confirmed that the court clerks went back on strike and with no end in sight that we knew of. I pretty much demanded an update from our agency every day but the truth is, there is little information our agency can get. I am thankful in many ways for our agency rep putting up with me and my phone calls, when she answers the phone "Hi Stacie" and you know she has caller ID and recognizes your phone number...
Aug 25th- Ethan went to work as usual and the girls and I were having a lazy day at home. It was about 10a, and the phone rang... much to my surprise it was from Virginia, there is only one person I know who would be calling from there... our agency!! I answered timidly just hoping it would be good news! She said she had good news and bad news. I'm the kind of person who always takes the good news first. She told me she had our judgement! YAY... but before getting too excited I asked her for the bad news. She told me my name was spelled incorrectly. Of course I ask "what does that mean". Basically to move our file along the name needed to be corrected and the person who needed to correct it was the court clerk, the court clerks is who is on strike. So basically she told me we had no hope of getting the correction until the strike ends, which nobody knows when that is.
Our agency rep also told me that this strike 100% affected our timeline, maybe more than other families. She told me our son's birth father went before the judge June 1st, which meant our 30 day waiting period was up July 1st (which was a weekend) so July 3rd. July 3rd is when the courts went on strike... ARG!!! SERIOUSLY!! The day we could have gotten our judgement the courts went on strike... how can this be possible.
After getting off the phone with our agency rep, I immediately reached out to all our biggest prayer warriors. I knew it was going to take a miracle to get this error fixed quickly. I cried, I prayed (and possibly screamed)! I had a good fellow adoptive mama call me and pray with me. Between the strike and the error, this means 1.5 to who knows how many extra months added to our adoption process. A couple hours went by and I was looking at our incorrect judgement, which I noticed may have another potential error so I called our agency rep. I thought it strange when she answered the phone "Hey Stacie, I was just about to call you". How could she have so much excitement in her voice when she had just given me such bad news... when I asked her why she told me... "I don't know how, and you must have great prayer warriors, because your error got fixed!". SERIOUSLY, OKAY, WOW... I am pretty sure was my response. Yes, yes we do have our final judgement!! This is the court document and the first judge signature to make our adoption official!
What happens now... we wait (again). We wait for our adoption decree. The adoption decree is what makes our adoption official and final in Haiti. We are told this typically takes 1-3 weeks from the date of our judgement.
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