Haiti ratified the Hague

We have heard a lot about Haiti moving towards becoming a Hague country.  We made sure our homestudy was done through a Hague agency here in NJ.  We are also working with a Hague agency (Bethany).  Becoming a Hague country will probably be good for Haiti in the long run, but we have been told that if they ratify before they are ready to implement all the new laws, the US could see them as not abiding by the Hague and close adoptions.  This would be terrible for us, but more so for all the children who would have to wait in orphanages indefinitely.

A joint meeting was held on Monday afternoon between the Senate and the House of Deputies in Haiti. We received the following press release from the Hague Conference on Private International Law.

“I am pleased to inform you that Mr. Guillaume (Lawyer - Project Manager, IBESR) and UNICEF have confirmed that the Haitian Parliament approved the Decree for the ratification of the Hague Convention of 29 May 1993 on Protection of Children and Co-operation in Respect of Intercountry Adoption yesterday, Monday 11 June 2012. However, for the ratification to take effect at an international level and to consider Haiti as a State Party to the Convention, Haiti must deposit its instrument of ratification before the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Kingdom of the Netherlands (the depository). The date of entry into force of the Convention will be the first day of the month following the expiration of three months after the deposit the instrument of ratification.
The Ministry of Social Affairs and Labour has been designated as the Central Authority.
UNICEF informed the Permanent Bureau that the President of the National Assembly promised the inclusion of the approval of the Draft law on Adoptions into the legislative agenda in the following two weeks. The new challenge will be to ensure that the new Draft law is in accordance with the 1993 Hague Convention.”

We have been told by Bethany that they really do not know how this will effect us.  At this point Haiti needs to deposit the document in the Netherlands and three months later the Hague will be in effect.  We are hearing now that they may take a while to deposit the document while they try to get things in place.

Referral!!!!

On May 17, 2012 we received a call from Bethany with our referral of a beautiful little Haitian girl named Dieunifer.  She was born on October 6, 2010 and arrived at God's Littlest Angels orphanage when she was four months old.  She is seems like she will be the perfect fit for our family.  We had to sign a few acceptance papers, notarize them and send them to Bethany.  They would in turn sent them to GLA.  We are now waiting for them to prepare our papers so we will be ready to enter IBESR when it reopens on 8/1/2012.  They had closed from 5/7/2012- 8/1/2012 to hopefully clear the backlog on their desks.  IBESR is known to be the longest part of the process, taking anywhere from a few months to over a year.  We will need a dispensation (a special signature from the President) because we already have biological children. 
  Here she is!!