James' Visa Appointment

Thursday morning (12/20), we slept in. We were in the midst of a blizzard here in Iowa, and we knew before we went to bed Wednesday night that the kids didn't have school and we'd be staying home. Watching the news of the blizzard and road conditions when we did get up, I had my laptop handy to check emails. I saw I had a message on the web portal from our adoption agency, with the subject, "Scan of your exit stamps". As usual when we get a new message, I logged in right away to read the following text:

The US Embassy has scheduled James's appointment for TODAY, although GLA never received notification of his appointment (they received a phone call yesterday informing them of today's appointment). Can you please scan in a copy of your exit stamps on your passports for xxx to take to the Embassy today? She has your entry stamps and photos of you with James on file that she will use. If you could do this as soon as possible, that would be great. Thanks!

(This proof that we had visited James before his adoption was finalized, will allow him to come home on an IR-3 visa, which means he will become a U.S. Citizen when he lands on U.S. soil.)

One of my sisters, 2 neices and a nephew were snowed in at our house as well, and got to experience our excitement at hearing that James' visa interview was that day! We had been wondering when our visa appointment would be, and why we hadn't heard yet, because we knew of a handful of families who'd gotten I-600 approval the same day or the day before us, who'd been notified of visa appointments on Wednesday 12/19.

We'd just heard on the news that several areas of our city were without power, so I quickly ran to the scanner, plugged in my laptop and got it going while Jock dug out our passports. I got them scanned in within the next few minutes, and sent off. And then, almost as soon as I'd sent them, our electricity started flickering. We never lost power for an extended period of time, but it did go off several times over the next few hours.

Our adoption agency worker noted that this was just another sign of God's hand over our adoption. James was at his appointment righ then, and someone at the orphanage was going to forward the papers on to the embassy as soon as she received them.

...

We haven't heard any more about how James' visa appointment went, or when his visa will be ready. Generally it is two days after the appointment, but we understand that the U.S. Embassy in Port-au-Prince will be closed on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, resuming operations on December 26th.

After James' visa is ready, it will need to be delivered to IBESR to obtain an exit approval letter, which takes 1-2 days. This is something new in the adoption process since the earthquake. IBESR (Haiti's Social Services) has someone stationed at the airport to collect this letter for Haitian children exiting the country with U.S. Citizens, as a safeguard against child trafficking. It is unknown what IBESR's schedule will be over the holidays. Generally the orphanage allows families to make travel plans when the visa is printed, because the travel time and the couple days we will stay for some early bonding with a child before departing Haiti, will allow them plenty of time to get the IBESR letter. However, with the holidays, our agency has told us to plan to travel sometime after the first of the year.

At any rate, we are fortunate that we are so close to the end of this adoption process, and looking forward to traveling to bring James home in early January. I imagine that as soon as our Christmas celebrations are over, our focus will shift to planning and packing for our trip to Haiti -- SO EXCITING!!!