Dear friends, we are pleading with you to pray for our family and our little boy in Haiti. Below is a brief description of our adoption process and how we got to this point. While we are grieving, we are not giving up hope that God will make a way.
We have been in the process to adopt a child from Haiti for 6 years, have been through a roller coaster of emotions, have spent a fortune on legal processes, and have spent months and months doing paperwork. In November of 2024, we received a referral for an adorable little boy, who interestingly was born in March of 2020, the very same week we began the process. There is no doubt in our minds that God called us, clearly, to adopt him. However, now we are up against the U.S. government. Because of a simple clerical error on the part of the Haitian government, USCIS has denied our case. Haiti admitted that they made a mistake, but since they are part of The Hague Convention, they have done their due diligence in proving that our little boy is adoptable. They said that USCIS needs to accept this, but we were denied last August. I sent in an appeal at the beginning of September, but then the government shut down and we have heard nothing since. We reached out to our Congressman and Senator’s offices, both of which inquired with USCIS to see where our case is at. It has been 2 months now, and neither of them have received a response. Then the President decided that all people from Haiti are a threat to the national security of the United States, including my 5-year-old son, and has banned adoption visas for Haitian children beginning on January 1 of this year. Adoptions have always been excepted before, but not anymore. I have signed petitions and sent them to all of our representatives in Washington D.C., including President Trump and Vice President Vance. I did hear back from a representative at our Senator’s office, and he suggested checking into a National Interest Exception. Our adoption case manager reached out to the Office of Children's Issues at the Department of State, but they have said it is unlikely that the policy will be reversed and exceptions will be very rare.
We need your prayers. Our little boy is in danger. In August, gangs broke into an orphanage down the street and kidnapped kids. Our son’s orphanage was evacuated under the cover of darkness, and during the evacuation, an earthquake occurred. I can’t image the fear he is living with. Every child deserves a family, and we are committed to providing for him just as we have our other 7 children. I just talked to him on a video call the other day, and he gave me a big smile and said, “I love you, mama!” 😭❤️
Thanks for reading this far. We have 2 specific prayer requests. First, that some compassionate soul at USCIS would review our case and accept our appeal so we can move forward. And second, that Trump would either reverse his ban on adoption visas or somehow give us an exception. Feel free to share our story with your contacts. Our God is the God of the impossible and is much bigger than any government. We believe he will make a way and are holding onto hope in the midst of the struggles and storms that the enemy is putting in our path. Thank you so much!
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