Haiti Adoption Blog                          

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This was posted on GLA's website:

Hurricane Hannah brought destruction to Haiti last night , September 2nd.  Gonaive had flooding with some deaths reports.  Our area sustained downed trees, toppled brick walls, and roads blocked.  People are already out cutting the trees blocking the roads.  Our metal roofs got blown off the house and we lost the internet dish at the Toddler House.  The wind was blowing so hard the rain came in around the closed windows of the orphanage and flooded our dining room table and floor!  There seems to be as many leaves inside the house as outside!  Thankfully, we are all safe and God kept us from harm.  Now we just have to clean up from the storm.  This was much worse than any storm we have personally seen in the 17 years we have lived in Haiti.

Posted by LaDawn G. Penner At 03:15:08 PM Location | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

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GLA is really being noticing the presence of Hurricane Hanna. We just received an email from GLA. They are experiencing really high winds, but little rain. They were not expecting to be hit, and even right now, weather.com is not reporting much impact on Haiti. However, this is not the case. A couple of the metal panels providing cover over the balcony where the children play and the balcony where the children eat their meals have flown off. As well, the solar panels have flown off of the toddler house. The toddler house gate has also been lost. Inside all GLA buildings though, everyone is safe. Please be in prayer for GLA and for all others in Haiti who are being hit hard by Hurricane Hanna.

Posted by LaDawn G. Penner At 03:48:19 PM Location | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

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Dixie, from God's Littlest Angels, posted this on GLA's website yesterday.


September 1, 2008

Mrs. Baudin, IBESR Director, has been promoted to Minister of Social Affairs under the new Prime Minister's government.  We are very sad to hear that she will be leaving IBESR. 

Mr. Claudy Gassant has resigned his position at Parquet and is now serving in the Dominican Republic.  We do not know how the new commissioner over the Parquet will compare to Mr. Gassant, but we pray adoptions will start moving along quicker now.

Dossiers have been coming out of MOI in about 2 to 2 1/2 months recently.  This is a great improvement over last year at this time.  We pray that the improvement continues and eventually the dossiers will only take 4 to 6 weeks!

We still have some dossiers that have been in IBESR for some time.  The lawyers are working on them and hopefully they will be signed before Mrs. Baudin leaves her position in IBESR.

We have had to hire a private investigator to find some parents that have not come to visit their children for many months.  The Parquet is requiring the parents to come for an interview as is the US Government for all American adoptions.  This is an additional cost to the orphanage and is not always successful.  We are thankful that he was able to find two parents and bring them today, so we are hopeful that he will be able to find some more in the next few weeks.

We have had a good response from American families coming to Haiti to file their I-600.  We feel this will help the visa process to go much quicker so that the children can be united with their forever families faster.

We are receiving new admissions as children go home to their forever families.  Two babies have come today and two came last week.  Other children are finally almost ready to be proposed and only need their psychological reports done and we can start sending out proposals. 

Posted by LaDawn G. Penner At 10:05:10 AM Location | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

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Rain continues to fall in Haiti; however, the worst of Gustav is over. GLA reports that they have received 7 1/2 inches of rain in the past 24 hours. They don't expect the rain will be stopping for a while though, so this number will certainly increase. No damage was done in the area where GLA is located. The staff and children are all doing very well.

Posted by LaDawn G. Penner At 10:45:20 AM Location | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

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Please pray for Haiti, and the many, many people living in Haiti who do not have proper shelter. The threat of strong winds and large amounts of rain means the threat of losing everything many Haitians own. Please pray for minimal damage from Hurricane Gustav.


Gustav Continues to Strengthen

Mark Avery, Lead Meteorologist, The Weather Channel
8:06 a.m. ET 8/26/2008
Hurricane Gustav continues to strengthen as it approaches the southern peninsula of Haiti. As of 8 a.m. EDT, the eye of Gustav was located about 75 miles south-southeast of Port Au Prince, Haiti. Maximum sustained winds were near 90 mph making the hurricane a category 1 on the Saffir-Simpson Scale.

Gustav was moving toward the northwest at 9 mph. A turn to the west-northwest and decrease in forward speed is expected tomorrow. Gustav will cross southwestern peninsula of Haiti this afternoon, then approach southeastern Cuba tomorrow.

Posted by LaDawn G. Penner At 09:14:19 AM Location | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

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Over the weekend, hurricane Fay passed over Haiti. According to reports from GLA, the weather did not significantly affect them. They received a lot of rain over the weekend, and experienced a fair bit of wind; however, no damage was inflicted on them.

Posted by LaDawn G. Penner At 09:29:19 AM Location | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

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It has been confirmed that Parquet is working as usual. GLA had a meeting at Parquet yesterday, and received positive news about dossiers that were currently in the Parquet process. We are hoping that we will see some dossiers that have been in Parquet for quite a long time come out, and be able to move on in the process.

Posted by LaDawn G. Penner At 12:46:12 PM Location | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

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I just spoke to Dixie from GLA, and she informed me that Claudy Gassant, Head of Parquet (District Attorney), has resigned from his position. The Haitian media has been widely broadcasting this news since early this morning. For the past year and a half, Mr. Gassant has been making adoptions very difficult in Haiti, causing many delays in the process. We are praying that whoever will replace Mr. Gassant will be in favor of adoptions, and will have the children's best interests in mind, resulting in the adoption process moving more quickly.

Posted by LaDawn G. Penner At 03:03:54 PM Location | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

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As a follow-up from the last post regarding Parquet closing for a period of time, we have been informed that Parquet has called a meeting for Friday with the orphanage directors. We pray for a positive outcome after this meeting.

Posted by LaDawn G. Penner At 08:28:26 AM Location | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

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GLA was recently informed that Parquet would be closed to adoption cases from the end of July until October. GLA's lawyers are trying to obtain more information. We are unsure if this means that they will continue to work on those dossiers that have already been submitted, and it will only have to do with any new dossiers that come out of IBESR during that time, or if it will effect all dossiers. We will pass on any further information as it becomes available.

Posted by LaDawn G. Penner At 03:50:14 PM Location | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)