We're still waiting on R.J.'s passport; it's been 9 weeks as of today with no word on any progress. I emailed the orphanage director the end of last week to see if there was any indication of how much longer it might take. Here's what I heard this afternoon from LaDawn:
Unfortunately I don't have any great news for you. I so badly wish I did! We have been busy submitting the forms that [the passport office] has been asking for. The problem that we are having, is that they will only accept about 4 per day, and then every other time, the person responsible is not even there! So, it is becoming a long process just to submit all the forms. However, I can assure you that Ronaldo's was one of the first [passport request forms] that was submitted, as he has been in the passport process one of the longest. There are a few ahead of him, but not too many. We are expecting to receive some news this week that [some passports have been approved] and that they can move on to printing! We pray this happens!
I wish I had more encouraging news than this, but I can tell you that Ronaldo's passport should be in the first or second group of passports that get printed! I hope that helps! Considering that we have over 30 dossiers in for passports right now, that is good news for you! :o)
Thank you so much for your confidence in our work here. We are certainly doing all that we can. It has been very hard on us not having any children leave for quite a while. We so badly want to see some children go home to their "forever families". It is time!!! Since passport printing takes 2-3 weeks, this makes me think that it's possible that we could travel to Haiti before the middle of June. (Maybe by Father's Day???) PLEASE PRAY WITH US THAT THIS WILL BE THE CASE! I can hardly stand the thought of the summer days passing by with Charlie and me out of school (starting a week from today, May 21st) and R.J. still not home with us; it will seem like such a waste of a prime opportunity for valuable bonding time -- 14 hours a day of his getting to know us and our getting to know him. The summer seems so short, anyway, with the boys' first day of school on August 14th -- just 3 months from today! (Not much time to spend with a new son before sending him off to second grade and returning to work myself on August 16th!)
