Coming out on the other side

Since June of 2011, we have been waiting to get out of IBESR, aka the black hole of Haitian adoption. In the beginning, we were told this part of the process could take anywhere from 4 months to 24. It is quite a range and a little intimidating. It also earned its name as once you are in IBESR, there is no update on your file until you are approved. So you can virtually be sitting with radio silence for a really long amount of time.

I have posted a few times about it. Many people that went through this process right after the earthquake were out in 4 months or less. Pretty amazing. So in my head, I automatically thought this would go fast for us too. 4 months came and went. 5 months....6 months....you get the picture.

March 6th we hit 9 months of waiting. Which if you look at the timeline, isn't truly that long. But when your heart aches for your child, it seems like an eternity.

Last Friday we got amazing news, we got an email with our IBESR receipt and the most lovely words "The Etchepare's are out of IBESR and en route to Parquet!" To say that Rob and I were excited is an understatement. I may have screamed and cried a lot of happy tears in Target (and scared some people around me). It was truly a great day!!!!!!!!

So we have 1 step down and a few more to go. Unfortunately this doesn't mean Hugo will be home in the next couple months. But it is a big step to getting us closer to getting him home. I feel like we have come out on the other side with this step and that is progress. It has done a lot for our hearts, our minds and helping in keeping us going in a positive direction.

We still will have frustrations and have to remember to have patience a lot in the upcoming months, but our file is on the move and right now that is all we can ask for. We are so thankful for this little boy and he is worth the wait.

While my Hugo gently sleeps

I get a lot of photos of Hugo sleeping. The boy likes to sleep. This photo is from this week. My dear friend Jen is at the orphanage working with the kids and she took this for me. Her goal is to get a picture of him awake and not on the move. Good luck Jen. He has 2 modes. Asleep or wild man. :) Love that boy!