Lily Update

January 29, 2010 at 9:38 am | Posted in read this | Leave a comment
Tags: Haiti, Haiti earthquake, Haitian adoptions, Haitian orphans, Lily Moore

I haven’t posted recently because, when I did, I wanted to be able to provide an update about Lily, the Haitian girl whose adoptive parents have been trying to get her back to the U.S. since the earthquake. (See my last post.)  The news was good, and then it wasn’t. Please read the letter below from Lily’s father, Tim. Lily’s mom Liz — who is four months pregnant — traveled to Haiti to finish what she thought would be some remaining bureaucratic loose ends, but now finds herself frightened in the U.S. Embassy with mobs of people outside. She is with Lily, though, and, as you can see from Tim’s letter, we hope that enough media attention will focus the Haitian Prime Minister — whose attentions are obviously and understandably in a million places — at least long enough to bring Lily home. 

My name is Tim Moore, my phone number is 540-250-2222, my e-mail address is tmoore@daa.com, my wife Elizabeth Moore and I began the adoption process in Haiti three years ago and were approved for adoption on January 7, 2009. Our paperwork was lost in the earthquake, but luckily we made copies of all of our documents prior to sending everything in. We used our documentation to obtain a Haitian passport for our daughter Lily. Once the passport was obtained, we had everything necessary for obtaining a US Visa, sans Visa medical exam. My wife tried to get approval through the USCIS office in Washington D.C., without having to travel to Haiti, but was told that the USCIS office in Haiti is a different entity and follows a different set of rules, and that in order to officially move things along, she would have to travel to the US Embassy in Haiti where her paperwork had been kept.

My wife traveled down to Haiti on the 21st of January 2010. She has been working on getting Lily out of the country since then. She visited the embassy and was told that if she wanted to obtain a Visa, Lily would have to obtain a Visa Medical Examination certificate. She visited the required doctor the following day and obtained the certificate. On Sunday, 24 January, all Visas were stopped by the US government, and only Humanitarian Parole was being allowed. Since this was our only option, we decided to go this route. Since then, and due to the Pennsylvania orphan incident, the release of paroled orphans has taken a drastic turn for the worst as the Haitian Prime Minister has become involved and is requiring his approval/signature of all cases, which is bottlenecking the entire process. My wife along with numerous other families are now sleeping on the floor of the US Embassy in Haiti and have been for the past four days. My wife is also 4 months pregnant.

I am writing to you in hopes that you may have someone on the ground or know someone on the ground in Haiti that might be able to reveal this travesty. It would seem that someone from the US government would be able to move this thing along. If you can help, I would be forever in your debt.

Sincerely,

Tim O. Moore II, PhD, P.E.

My friend Rebecca Sullivan, a public relations professional, has been focusing her time and energies on this issue to help her friend Liz. If you think you might be able to help, let me know and I’ll put you in touch with Rebecca. As I mentioned in my last post, I do not know the Moore’s personally, but perhaps because Lily is the same age as my daughter (and the thought of my 2-year-old alone and frightened after an earthquake renders me almost dysfunctional) — or perhaps because this is the only tangible way I can think to help, by using my words and “social networking” skills to get the word out — I am now quite personally invested in this. I think of Liz, and Tim, and Lily often. Please forward this on. Please help if you can.