Roseline and Betty arrive in Brest

As soon as we agreed to adopt the two Haitian sisters that the Belgian organization has found for us, we started the paperwork.

There was, of course, some money involved, quite understandably, but nothing outrageous. For example, the airfare of the two girls from Port-au-Prince to Brussels. Also, there were some people in Haiti that needed to be reimbursed, we did not really know what they have done, but we were assured that their work was needed. We had no problem paying.

We learned that the two girls were named Roseline and Betty and that they were coming from an orphanage managed by nuns.

Roseline and Betty in Haiti in 1985

In June 1985, Geneviève traveled to Belgium by train and came back with Roseline and Betty. I was on the station platform when they exited from the train.

Geneviève had been given some papers from Haiti: ID cards, birth certificates, and some legal documents.

Betty was speaking almost no French, only Haitian Creole (kreyòl ayisyen). But Roseline had been to school and spoke and understood French. When we had to tell something to Betty, Roseline would translate into Creole.

Roseline soon told us that their birth certificates were all fake. Their last names were not the one on the certificates, their birth dates were also wrong, and probably the birth locations too, although she did not know where they were born exactly.

Only their first names were correct. But we learned later that the spelling of their first names had been altered: Roseline originally was named Roselaine and Betty was named Elisabete, shortened as Bette.
Roseline remembered with certitude that their last name was Dominique and not Clervyl as written on their birth certificates.

From the legal documents, we understood that a woman had stated that she had two daughters and that she has failed to declare them when they were born, several years ago. All the names and dates on the birth certificates came from this woman. It was obvious to me that a lawyer had paid this woman to make such a declaration, and probably the Haitian administration knew it, but they went along.
The idea was that without their real names and birth dates, they would never found their birth parents. However, as we will see later, Roseline remembered enough details of her life in Haiti and she found without too many difficulties their birth parents some 15 years later.

Both my daughters are on Steemit (I had bribed them!).
Roseline is Hive account@rosie.posie. She has not started to blog yet, but she is assuring me that she will do it soon.
Betty is Hive account@bettym3. If you are interested in the memories of Betty in Haiti and coming to Brest, you can read her posts: Haiti birthplace, Haiti early memories and Meeting our adoptive parents.