baby girl

Make a Smilebox photobook

Pictures!!!

What a little doll. We can't believe how big she has gotten. Hopefully we are looking to travel in about 25 days. Thank you all for your continues prayers for Ally's new birth certificate.

Not much to report

The only news we have is that Ally is doing fine. She is now 27 inches long and 21 pounds. That is the best news so far. We are all getting very anxious about getting our birth certificate. If everything goes according to plan we should get that in the next 2 weeks then we are less than 2 weeks from pick up (once we get the birth certificate).

WE ARE OUT!!!

We just found out we are out of PGN with an approval. Our attorney will pick up our file this afternoon or first thing Monday morning. This means that we should be traveling to go get her in approximately 5 weeks!!! We are now waiting for her brand new birth certificate, her passport, and her 2nd DNA test. Once we have all of this we will be given an appointment to personally go and get her travel visa and of course HER!!!

We are back in

Hey all, Just wanted to let you know that on July 23rd we were told that we are back in PGN. Yippee. Now we pray for an approval!! Ally is doing great and we are looking forward to a few pictures soon. Will put them on here when we get them.

MORE BAD NEWS

We just found out from our agency that the previo (kick out reason) has not been corrected and we are still not resubmitted to PGN. Which means we are still being delayed. Our attorney is on top of getting this fixed but evidently it is a time consuming repair. To say the least we are very disappointed.

Kicked out again

Just wanted to let you know that we have once again been kicked out of PGN. We should be resubmitted today. This just delays our process even more. We do not know how long we will stay in PGN this time. We have no answers. We are just hoping we get to pick her up now before her first birthday (October 23rd).

Suspension lifted?

This just in:

June 6, 2008
Joint Council is pleased to announce that PGN has released approximately 230 adoption cases today. At this time, there is no estimate of the number of cases with previos, versus the number of cases without. Upon the release of cases by PGN, Joint Council will be providing estimates of the number of cases without previos. Joint Council extends its appreciation to PGN for its release of these cases. We will continue to work with PGN and key stakeholders in Guatemala on the review of the adoption procedure.

Our file is not one of the 230 released but we are so happy for them. It is always encouraging to see files moving forward. Let us all hope and pray this continues until all of the children are home.

We also received another wonderful update from our agency. Ally is doing great. She is growning and reaching milestones. We are also told she is a happy baby. The only thing better than this would have been if we were reporting it first hand, soon... very soon.

We are still experiencing delays. All adoptions are suspended for 30 days and no one knows for sure when the 30 days actually started. PGN promised to release the files on May 14th for those that have completed their birth mother interviews (we have not yet) surprise, it was another lie. We pray that this political hostage situation will end very soon so all of the children can come home.

Ally is doing good. She is up to 15 pounds 8 ounces and is 26.5 inches long. I love to see her smiling. What a gift this photo is and could not have come at a better time. Hopefully it won't be long before we are taking our own smiley face pictures of her.

Prayers

There is a lot of nonsense (just my opinion) going on in Guatemala right now. This is causing a significant delay in processing adoptions. Please if you are reading this and you have not already done so write to our congressmen. Ask them to lean on the Guatemalan Ambassador. I am also asking you to pray for Ally and the rest of the children to come home. "If two of you agree down here on earth concerning anything you ask, my Father in heaven will do it for you. For where two or three gather together because they are mine, I am there among them." - Matthew 18:15-20

Previo

On April 17th we received a Previo from PGN. This means we were kicked out for improper documentation. That was their reason of course. The document was not incorrect it just wasn't the one they wanted to use on that day. We are in the process of going through all of the steps to get the "new" document to them. This will take about 2 weeks. Then we can have our file resubmitted to PGN. PGN has been undergoing a few staffing changes. We can only hope this will help all of the children waiting to come home.

5 months old already

Can you believe it, she is five months old already. It has been three months since we saw her first picture. She is even more adorable than she was in the last photo (no parental prejudice here, lol).

She is still just a little bitty thing at 9 pounds 12 ounces and 23 inches long. We are told her health is good and she is reaching her developmental milestones. I am pretty sure the milestones established in Guatemala are quite different that the standard milestones here in the United States. We will soon find out first hand. Our paperwork is still in PGN, we are still praying for it to get out of there with a positive stamp very soon. We are looking forward to the next step in the process called orange. Orange is when the United States Embassy grants approval for the second dna test to be completed. We will get Orange once we have the NEW birth certificate (with our last name on it) and her passport. In the meantime we will be doing some spring cleaning and landscaping (where our bushes died) so if any of you want to come over and help with that you are more than welcome. Thanks for all of your well wishes and prayers.

United States Pre-Approval

This is a little late and I am sorry about that. I was hoping to get a picture to post along with this great news. On March 17, 2008 we received our United States Visa pre-approval. This means that when the Guatemalan government (PGN) grants our adoption then the U.S. is agreeing to issue Ally's visa for travel. This step also verifies that the child is indeed the biological child of the birth mother. On March 25, 2008 we officially entered PGN. This normally takes about 8 weeks to get through (give or take). We, of course, are praying for much less. The next time I post we will have a weight, height and new picture.

February 11, 2008

We have received our registration number for Central Authority (hopefully for the last time). We are very excited to say that now we can move forward, which means, wait some more. We are waiting for Pre-Approval from the United States Embassy then we will move on to final approval from Guatemala. Hopefully, we will be one of the very lucky families that will not have to wait long on these two things.

We also have word on how Ally is doing. We are told her health is good. She is all the way up to 8 pounds 5 ounces and 21 inches long (the best I can figure because we were told 53 cms). A small little peanut for sure.

HOW IT ALL STARTED

I am really tired of seeing no updates on our blog so I thought I would answer a few of your questions by telling you how it all got started. I cannot tell you exactly how it happened but one day and many days, weeks, and months after I felt this strong desire/pull to have a baby. I just could not get it off of my mind. It made absolutely no sense and really to this day I cannot put it into words. The feeling would not go away. I tried keeping myself busy with school, work, kids, hobbies, even opening my own business. There it stayed. I finally could not deny it any longer and brought Doug into it. We talked about this for days, weeks, and months. When we knew that we were truly ready, we talked to Britnee and Brandon. I will only say that the decision was unanimous. So, in thinking of all of you and the obvious questions and wonderings you would have in regard to this exciting and wonderful (we think!) decision, I decided to try this blog thing. I have to be honest in sharing that I have no idea what I am doing, but why should that stop me? Well, I thought I would use this post to bring you up to speed on where we have been and where we are. When we made the decision to pursue adoption, I set right out to learn everything there was to learn. I made calls, surfed every website I came across, talked to anyone I knew who was remotely connected to the adoption world. I was immediately fascinated (and more than a little obsessed) with everything I learned, and the more I learned, the more questions I had. What is the process? Who are the children? What is the timeframe? I quickly discovered that I knew very little about International Adoption. Now that I have been forced to slow down, taking it one step at a time, I am reminded to take a look around. We may be facing a long road, but I believe there will be plenty of moments to stop and learn some more (mostly patience) Let me share the details we are most often asked about:After hooking up with an agency near home (20 minutes from our house), we began to collect a small mountain of paperwork. I have been reassured that this is only the beginning of paperwork to come. Lucky for us, my schedule makes tracking down legal documents more manageable. We began to share our news with our dear family and friends. What can we say? You have always been supportive and loving in our lives, and have shown us only the same again. We are so blessed. We attended adoption education classes (only one more to go). The classes were great. I think that had a lot to do with our fabulous teacher, and the truly great people we were lucky enough to attend with. We have also completed our "Home Study". We have a case worker assigned to our family. Irene. She has been to the house once already. We felt very comfortable with her. She will come back again two weeks after our daughter is home. We have had a few ups and downs during this trying time (they all said, "adoption is not for the faint of heart" how true that is). We have completed most of the steps required to enter PGN (the great and powerful one's with the final say) we are waiting for Pre-approval from the United States Embassy and registration receipt from Central Authority (it does exist!). For now, all we know is we are adopting a baby girl from Guatemala soon to be legally named Allyson Faith (Faith for knowing during this whole process it is one of the greatest things we counted on). It is a long and scary process. We have faith that one day,we will be bringing our daughter home and she will be so loved. Is it possible to love someone you have not even met yet? We are happy, we are nervous, and we continue to feel truly blessed. Thank you each for your support now, and for that which I know we will need in the coming days and weeks.

Agency reassurance

We would like to share our good news. We were assured by the agency and the attorney that our adoption will in fact proceed. We still need to register with Central Authority but it will proceed nonetheless. So now the question is WHEN not IF.

Dateline

I am sure you have all heard by now that Dateline will be airing a story this Sunday on Guatemala adoptions. We understand that there is a potential for corruption surrounding adoptions in every country including ours and although we agree that reform is needed, please try to remember that there are 2 sides to every story, and we hope that the Dateline special will be a fair portrayal. Personally Doug and I have done a lot of research and feel very confident that there is nothing illegal surrounding our adoption of Allyson. There are a few bad apples in every bushel and as unfortunate as this is we need to remember that not all adoptions are corrupt and our focus should be on the future of Guatemala and the children. Our family will be complete with the addition of Ally and we all can take comfort in knowing that she will be raised in a safe and very loving home not in an orphanage or worse.

Another New Law!!!

Today we did not get good news, not bad news, just not good. We found out that not only do we need to register with Central Authority (which will be taking registrations on January 16th) but we also found out they did not take DNA and we did not enter family court because there is a new law that states all birth mothers over the age of 18 must register with some municipality. She stated she would get that done next week. So here we are waiting for something we thought was already done. Three steps forward and two steps back.

The process

The Guatemalan adoption process is, generally, as follows:
Choose an agency
Complete homestudy and dossier
The adoptive family applies for and obtains approval from their local CIS office using the I-600A process; the I-171H is issued by CIS.
The dossier is completed and sent to Guatemala for translation. The dossier is then authenticated by the Foreign Ministry.
At this time, or potentially earlier, a referral of a child is made to the waiting family. The referral is checked to ensure that a properly-issued birth certificate has been issued.
A DNA sample is taken from the child and the biological mother, and sent for testing and verification. The results are then forwarded to the US Embassy in Guatemala City, who will issue a preapproval. This step verifies that the child is indeed the biological child of the birth mother. (4-8 months)
After the family has accepted the referral, a Power of Attorney will be completed. This permits the attorney in Guatemala to act on behalf of the adoptive family.
The attorney presents the dossier and the Adoption Petition to the Family Court in Guatemala. The Family Court will schedule a home visit/ meeting with the biological mother.
Once the Social Worker from the Family Court makes a favorable recommendation, the case and dossier are transferred to the Ministerio Publico (PGN), the entity that approves the adoption and issues a final adoption decree.
Once PGN issues the decree, it is signed by the biological mother, as well as the attorney representing the adoptive family. (4-8 months)
The adoption decree is registered with the Civil Registry, and a new birth certificate is issued under the child’s new name. The child is then taken for issuance of a new passport.
A final package, containing evidence of all of the above steps, is submitted to the US Embassy in Guatemala City. The Embassy will review the package, and if all is in order, it will issue a “pink slip” which indicates an appointment date for issuance of the child’s visa. (about 3 months)
The adoptive family may then travel to Guatemala, and appear at the US Embassy with the child to obtain the immigrant visa for the United States.
The child then enters the United States on the Immigrant Visa. If the child has been issued an IR3 visa, he/she will automatically become a US citizen upon admission. If the child has been issued an IR4 visa, the adoptive family will need to readopt the child according to the laws of the state in which the family lives; upon readoption, the child will automatically gain US citizenship.
total time 8-19 months: could be more or less

Bringing Allyson Home

December 21, 2007

We have officially been initiated onto the Guatemalan adoption roller coaster ride. Up until the last few days my husband and I were greatful to not know what that was like. Now we do and boy do we empathize with all potentiol adoptive parents going through this. I am praying for each and every one of us.

Our little girl was born on October 23, 2007 weighing in at a whopping 3 pounds 12 ounces. On December 13th she had already grown so much. She weighs 6 pounds 4 ounces and is doing great.