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.