One Amazing Year

Hannah loves her Baby Jaguar

Waiting to go see Dora the Explorer Live

Hannah falling asleep at dinner after a long day of playing hard

Hannah loves to jump

Hannah and Mommy dressed up for Dora the Explorer Live. She has a Dora doll, Baby Jaguar, Dora shirt and dress, Dora hat and her backpack.

We took Hannah to see Dora the Expolorer Live. She LOVED it!

One year ago today, we stepped off the plane in Fort Lauderdale with Hannah in our arms to begin our lives as a family back in the United States. It was a day we thought may never come. It is hard to believe it has been a year, but it also feels like Hannah has been with us forever. She has grown a full four inches since she has been home in the US.
It doesn't seem like we have had alot of time to keep her blog updated, so here are some recent pictures. We took Hannah to see Dora the Explorer Live in Fort Lauderdale. She absolutely loved it! She even got to see Diego. Hannah is so full of energy. She will jump through the whole house. She loves to pull weeds out of the grass.

We have been working on Hannah learning to count. She can count to 10. She likes to sit in the shower and put her toys in a nice straight line and count as she puts them down. We are also working on our ABC's. She won't say "V", it comes out as as all different letters.

Hannah has learned to use "please" very well. It just melts your heart. It is hard to tell her "no" when she looks at you with her big beautiful eyes and says "please Daddy, please".

Hannah-isms

Hannah's love - Diego
Hannah's Best Friends - Dora and Boots

Hannah and her horse in the pool

Moviestar Hannah

Hannah entertaining residents at the Assisted Living Facility

4th of July at the beach

4th of July at the beach

Hannah in her pool

Hannah driving Daddy's car

Hannah and Missy in her room

Hannah is always concerned about others. She will see something, pretty much anything that catches her attention, and ask if it is ok. She will see the trees moving in the rain and say “trees wet rain. Hold on trees! Hold on trees! I help blue. Ah-kay trees? Ah-kay.” She is very good at saying thank you, you’re welcome, bless you and please.
She has quite the imagination. She will come up to us and say “ssssss (like a snake) Hear that? Uh-oh! Snake. I don’t see it. (making binoculars with her hands) There it is, snake!”
Hannah’s vocabulary continues to grow at an incredible rate, though she has some “Hannah-isms”.
Ah-kay = OK
Nake = napkin
a-go = Diego
cumber = cucumber
mato = tomato
pop-pop = ice pop
Doraboots – Dora and Boots
Ga-duh! = wake up
Hog gog = hot dog
I help blue = I’ll help you
Strawbaby = strawberry
Crackers = crocodile
She has an obsession about shoes. She believes everyone should wear shoes 24 hours a day. She gets upset if she sees someone without shoes on. She will come up and tell anyone without shoes “shoes on”. We were at the store recently and she saw a man carrying a baby without shoes. She started yelling “Baby shoes on! Baby shoes on!” It was a little embarrassing.
She is definitely a “girlie-girl”. She want to carry her purse around full of toys. She is very interested in shoes, clothes and purses. She does not like dresses unless she is wearing something underneath. If she does not pants or leggings on, she will tell us “Nana knees”.
Hannah’s favorite foods are fries (which she does not get often), cucumbers, tomatoes, lettuce, grapes, strawberries, Goldfish pretzels, chicken, hot dogs, cheese and Cheerios. When she is hungry, she will run through the list of all the food items she can think of “chicken, mato, cumber, lettuce…”.
She loves to watch Dora the Explorer and Diego. She has learned many Spanish words from these shows and uses them in everyday conversation. “Come on Dadda, vámonos”
Hannah celebrated her first Independence Day as an American citizen. We took Hannah to the beach in Lauderdale-by-the-Sea yesterday with Uncle Ed and Aunt Alex and we watched the fireworks, or “Pretties” as Hannah calls them, later that night. She loved playing in the water and especially loved the sand. On the way home, we asked her if she had fun at the beach. She had the biggest smile and nodded her head. It was priceless.

One Year Ago Today...

One year ago today, Debbie left to live in Guatemala with Hannah until the adoption was completed. We expected one, maybe two months at the most.

A Day at the Beach

Kevin's friends from High School, Nate and Sarah, came to visit Florida. We went to Jensen Beach to see them. Hannah had a great time playing in the water and sand. She would go into the water and try to run from the waves.

First Easter Home

Today was Hannah's first Easter at home. She is a great egg-hunter. We had an egg hunt at home and then later at Uncle Ed's house in Orlando.

Six Amazing, Wonderful Months

Hannah likes to travel with lots of stuff. She has Pup-pup, Pup-pup's blanket, Pup-pup's pillow, her backpack, her purse and her cup while watching Dora.

Hannah has been home with us in the United States for six months. We can't express how wonderful it has been. She is growing so fast. She talks all the time and uses new words every day.

Happy Valentine’s Day

Hannah playing hockey
Hannah's cake

Hannah in her Valentine's Day outfit

Hannah celebrated her first Valentine’s Day with us. She looked so cute in her little outfit. She bought Mommy a recordable card, but she did not cooperate with the recording.
Hannah likes to watch hockey with Daddy. She will yell at the TV just as much as Daddy. She even plays hockey with Daddy.

More Partying

Hannah's Cake

Blowing out the candles

I'm Two

I like cake

Yum!

We had another birthday party for Hannah at out home in Ocala so more friends and family could be there. Hannah has learned to say “Happy!”, instead of Happy Birthday, and give people her toys.
She seems to be growing more every day. We keep saying she looks bigger each day. She is still wearing 18 month clothing, but starting to wear some 24 months. She learns and uses new words daily. Her first three-syllable word is cucumber, one of her favorite foods.
Hannah’s new game is pretending to be a cat. She crawls on the floor and says “meow”. She wants everyone to pet her head and she “scratches” things. We do not have a cat so we do not know where she learned this, but it is really cute. Hannah is really active. She was marching around the house last night with a rolled up piece of paper (like a trumpet) saying “Do do dooo” for almost an hour with Mommy following her.

Homeland Security Sent the Package

We received a call from a nice gentleman from the US Department of Homeland Security about our misplaced paperwork. He said the documents would be mailed to us (hopefully not someone else) today. We assume the nice lady in Kansas could not send them directly to us.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY HANNAH!

Hannah and her Hello Kitty Cupcake
Singing Happy Birthday

Opening presents

More presents

Blowing out the candles

Her new bus

Hannah's own house

Taking the wrapping paper off the house

Ironing

Happy Birthday Hannah! Hannah turned 2 years old today. She woke up early on her own this morning and she opened her presents. We are having a little Birthday party at work today, complete with Hello Kitty Cupcakes, for her and then another party at home in Ocala with more family and friends.
We heard back from the woman in Kansas who received our packet from Department of Homeland Security. She spoke with someone there and they said they would call us this morning to see if we would approve her sending the packet directly to us. They also said this was embarrassing, but not the first time this has happened. This officer knew of another time himself. As of noon today, we still have not heard from Department of Homeland Security.

Department of Homeland Security Error

Approximately 2 months ago we sent a G-884, Request for the Return of Original Documents, to the Department of Homeland Security. They will send us all of the original documents that were in the package we had to hand carry from the US Embassy in Guatemala to Immigration in the US. About one month ago we received a phone call from someone in Kansas that received our packet. They called us and said they were calling the Department of Homeland Security to see if they had to send it back to them or if they could send it to us. We have not heard back from this person. This is a little scary that the Department of Homeland Security can not get address correct and send A LOT of personal information (Social Security Numbers, income, date of birth, entire life history) to someone else.

Traditional Mayan Dress

Happy New Year

Hannah didn't make it to midnight, but she had her 2009 glasses and Happy New Year hat on. We pray this will be a great year and the rest of the waiting children in Guatemala come home. 2008 had some of our scariest times, but one great time overshadowed them all, Hannah coming home.

Merry Christmas

Opening presents

Hannah's Tinkerbell ATV

Riding the new ATV

Opening presents

Santa must have been here

Putting cookies and milk out for Santa

Hannah and Papa playing with her new laptop

Opening presents

Hannah playing peek-a-boo

Hannah and Pup-pup in front of the Christmas Tree

Merry Christmas! We had a Christmas Eve party at our house with all of Debbie’s family. Hannah played Santa and handed out gifts.

We had a wonderful first Christmas home with Hannah. She figured out how to open presents pretty quickly. Santa brought lots of presents for her. We had Christmas dinner at Uncle Adam’s house. Hannah loved the turkey. She kept asking for “tutu” all night.

We hope everyone had a great Christmas. We have our greatest gift ever, Hannah is home with us.

6 Months Ago

Driving the Disney Princess Car

Hannah in her cabinet

"When Mommy says NO, Call 1-800-Grandma"

Hannah and Pup-pup

Hannah in "her drawer"

Walking in Daddy's shoes

Hannah watching Veggie-Tales in her box

Six months ago yesterday Debbie moved to Guatemala to foster Hannah. That was a scary day for all of us, but our lives are wonderful now. We believe if Debbie did not move to Guatemala, Hannah would have never come home to us.We are in the process of stopping Hannah’s one bottle a day, at bedtime. It is a little difficult for all of us. We feel bad when she cries for her “ba-ba”, but we feel she is old enough to not have one anymore.Hannah is doing great. She still copies everything and makes us copy her. She picks up new words all the time. Last night we walked around our neighborhood while Hannah rode her new Hello Kitty Tricycle and looked at the Christmas lights. Hannah would say “wow” and point at all the lights.
Hannah has taken over one of our kitchen cabinets. We took everything out and she filled it up with toys. She climbs in and says "bye" and closes the doors. She will then sit in the dark calling "Nana" so we will look for her. She laughs hysterically when we open the door.She must have been a good girl because Santa has been doing A LOT of shopping for her. It is hard to not give her the presents as soon as we get home, but we need to wait for Christmas. We can’t wait for Hannah’s first Christmas at home.

Happy Thanksgiving

Hannah getting some turkey
Mommy and Hannah's little turkeys

Hannah loves Coke

Hannah and Mommy at Santa's Enchanted Forest

Hannah did NOT like Santa

Hannah shook the monkey's hand

Santa's Enchanted Forest

Santa's Enchanted Forest

We had a wonderful first Thanksgiving as a family. Debbie’s parents came over to have dinner with us. We are thankful for so much, especially Hannah. Enjoy the pictures.

We took Hannah to Santa's Enchanted Forest in Miami. She met Santa for the first time. She liked him from far away, but when she got close, she cried. Santa will bring her lots of presents anyway.

Trick-or-Treat

Trick-or-Treating

"Come on Mommy, you can do a split too!"
Trick-or-Treat!

We took Hannah for a little Trick-or-Treating. She had more than enough candy from Disney, but we couldn’t pass up taking her out in her cute little ladybug costume.

Our Song for Hannah

Hannah's First Disney Trip

Getting Ready at Uncle Ed's house
Playing in Winnie the Pooh's Honey Pot Hannah the Ladybug
Playing in Winnie the Pooh's House

Hannah and Daddy

Hannah and Daddy on the Winnie the Pooh ride

Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party

Waiting for the Parade

Hannah and Mommy at Winnie the Pooh's house

Hannah and Mommy in front of the Castle

So it only took one and one-half months for us to take Hannah to Disney. We took her to Mickey’s Not-So-Scary Halloween Party. She looked beautiful dressed up as a Ladybug. The Halloween Parade and It’s a Small World ride were her favorites. She stared wide-eyed at everything and kept saying “Wow!” She waved at the Disney characters and would say “Hi” and “Bye” to them. We didn’t get too many pictures because it was dark, but we have some. She had a great time and stayed up (and active) until 12:30AM. Once she got in her car seat and put on her blanket, she was out. We are looking forward to going ba111ck for Christmas.

First Halloween as a Family

Eating apples

" Halloween is Coming!"

"I'm going to Disney!"


John bought Hannah a cute little Halloween outfit. She likes to say “Kkkkkkitty” and point to her shirt.
We bought tickect to bring Hannah to Disney for Mickey’s Not-so-Scary Halloween Party on Thursday. We will post pictures soon after we get back.

Corn-on-the-Cob and Bubbles

Hannah and Mommy
Ugh, this is heavy

Caught Ya!

Blowing Bubbles with Mommy

I can do this

Mmmm...

Hannah tried to eat corn-on-the-cob this weekend. It was pretty funny. She watched Daddy eat it and wanted to try it herself. She did pretty well. After dinner, we went outside and Mommy and Hannah blew bubbles. Hannah would chase them down and pop them.

First US Pediatrician Appointment

Hannah had her first Pediatrician appointment today. She is healthy and on or above target for development. They said she weighs 24 lbs 8 oz and is 33.5 inches tall. We believe her height is incorrect, as we measured her at 31.5 inches on Sunday. The 33.5 inches puts her at the 50th percentile for height and the 31.5 inches puts her at the 5th percentile. She has always been at the 5th percentile for height. We will check it again when we go back in a few weeks.
Hannah did very well and never cried during the whole visit except when she had to get three shots! Poor Hannah. Of course she cried during the shots, but stopped crying about 30 seconds after. What a trooper. It hurts your heart to have to hold your daughter down while she is getting the shots, but they are very important. We asked the pediatrician to document her Mongolian spots on her back. She said they would fade with time. We have noticed that they are less visible now then a year ago.
We spoke to Lannie, Kimberly and Ozzy today. They are going to pick up their Visa today and they will be back home in the US tomorrow. Congratulations.

Hannah is Officially a United States Citizen

We received Hannah Certificate of Citizenship in the mail this weekend when we went home. We also applied for her Social Security Number today. The process was pretty easy. We can now file the G-884, Request for the Return of Original Documents from USCIS. We will receive all the papers in the sealed envelope we had to hand carry to USCIC. It will be interesting to see what was in there.
Hannah is still doing great, and still very busy. She is running and jumping. She has her first pediatrician appointment in the US on Wednesday. She hates the doctor’s office. She screams as soon as we put her down on the examination table. Let’s hope things a different this time with a different office.
Our good friends Lannie, Kim and Ozzy have their Visa appointment tomorrow. We wish them luck.

First Month Home

Hannah reading to Pup-pup
Sly little grin
Hannah with Great-Grandma ("GG")
Hannah with Betty Boop
Hannah is addicted to vanilla milk shakes

Hannah has been home in the United States for one month today. What a wonderful month! We apologize for not posting for such a long time. Our lives have changed very much since Hannah came home, but it is great. Hannah is such a happy little girl. She really has not had to adjust to life with us since Debbie spent four and one-half months with Hannah in Guatemala. That was the best decision we could have made. We do not believe Hannah would have ever come home if Debbie did not move to Guatemala and push so hard to finish the adoption.
Hannah is still a little girlie-girl, but she loves to play hard. The rougher you play with her, the more she enjoys it. She loves to be flipped and spun around and even hung upside down. Pup-pup is still her best friend and has to go everywhere with her, even to bed. Hannah loves to climb, run and jump. Her favorite toys are her tea set and play food. She makes food for Mommy, Daddy and Pup-pup and we all “eat” the plastic food. Hannah loves to shake her butt and dance whenever she hears music. It is too cute.
Hannah gets along very well with her puppy Missy. Hannah will put her face by Missy and Missy will lick her. Hannah laughs and laughs. Snuggles is not so sure of Hannah. She wants to play with Snuggles, but she will corner him and he doesn’t like it.
Hannah deals well with our traveling between Ft. Lauderdale and Ocala. She sits quietly in the Jeep when we put on her DVD player. She does not care for TV at home, but she likes to watch her movies in the vehicle.
Hannah continues to sleep well and eat well. We are very lucky. Her favorite foods are pretty much any fruit or vegetable and hot dogs. She tries to copy everything we say and do. She said her first two-word sentence this week. She said “Hi Dada” when Kevin came home. She also used her potty seat for the first time this week.
We would like to thank everyone for their support and prayers during our long journey to get Hannah home. Please continue to keep the remaining families waiting to complete their adoptions and the children left behind in your prayers. They sincerely need it. There is one last family we know waiting in Guatemala to finish their adoption, but they are so close to the end. Please keep Ozzy, Lanny and Kimberly in your prayers.

First Week Home

Hannah has been home for one week. This has been a wonderful week. Hannah is such a girlie-girl. She loves to copy Mommy. If Mommy puts on perfume, Hannah has to have some. She will then pick up the perfume herself and make sounds like she is spraying it on herself. She pretends to put on make-up, deodorant, etc. She LOVES shoes, purses and clothing. If we show her a new outfit, she says “oooh” and try to take her clothes off to put the new clothes on. We took her to the shoe store this week. She calls them “zhoos”. She was in heaven. She would look at all the shoes and pull down the ones she liked and would try them on. Daddy is in trouble.

Hannah at Work

Uncle Ed had this sign, drawn by Alex's daughter for Hannah, waiting for Hannah when she came home.
Hannah at "Work"

Hannah is still doing very well. She is a little overwhelmed by meeting all these new people. She is coming to work with us everyday. After lunch she naps until it is almost time to go home. Her vocabulary is growing. She says Momma, Dada, Na-na (Hannah), pop-pop, pup-pup, up, bye, hello, wawa (water), thank you, ball, bird, shoe, no, eyes, nose, mouth, head, bless you and love you. She also loves to say "gaa-duh" and "ummmm". We have not figured out what "gaa-duh" means, but it applied to many situations. She will walk up to us and say "ummmm" and pause before telling us long stories containing many "gaa-duh"s and other sounds. She is so dramitic when she tells the stories. She points and shakes her finger during the stories because they must be very important. She also likes to see us from across the room and raise both of her arms up and run to us while saying "aww" and giving hugs and kisses. It is so sweet.

Pictures...

Hannah cooking breakfast her first morning home
"Doctor Hannah", Snuggles and Pup-pup
Hannah at her dining room table

Hannah going down the slide
Hannah, Missy and Snuggles
Hannah on the phone Hannah on the phone again
"Doctor Hannah" giving Pup-pup a check-up

Hannah loves to go up the slide Hannah getting ready to go down the slide
Hannah on her swing Hannah on her swing with Pop-pops

Hannah and Daddy mowing the lawn

Hannah and her new hat Hannah and Pop-pops at breakfast for Pop-pop's birthday

WE ARE HOME!!!

We came home with Hannah on Friday. Debbie is so happy to be home. Hannah did very well on the plane for the first 30 minutes. We think her ears started to hurt and she cried for about 30 more minutes until she fell asleep. She woke up a few minutes later and played for the rest of the flight. Immigration was a breeze once we landed. We went to the Secondary Inspection room where they took our “top secret, do not open” envelopes and Hannah’s Guatemalan passport. We waited for less than five minutes and an officer came out with Hannah’s passport and said “you are done, you can go”. That was it.
It has been a whirlwind of activity since we came home. Debbie’s parents and brother met us at the airport in Fort Lauderdale. It was wonderful. Debbie was so happy to see them. We all went back to our townhouse in Coconut Creek to let Hannah play with her new family. We then drive to Orlando to pick up the puppies. Hannah was tired and a little cranky during the drive. She fell asleep on the way to Orlando. She woke up when we stopped at about 1:00AM. She cried her little eyes out until she saw the puppies. She then laughed and laughed for the next 45 minutes on our way to Ocala. We finally arrived home at about 2:00AM and Hannah was so excited she ran around the house with the puppies for an hour and one-half. Hannah finally went to sleep at 3:30AM.
Debbie’s parents came over today and Hannah played on her new swing set they bought for her. She seems so happy here. She loves her new room and puppies. She is so busy investigating the house and her toys.

We would like to give SPECIAL THANKS to our employer, Bob, Jim and David. Their understanding and assistance was crucial in us completing the adoption. They have helped in many ways. They allowed both of us to travel to Guatemala many times and allowed Debbie to live in Guatemala for almost 5 months. Without their assistance, we would have never brought Hannah home. We are forever grateful to them.

We Have Hannah’s Visa

Hannah and Pup-pup
Hannah and Pup-pup watching TV
Hannah resting on the comfy beds at the Westin waiting to swim
Mommy and Hannah poolside
Hannah and Daddy in the pool
Hannah's Visa Packet and Passport

One year, four months, three weeks and 2 days. That is how long we have been waiting to bring Hannah home. WE ARE GOING HOME TOMORROW! We started the adoption process two years, one month and three weeks ago. Kevin went to the US Embassy today for our 3:30PM appointment to pick up Hannah’s Visa and Immigration packet. He arrived at the Embassy and waited for his name to be called. He walked to the window and they asked for his passport and then handed him the envelopes and Hannah’s Guatemalan passport with the Visa sticker inside. The packet is two large envelopes that say in very ominous-looking red ink that we can not open this and it must be with us at all times.
This morning we were lazy again and had breakfast in our room. “Na-na”, as Hannah calls herself, loves fresh fruit. She ate fresh pineapple, cantaloupe, strawberries and oranges with some of Daddy’s omelet and Mommy’s waffles. We all then went to the pool. Hannah brought her Princess tea cups and played with them in the pool until lunch. We walked to McDonald’s for lunch. The McDonald’s in Guatemala City are not nearly as nice as the one in Antigua. Hannah didn’t finish her chicken nuggets because she started to fall asleep. The pool and sun really tired her out. We came back to the Westin and she went right to sleep. This will be our last night in Guatemala. We are so excited to come home and let Hannah meet everyone.

Visa Appointment

We had Hannah’s Visa appointment today at the US Embassy. We woke Hannah up at 6AM to be there on time. Hannah was not really too happy about waking up that early. She usually sleeps until 8 or 9. We arrived at the US Embassy at about 6:45 for our 7:15 appointment. All of the windows were closed until about 7:45. We went to window 7 and they asked for our Immunization Waiver, DS-240, I-864W, Hannah’s passport and two extra pictures. We were then sent to window 4 to pay the $400 to the Embassy and we received the receipt. Then we sat for another hour. They called us to door 10 where we showed our passports to prove we had met Hannah before the adoption and initialed the changes the Department of Homeland Security had made to our I-600. Then we sat for another hour. We were then called to window number 8 for the actual Visa interview. The gentleman at the window wanted our receipt and asked if what agency we used, if we were happy with them, did we receive our referral from the agency or a third party and if we were going to change Hannah’s name. He then said congratulations and we could pick up our Visa tomorrow at 3:30PM. That was it. A pretty anti-climatic ending for this long and difficult journey. We just thank God we are done and we can bring Hannah home. We fly out of Guatemala City at 12:35PM (local time) and arrive in Fort Lauderdale at 5:15PM on Friday.

Before we left Antigua we went to lunch with some of our good friends we have met on this journey, Lannie, Kim and Ozzy and Kim and Zack. They are all living in Antigua until they can bring their children home. We had lunch at Monoloco’s. The food there is very good. Please keep them in your prayers as they are still waiting to come home. They have had difficult journeys and deserve to come home soon. Meeting them has made the time in Antigua easier and more interesting. We will miss them.

After the Visa appointment today, we came back to the hotel and ate a late breakfast in our room and we all took a nap. Kevin and Hannah went in the pool until dinner. Hannah just loves to play in the “wawa”. She will love having her own pool at home.

PINK! PINK! PINK!

Today at 3:06 we heard the best one word we have ever heard, PINK! Thank God! We have our Visa appointment tomorrow morning at 7:15AM. We all did a dance. We will be home forever on Friday! We are leaving to go to the Westin right now. We will post again as soon as we can.

Great News

The 2nd DNA results arrived at the US Embassy today. We all went to the US Embassy with Kim and Zack today to ask for an earlier appointment. The people at the US Embassy would not talk to us. We were all really upset. We came back to the apartment and e-mailed them. The Embassy actually responded to our e-mail and said they have appointments available on Wednesday and our DNA results are in their mailroom. If they get the results in the office they will e-mail us our Pink for Wednesday! We are planning to go to Guatemala City on Tuesday to stay at the Westin until we go home. It should be Friday! We are so happy. We just pray the US Embassy keeps it’s word.

Last Trip to Guatemala

Kevin arrived in Guatemala today for the last time. He is staying until we all go home, which looks to be very soon. Hannah’s DNA results were mailed from Lab Corp today to the US Embassy in Guatemala, and it's a match. It is scheduled to arrive at the Embassy on Monday before 6PM. We will try to get the US Embassy to give us an earlier appointment so we can try to be home for Pop-pop’s birthday.

Going to Guatemala (We hope)

Kevin bought his plane ticket to Guatemala for Friday. This time he will not leave Guatemala without Debbie and Hannah. Lab Corp said they will begin testing the DNA today and the results should be back to the US Embassy in Guatemala within a week.

Hurricane Hanna’s course has been updated and Ft. Lauderdale Airport is now in the edges of the “cone of uncertainty”. We hope it does not delay Kevin’s flight for Friday. Then Ike and Josephine are following similar paths.

Waiting

The swing set is done, now we need Hannah home to play on it. Time is going very slow right now. We are so close.

DNA Arrived

Hannah’s DNA sample arrived at Lab Corp at 9:05am this morning. We really hope they will begin the test even though it is the holiday weekend. Kevin is planning to fly down to Guatemala on Friday. We will go to the embassy on Monday to see if we can get an earlier Visa appointment. It looks like the soon-to-be Hurricane Hanna will be close to Fort Lauderdale by Friday morning. We hope this does not hold up Kevin’s plane.
Kevin and Adam are building Hannah’s new swing set that Granny and Pop-pop bought her. Hurricane Gustav is giving them some rain to slow their progress.

DNA is on the Way

Hannah’s DNA sample arrived in Miami this morning at 8:30am. It left Miami at 8:30pm on the way to North Carolina right now. It may have to sit at Lab Corp until Tuesday due to Labor Day.

Done

Debbie and Hannah had a very busy day, but a very productive one. They completed the 2nd DNA test and had the US Embassy physical. Everything is done to come home. Now we have to wait. It should take a week to ten days for the DNA results to arrive at the US Embassy. The US Embassy says they will issue the Visa appointment within a week of receiving the results. Kevin plans to come back to Guatemala as soon as the DNA results. We will go to the US Embassy and ask for an earlier appointment. Anything to get home sooner.
We also want to congratulate Scott and Jessica who are taking Josie home tomorrow, Stacie for her Pink and Kim and Steve for finally getting their birth certificate today. We are all so close. Please keep the other families in your prayers. Several with our agency still do not even know if they will ever finish their adoptions.

We have Orange

We just received our "Orange slip" from the US Embassy. We are waiting for our receipt from Lab Corp so we can have Hannah's DNA taken.

Passport Done

Debbie and Mayra have Hannah’s passport completed and it is with Aragon. They are trying to get Orange (2nd DNA authorization), DNA and physical done today. We will update as items are completed.

We have our birth certificate

After 36 days, we have our birth certificate! Debbie went with Mayra to pick up three copies of Hannah’s new birth certificate today. They delivered them to Aragon to finish our file for tomorrow. He stated he would, but expected to be paid the rest of his fees before he gives us the papers. Tomorrow will be a busy day for Debbie and Hannah, but we are so close to them coming home.

Birth Certificate Tomorrow?

Mayra has been told by Olga at the Civil Registry that we can pick up Hannah’s new birth certificate tomorrow. We pray she is correct. If Debbie does get it tomorrow she will have Aragon’s office translate it to English. Thursday she will spend the whole day getting “Orange” (2nd DNA authorization), Hannah’s Guatemalan Passport, DNA test, Embassy approved physician physical and submitting it all to the US Embassy. It will be a busy day and a big step closer to coming home.

Hannah's First Swim

Hannah's first swim
Hannah and Jessica
Hannah and Mommy
Hannah loves limes

Hannah playing with her tea cups

Debbie and Hannah went to Guatemala City for the weekend to visit with Scott, Jessica and Josie at the The Westin Camino Real. The hotel has a nice pool and Hannah loves the pool. She even wanted to take “pup-pup” into the pool with her, but Mommy would not let her. Hannah had a great time. We can’t wait for her to come home where she can have her own pool.
Mayra has called her “contact” at the Civil Registry to check on the birth certificate. Her contact said she would do the best she can to get it done for Wednesday or first thing Thursday morning. This will save us several days. The birth certificate has to be translated by a certified translator and submitted to the US Embassy before we can get our 2nd DNA authorization. The US Embassy does not accept adoption paperwork on Fridays and then Monday is Labor Day. We would then have to wait until Tuesday to submit our paperwork for the 2nd DNA authorization. We hope we can get it done on Thursday. The Civil Registry is very busy right now because after Friday they will be part of RENAP. All requests currently in process have to be done before Friday.

Hannah just keeps growing. If she does not come home soon she will be too big for all her 12 month clothing. Even though she is 19 months old, she is still wearing 12 month clothing. She does not say Hannah yet, but she says “nana”. She is learning eyes, nose, lips and ears. While she was staying at the Westin Camino Real she had to sleep with “pup-pup”. Mommy took “pup-pup” out of the crib during to night. Hannah woke up in the morning and started looking for “pup-pup”. It was really cute. We think she needed “pup-pup” for security since she was in a strange place. We hope she does ok with the changes once she comes home. She has been through many changes in her short little life. She lived with her birth mother for a few months, then her first foster family, then the second foster family, then the orphanage, then Aby and finally with Debbie. She lived in the apartment with Debbie, then the house and back to the apartment. She also stayed with us several times in the hotel before Debbie moved to Guatemala. This must be confusing to her. She will always be with us from now on. Also this is the third language she had heard. Her birth mother speaks Q'eqchi', the foster families and the people at the orphanage speak Spanish and we speak English.

Birth Certificate Next Week

Our attorney finally spoke with the supervisor of the Civil Registry today. She told him she would begin making the birth certificate and it will be ready on Thursday or Friday next week. This is good news. At least we know a date now. The worst part of this is the uncertainty.

No Word from Civil Registry

Our new attorney tried to speak with the Civil Registry Supervisor today. They kept telling him she was in a meeting and would call him back. She never called back. It has almost been a month since we submitted our paperwork for Hannah’s new birth certificate. Tomorrow will be one week since she said she would start in 72 hours. This is so frustrating. We just want Debbie and Hannah home to the US.

An Update

Yesterday Debbie received a call from our new attorney. He seems to be on the ball. Although he does not do adoptions, he has been a big help. He spoke with the Civil Registry supervisor. She has agreed to begin processing the new birth certificate in 72 hours from Wednesday if she does not hear back from the Ministerio Público telling her she can not. Unfortunately, Friday is a holiday in Guatemala, so we have to wait until Monday or Tuesday to hear the results. Our attorney believes we should have the birth certificate by Friday, August 22. If we pick it up on the Monday after, Debbie and Hannah could be home the second week of September, barring any further drama.

Ministerio Público: No Investigation Warranted

Our new attorney, Lic. Arturo Saravia Altolaguirre, contacted the Ministerio Público on Thursday. The Officer in charge of the case advised Lic. Saravia that our file does not require an investigation because we have had DNA and the birth mother interview with the PGN and he had already explained that to the Civil Registry. He also told him he does not have our file, only one page of it. He will not give us an opinion letter stating the file is ok because he did not investigate it. That makes sense. Lic. Saravia is going to call the Civil Registry on Friday and ask them to print the new birth certificate. If this is unsuccessful, Debbie and the attorney are going to go to her office and call the Ministerio Público Officer to have him tell the Civil Registry there is no reason to hold it. If this does not work, he is going to contact the Mayor of San Juan Sacatepéquez. If all of this does not work, he says we are in for a long battle. One would think Aragon could have called and done the same thing and we would not have had to hire another attorney. Either Aragon is simply too lazy or too scared of the Ministerio Público because of the investigation.

No Luck with the Ministerio Público

Debbie tried to meet with the Ministerio Público on Wednesday. The Ministerio Público officer had told Debbie he should be able to meet with her, but call to confirm. Mayra kept calling but they told her to keep calling back. We are waiting for a return call from our new attorney to see if he has made any progress and if Debbie should keep trying to meet with the Ministerio Público.

On a Positive Note

OK, we had to post some pictures...

Hannah is SO Dramatic
Waterfall by Lake Atitlán Maximón
Mayan mother weaving
Hannah and Josie riding in her wagon
Hannah being dramatic again

Hannah's new earrings
Hannah and the Bananas Lake Atitlán
Hannah and Daddy at Lake Atitlán
Mommy and Hannah at Lake Atitlán

Update on the Craziness

Debbie went with Mayra on Friday morning to pick up Attorney Aragon and go the Civil Registry Office in San Juan Sacatepéquez to meet with the Supervisor to ask about Hannah’s birth certificate. She left at 5:00AM to get there before anyone else. They met with the Supervisor who informed them they received a letter from the Ministerio Público Office instructing them to turn over any birth certificate requests associated with this physician to the Ministerio Público. She said she could not give us a birth certificate until she gets an approval letter form the Ministerio Público. Debbie found out the name of the officer who has our file and where he is. Attorney Aragon seems unable, or unwilling, to help us other than to say it will be months before the Ministerio Público even look at the file. So we have hired another attorney. He was referred to us by our Corporate Counsel. He speaks English well and believes he can help us. He worked in the Civil Registry for four years and knows people there. Once we have our letter, we should have the birth certificate very quickly. He does not know anyone at the Ministerio Público office so he believes we should be nice and try to convince them to release the file because PGN already approved it. We also learned something about PGN approval. Before PGN releases the file they get approval from the Ministerio Público. We have a copy of their approval. We are hoping between the DNA test, birth mother interview, PGN investigation and the letter from the Ministerio Público, that the Ministerio Público will see there are no inconsistencies and give us the new approval letter, otherwise, the new attorney says the Ministerio Público can hold our file as long as they want and nobody can override them. The new attorney called the Ministerio Público to schedule a meeting but the officer is “too busy” to meet with them until Wednesday. We are praying that they will understand the situation.
Debbie has been looking for another apartment in Antigua because the house will be too big once Jessica and Josie leave. She has spoken to the owner of the apartment where she used to live and will be moving back. It is in town and Kim and Zack will be in the apartment behind her (were Jessica and Josie used to live) so she will have some company, but Kim is getting close to going home also.

What Now?

We have been told today by the Civil Registry in San Juan Sacatepéquez that the Ministerio Público has confiscated our file for investigation along with another Cacacho file. The Civil Registry can not do anything until the file is returned to them by the Ministerio Público. The Civil Registry also said there have been articles in the paper for the past three days about what is going on and they can not help us. They have no idea how long this investigation could take and when the file might be returned. We do not know where to go from here. We believe Aragon should be doing something, but we have little faith in him due to past performance. Mayra is supposed to call him in the morning to speak to him about how we should proceed.
We just want to finish this and bring Hannah home. She is legally our child in Guatemala and we pray that the Ministerio Público can not change that now. Kevin has to go home on Thursday for work and we do not know when he will be able to return.

We have found a newspaper article about Feliciano Hernández, the physician that signed Hannah’s original birth certificate, and why he was arrested. He was the physician that signed the birth certificate for Esther Sulamita, a child who was stolen from her mother and placed for adoption. Her birth mother went on a hunger strike in front of PGN with three other mothers who claim their children were stolen for adoption. Esther’s mother saw her daughter with a woman who was in process of adopting Esther. It was confirmed by a DNA test that it was her daughter. This is the first documented case of a child being stolen for adoption in Guatemala.
We know Hannah’s birth mother voluntarily relinquished her because she is young and unable to care for her. Her family and her new husband do not know she had a child. We are not worried about the physician doing this with Hannah because we have had a DNA test done and birth mother interview with PGN.

Problems Continue

We have been waiting for Monday afternoon to find out more information about Hannah’s birth certificate. We were waiting to find out if the Civil Registry will send the file to be investigated, causing an unknown delay for us, because of the investigation of the physician who signed the birth certificate. We thought the fact that we used our Notary would be helpful since he has a great reputation, but then the newspaper article came out. We continue to pray this will work out. The Civil Registry will not release any birth certificates associated with this physician, Notary or Attorney. We do not know what will happen or how long it will take. We may know more on Wednesday.
Yesterday we went to Lake Atitlán. The weather was beautiful as was the lake. The lake is an old volcanic crater and surrounded by three volcanoes. The water is a blue-green and very clear. We went with Hugo Suarez of Expeditions Guatemala, who is an excellent tour guide. He speaks great English and is very informative. We had breakfast at a local restaurant where we watched the Mayan woman make corn tortilla by hand and cook them on a fire. The food was great. We drove two hours to the lake and took a boat across Lake Atitlán to Santiago Atitlán, a Mayan village. We shopped, toured the town, ate lunch and saw Maximón, a Mayan idol who is very important to the people of Santiago Atitlán. We took the boat back and stopped at a beautiful waterfall before driving home. The trip helped us take our minds off the wait for information about the birth certificate.
It is hard to imagine how bad the poverty is in the less “touristy” areas after seeing so much of it in Santiago Atitlán which is “touristy”. We have seen it in Antigua, but not as much as in Santiago Atitlán.
This morning we had Hannah’s ears pierced by a doctor in Antigua. She is wearing the lilac jade earrings we bought her at the Jade Factory. We bought lidocaine cream to numb her ears and it worked very well. She was more upset about being held down than she was about the piercing. We don’t think she even knew what was happening, other than she was on a doctor’s examination table and could not move. The piercing was a little difficult because the earrings are not sharp on the end to pierce. They just pushed them through anyway and it looked like it would have been very painful without the lidocaine cream. Thank God for the lidocaine cream, we would have never done it without it. Hannah looks beautiful with her new earrings. Kevin will post pictures when he gets home and has a faster internet connection.

EVEN MORE DRAMA...

The following article was in the newspaper in Guatemala today. Keep in mind that Alfonso Cacacho Ralda is our Notary and Luis Roberto Aragon Hernandez is our attorney...

PGN Denounces 19 Notaries

The Congress received a list of professionals involved in anomalies, which will be investigated by the MP. The Attorney General's Office requested the Public Ministry (MP) to investigate 19 notaries whose adoption records contain irregularities. The list of professionals as well as the number of files and description of the alleged anomalies was sent to the deputy Anabella De Leon by the National Council for Adoptions (CNA). Meanwhile, Baudilio Portillo Merlos, of the PGN, explains that while there is asking the intervention agency researcher, does not mean that notaries are guilty, which will be determined by prosecutors. Victor Hugo Castaneda Mejicanos, head of the Traffic in Persons Unit of Children and Adolescents of PGN, confirms the process of request made by him. The document, consisting of 6 pages, includes the names of 19 notaries who submitted records of adoption with irregularities that led to the doubts of PGN and the CNA. For example, the notary Alfonso Cacacho Ralda is marked by three in-process cases that are irregular. In one case, was the record of faction consent of a mother, who did not speak Spanish, to whom she was not facilitated with an interpreter. In addition, the mother who allegedly gave her consent to give her child up for adoption, was minor. It found that the process had other forms with various photographs. And in the third case, it did not have the mother's consent for her son to be relinguished for adoption. Cacacho does not deny the anomalies, but does see that have already been addresses. In addition, he stresses that its role was strictly notary, because the cases are of lawyer Luis Roberto Aragon Hernandez, who was confirmed, although it does not accept that irregular processes are his sole responsibility. Another notaries listed in the roster is Mario Jorge Sum Santiago, also with three in-process cases. One of them, for having handled an adoption in which it was found that the girl had been taken stolen from her mother in March 2007. The second case concerns that the documentation contained inaccuracies in data as having the address of someone who looked after the child. In addition, in another case there are doubts about the identification of the mother. The attorney ensures that cases have already been clarified. Three Lawyers have equal numbers of in-process cases with anomalies that could reveal crimes.

We are not sure what this will mean for our case. Now the physician who signed Hannah's birth certificate, our Notary and our Attorney are all under investigation. What next?

More Drama

Our Final Adoption Decree is complete. The Notary signed it Wednesday afternoon and Mayra took it to the Civil Registry in San Juan Sacatepéquez for the new birth certificate. Now our next problem; the physician that signed Hannah’s original birth certificate is under investigation for signing fake birth certificates. Our contact at the Civil Registry told Mayra the file may be sent to Public Ministry (the equivalent of the FBI in Guatemala) for investigation. We know Hannah was born in Coban, but Aby and Rosita filed her birth certificate in San Juan Sacatepéquez because it is much closer to Guatemala City. This may be the reason PGN looked so hard at her birth certificate. We know the birth certificate is correct except for the city because DNA was tested. Our contact told us it may be ok because the birth certificate went through PGN investigation and they approved us and our Notary, who signed our Decree, is known as a very honest person. She also told us that she received 22 requests for birth certificates yesterday and ours was the last one submitted, but it would be the first one she worked on. Friday is a holiday in San Juan Sacatepéquez so we won’t know anything new until Monday.

Some Progress and Alot of Rain

Attorney Aragon told us he submitted our Power of Attorney to the court on Thursday morning and it would be ready on Friday morning so the Notary could sign our Final Adoption Decree. Once the Decree is signed, we can apply for Hannah’s new birth certificate. We planned on applying for it Friday so we could have the birth certificate by Wednesday of this week. We called Attorney Aragon on Friday morning to see if we could pick up the Final Adoption Decree to get the birth certificate. He stated the Notary did not come by to sign it yet. We called later in the morning and he said the same thing. We called the Notary to find out why he didn’t sign it and he said he went to Aragon’s office at 8:30AM and it was not ready. Caught in a lie, Aragon promised it would be ready by 1:00PM. We called back and Aragon said the court had not released it yet and it would be ready first thing Monday morning. We made several calls on Monday, but Aragon kept saying the court had not released the Power of Attorney. This morning, Kevin went to the court to find out when it would be released and why it was taking so long. He was told the courier did not submit the paper until Monday after 3:00PM and it would be ready after 3:00PM today. He then went to Aragon’s office to confront him about his courier trying to extort money from us to get our PGN file and question him if the courier did not submit the POA until yesterday afternoon because we did not pay the courier. Aragon stated the court was incorrect and it was submitted Thursday but it had a problem and was just fixed. He stated he trusted his courier completely and he denies we were ever asked for money. We had the courier come in to the meeting and he denied knowing anything about asking for money. Aragon seemed angry that we would make such an accusation, but promised he would call us this afternoon because it will be complete today. We will see. If we get it today, we will apply for the birth certificate tomorrow morning.
On Saturday we went on a tour of the coffee plantation, macadamia nut farm and the As Green as It Gets project. They were all very interesting. It started to rain so we did not go to see the Cross on the hill. Debbie and Jessica went to Antigua to get massages on Sunday. It really rained hard while they were gone. Some of the roads were flooded and they had to ride a Tuk-tuk back to our house. It was quite an adventure driving over hills and sidewalks and on dirt roads through the rivers of rain water. The rain lasted all night and 17 people were killed in Antigua from landslides.
While writing this we were told by Mayra that Aragon now has our Power of Attorney and we can pick it up tomorrow morning. The Notary will be there to sign the Final Adoption Decree at 8:30AM and we can apply for the birth certificate. We hope to have it by Tuesday morning so we can get things done before Kevin goes home for a few days. We should be able to do everything, including the 2nd DNA, in one or two days before he goes home. Mayra also told us other than for translating the documents, we are able to do everything else ourselves, including submit paperwork to the US Embassy.
We would like to congratulate Kim and Steve. They went to PGN with Mayra this morning and they are approved and their file is now with Aragon.

File Released, but with Drama

First thing this morning we were calling Mayra to see if the courier had picked up our file from PGN. The courier kept saying it was not ready for pick-up. PGN kept telling us it was at the window to be picked up. At about 2:00PM we had enough and Debbie went back to PGN to find out what was going on. She got there and there it was waiting to be picked up. The courier claimed he was there three times and it was not ready. PGN said he never came in. Without going into details, it appears the courier was trying to get $1500 from us to get the file. The courier said he was too busy to get it now. Only the attorney or his courier are supposed to pick up files. Everyone but one person had left PGN and they had turned out most of the lights. Debbie was not leaving without the file. Debbie was VERY persistent and finally convinced PGN to release the file to her just as they were closing. Just as she was leaving PGN, David, our reviewer pulled up in his car and told her congratulations. She brought it to Attorney Aragon’s office after he closed but he waited for her. He will file the Power of Attorney tomorrow, but it looks like there won’t be time to apply for the birth certificate tomorrow. It will have to wait for Monday. Three more wasted days because of greedy people, but we are getting closer to bringing Hannah home.

A Little Delay (we hope)

PGN has not released our file yet. It has been approved, as Debbie saw the Director sign off, but they made a typo and they had to correct it before they released it today. Unfortunately, the "data entry person" who has to log it in the computer was not at work today, so they can not release it until she comes back. It should be tomorrow. We will get the file to Attorney Aragon so he can file the Power of Attorney with the court and then give us our Final Adoption Decree. The decree must be presented to request the new birth certificate. Once we have the birth certificate with our names on it, things should go quickly.

OUT OUT OUT! Adiós PGN!

Debbie went to PGN this morning with Mayra. She talked to the Director and she kept her word and WE ARE OUT OF PGN after four months and four days!!! Attorney Aragon is working on the Final Adoption Decree right now. Aragon can pick up our file tomorrow because PGN made a typo on the approval, but we are out. Thursday we are going to try to get Hannah’s new birth certificate. We hope they will give it to us quickly because they made the mistake that got us kicked out of PGN on July 4.
The PGN Director told Debbie to post on the forums that she encourages families to come in to speak with her and check on the status of their files. It seemed to work for us and Jessica.
Thank you to everyone for their prayers. Please say a prayer for the other families still waiting on PGN approval; we know how difficult the wait is.

PGN Update

On Friday, we had Mayra call David (our PGN reviewer) four times to see if he has received our file. She called at 9AM, 11AM, 2PM and 4PM. David called the Director’s secretary, and she told David she did not know anything about our file, so Mayra had to call the secretary to remind her of who we were. She said she did remember and called David. He finally received our file at the very end of Friday so we would have to wait all weekend to find out any more information. Today (Monday) we learned David has approved our file and sent it to his supervisor for review. The file then goes to the Director after the supervisor reviews and approves it. Debbie is leaving at 8:30AM Tuesday morning with Mayra to go to PGN and plead with the Director to sign off and approve our file.

Maybe Good News

Monday Kevin came back down to Guatemala. It was Hannah’s 18 month birthday. We had brownies and ice cream to celebrate Kevin’s and Hannah’s birthday.
We have been pretty down about the previo from PGN. We worried it would set us back months. The problem with Hannah’s birth certificate was the birth mother’s ID was written incorrectly. It said the ID was from the wrong city. Mayra went to the Civil Registry and they wrote a letter stating it was their mistake to submit to PGN. We met with attorney Aragon on Tuesday about our previo. We looked at our file and found Hannah’s medical report was now expired. We rushed to an Embassy approved physician to get a medical certificate so we could be resubmitted on Tuesday. We made it back to attorney Aragon’s office on time and we were resubmitted to PGN on July 8.
Debbie and Jessica went to PGN today to try to plead with them to let us out. Jessica was out for almost one month, but her file was under another pile of files and has been sitting there for a month. They found her file and she is done. Debbie met with “David” our reviewer. He did not have our file. She told him we had been resubmitted on Tuesday. He called to the reception desk and found out our file is sitting there. David told Debbie to bring him the file and he would look at it today. She went to the reception desk to get the file, but they refused to release it to her. She then met with the Director of PGN. She stated she would sign off and approve us today if David had the file, but he does not. She said she would sign it tomorrow if David gets it today and approves it. Mayra called David at 3:30PM and her did not go get the file yet. Mayra is going to call him tomorrow morning to see if he has the file. Debbie will go back to PGN tomorrow to see the Director and ask to be approved. Let’s pray David gets the file tomorrow morning and gives it to the Director.

We are Out of PGN – But Not in a Good Way

We received a previo from PGN today. Hannah’s birth certificate has some sort of error on it. PGN has had the file since November and just told us about this today. We do not know what happens now. Can we fix the mistake and be resubmitted without waiting two more months for PGN approval? Jessica had a previo for a small thing and she has been back in PGN for one month with no word on when she is getting out. We will try to convince attorney Aragon to speak with PGN for us. This is really depressing, especially since we expected to be out today with an approval.

Final Reviewer’s Desk

Luis called PGN today for us and was told Hannah’s file is on the Director’s desk awaiting final signature and we should be out in three to five business days. We were hoping to be out tomorrow for Kevin’s birthday and we could be. We will let everyone know if we hear anything. Kevin is planning to return to Guatemala on Monday unless work changes that.

Waiting for PGN to Release Us

The gate to our house and playground
Hannah and Daddy playing in McDonalds
Hallway in our house

Garden in the middle of our house
Hannah and Josie eating breakfast
"Capitan" our guard dog
Our living room (with blue blankets protecting couches)
Our rooftop terrace
Debbie and Jessica walking in Antigua

Kissing Winnie the Pooh
Ready to go for a walk
Water Volcano from our terrace
The Fire Volcano and Acatenango Volcano from our terrace
The Arch in Antigua

Hannah telling Daddy to sit
Hannah, Josie and Debbie

Kevin went home on Tuesday, almost a week ago for work. He should be returning in a week and will stay until we bring Hannah home. Hannah is over her Croup but Josie now has bronchitis. We hope she gets better soon.
No word on PGN yet. They were closed today for a holiday. We have been told by PGN that files are released 15 to 20 business days after the birth mother interview. Tomorrow is the 17th business day and Friday will be the 20th business day. We pray we will be out this week.

Hannah is Recovering

Hannah is feeling better today. She is slowly getting her voice back and slept last night. She can "growl" again, so she must be feeling better.

We want to congtatulate Stacie; she got out of PGN today. We had our birth mother interview the same day as her. We are waiting for Luis to call us after he calls PGN.

Kevin is going home on Tuesday for work. He should be back soon. We want to be out of PGN before he leaves. He will put some pictures on the blog when he is home and has a faster internet connection.

One Year

One year ago today we first saw pictures of Hannah and fell instantly in love with her. It has been a long year with many ups and downs, but we are getting closer to bringing her home forever. We can not imagine life without her at this point.
Hannah began coughing yesterday evening. She didn’t sleep well last night and today she sounded sick. We took her to a Pediatrician in Antigua. She diagnosed her with Croup. The Doctor told us if she is has not improved by tomorrow she wants to put her in the hospital for treatment. Please keep Hannah in your prayers tonight.

Happy Father's Day

Kevin is celebrating his first Father’s Day with Hannah. It is a great Father’s Day gift to be with Hannah.
Friday we moved to a larger house just outside Antigua with Jessica and Josie. It is a beautiful 4 bedroom, 4 bath house with a real living room, dining room and kitchen. It also has a large playroom for Hannah and Josie and an indoor garden with a fountain. It is in a gated community with a guard (and his dog) at the gate 24 hours a day. It has a rooftop terrace with the most amazing 360 degree view. We can see all three volcanoes, the Water Volcano, the Fire Volcano and the Acatenango Volcano. Also Pacaya Volcano is close by, but our view of it is blocked by other mountains. It makes us appreciate how close we are to them, but it is beautiful. Our internet connection here is not very fast and it won't let us post pictures right now. We will post pictures when we get a better connection early this week (we hope).
Kevin also experienced his first earthquake on Thursday while we were packing. It was a minor (4.7) one. This is the fourth earthquake in the last thee weeks here.
We have not heard anything new from PGN. We are still waiting for Hannah’s file to be released. We pray it gets out without a previo.
Faithful Adoptions has become aggressive with Aby and Rosita, threatening to have them arrested and put in jail. Rosita has washed her hands of all the adoptions and has disappeared with all the information on the location on the children and birth mothers. Luis is trying to assist several families locate them. We are glad Luis found Hannah’s birth mother in time for the PGN interview, but our hearts go out to the families still looking. We have learned Rosita and Aby have recently been “fired” from other agencies they worked with due to their scams to get money. We also found out about a church in Arizona that has given tens of thousands of dollars to them for the orphanage/soup kitchen/school in Coban that just found out that nothing was built with the money. The church sent missionaries to Coban to pour the foundation, and that is all that has been done. We guess they kept that money also.
On Saturday Luis, Lannie and Kimberly came to visit us in Antigua. We enjoyed the visit and it made us feel a little more normal to have company. We went to the Santo Domingo Monastery for dinner. The food was wonderful and the hotel is beautiful. It was built in 1544 as a monastery and is now a hotel and museum. After we got back to our house, we sat on the rooftop terrace and watched the Fire Volcano erupt. It was so pretty. We could actually see the lava spewing up in the air. We sat for hours watching this.

Waiting on PGN

Busy streets of Antigua

Artisans’ Market in Antigua
Debbie and Jessica at McDonalds
Chicken Buses at market
McDonalds outside seating and courtyard
Inside McDonalds

Hannah sitting on her fireplace
See my teeth?
My "pup-pup"
Reading the newspaper in the market
Hannah loves the fountains

We are waiting for PGN to release Hannah’s file. No one knows when PGN will release files. They released about 230 last week. One of those was one from our agency, so this gives us hope. We added up the cost to get the birth mother to the PGN appointment. It totaled $6000.00! It is worth every penny to get our little Princess home. She is the most adorable little girl and we could not imagine life without her.
Hannah is walking unassisted around the apartment. She takes the smallest steps when she tries to carry toys in both hands while she walks. It is really cute. She is so busy. She is always on the go.
We have just been walking Antigua everyday to get of the little apartment. It is a beautiful city surrounded by mountains and volcanoes. The weather has been bad for about two weeks. We have hardly seen any sun. It is the rainy season, but this is depressing. We leave for a walk and browsing in the markets in the morning and Hannah falls asleep in her stroller about noon. Her ride is very bumpy because the streets are cobblestone and the sidewalks are very narrow and have big drops and steps. We would not recommend any strollers without the big tires. The streets can get very busy so we have to go on and off the sidewalks often. Some sidewalks are two feet higher than the street. It is usually raining before we get back.
There are many Mayan people in Antigua wearing the traditional clothing. Many Mayan children sell things in the street and are very persistent. Almost all of them know how to speak enough English to try to get you to buy from them. We bought some tapestries from one Mayan girl on the way to Freda’s Restaurant the other day. Five more Mayan girls came up and wanted us to buy the same things from them. We were on our way into the restaurant and one of them followed us in. We tried to politely say “No, gracias.” The girl persisted and finally said “You crazy. Stingy. Cheap” as she marched out of the restaurant. It is really sad these children have to live this way.
We took Hannah to McDonalds yesterday but she fell asleep before we got her there. The McDonalds is huge and very pretty. It is nothing like McDonalds in the US. We have posted some pictures of the inside and the courtyard at McDonalds. Hannah loves the fries. She eats very well. She really loves beans which are readily available here.
We have eaten at several local restaurants during our walks. The food has been very good. The Artisans’ Market has many interesting local crafts. We have bought some to decorate our home and to give to Hannah when she is older.
The mosquitoes are really bad here; they even get into the apartment somehow. All this rain makes them worse. Debbie and Jessica are looking for a house to rent together before Jessica’s two boys come down for the summer. It will be nice to be able to visit in a common living room and dining room. Her apartment is leaking and her refrigerator keeps breaking down. We are going to look at another place today.
Please continue to keep all of the adopting families in your prayers. They need it.

One Wild Ride

Yesterday we had Hannah’s birth mother appointment at PGN. We made it through without a problem. Thank God! Everything leading up to it was crazy though.
Kevin arrived at La Casa Grande hotel in Guatemala City Wednesday afternoon. Debbie and Hannah were already there. We were told we needed Hannah’s original foster mother to go to the PGN appointment also. According to her paperwork, it was a woman named Ester. We have never heard of her. Luis hired someone to find her home in Mixco Wednesday night. Thursday morning Luis went to her house at 7AM. He knocked on the door but nobody would answer. He knew someone was home because the car was there. He laid on the sidewalk out of view for two hours until someone peeked through the peephole window. He jumped up and began banging on the door begging Ester to talk to him. She finally relented and spoke with him. She told him she would not go to the PGN appointment because of all the harm Aby and Rosita did to her and her family. While Luis was trying to convince Ester to come to the PGN meeting, our attorney, Lic. Aragon, called Debbie and told her the foster mother refused to come to the appointment. She would have to go as the foster mother, but this would cause problems because she was not on the paperwork PGN currently had. Luis called us and told us he was still working on Ester and he though he could get her to come. After a while, Luis gained her trust and she let him in and told him the whole story. Ester and her family became close with Hannah. Her two daughters would sing to Hannah and play with her. She had fostered Hannah from April 2007 until September 2007. Aby had told us Hannah lived with her birth mother until September 2007 and Miriam was her only foster mother. Hannah was very sick when she came to Ester and her family paid all of her medical expenses. Aby and Rosita promised to reimburse her and pay her for fostering Hannah. When we went to visit Hannah on our first trip, Aby picked Hannah up from Ester and brought her to us at La Casa Grande. Ester and her family wanted to meet us, but Aby told them no. Aby never brought Hannah back to Ester and her family and never paid them or reimbursed them for her expenses. Ester said she and her family were very hurt. Aby never gave them a reason and would not talk to her. Luis did convince her that she would be hurting Hannah and not Aby by not coming to the appointment. She agreed to come, but only for a substantial amount of money to reimburse her and for her family’s pain. It did seem somewhat fair. Luis drove her from Mixco to La Casa Grande in Guatemala City to meet us. On the way, Aby’s husband, Mario, called Ester and told her that Luis was a bad person and she should not go to the PGN appointment. She did not listen to him due to her disgust for Aby and Rosita. We met her at La Casa Grande. She was very pleasant and we had lunch together. We did not feel like eating due to nerves because if this appointment did not go well, the adoption could be ended. Ester insisted we all eat. Debbie, Kevin and Luis ate the toast with butter and jelly Ester prepared for us at the restaurant. It is considered an honor to serve food to your guests, even if we are in the restaurant at our hotel.
We wanted Hannah to play with her so Hannah would not act like she did not know her at the PGN appointment. This would have seemed suspicious to PGN. It was past Hannah’s nap time and she could not hold out any longer and fell asleep. We let her sleep for an hour while Luis went to pick up the birth mother. We woke Hannah up and gave her to the foster mother to ride with Luis, the foster mother, the birth mother and her uncle to PGN. The appointment was at 2:00. It was very sad to hand her over because if the appointment didn’t go well, Hannah would not come back with them. We also had to hire a “PGN attorney” to represent the birth mother at the appointment. Apparently he used to work at PGN and this would be to our benefit. We could not take the suspense any longer and called Luis at 3:45 to ask how things were going. He said the attorney said things were going well and it should be over in about 15 minutes. The next 45 minutes were unimaginably long. After about 30 minutes we stared to worry things had not gone well and Luis did not want to give us terrible news over the phone. Sally, our coordinator for Faithful Adoptions, who came to Guatemala to look into all the problems with Aby and Rosita, called Luis from La Casa Grande. She stared to ask him about our case and walked around the corner from us. We heard her yell “Yes!” and we knew things had gone well. Luis then called us and told us they just got out of the interview and he was bringing Hannah back to us at the hotel. Hannah had slept through the whole PGN appointment. We were so relieved to be past this huge hurdle. Thank you to everyone for your prayers! We gave the birth mother and Ester roses. We also gave the birth mother a bracelet that she loved and Ester a necklace she complimented Debbie on. We gave them both their money. Luis had to bring the birth mother and her uncle to somewhere in Guatemala City to visit friends. During the drive, Luis learned that she was in Coban all along. Rosita had instructed the person we paid to look for her in Coban and in El Petén to not find her but to take the money for looking for her from us. Another scam. Thousands of dollars spent to find the birth mother who was right in Coban all along. As frustrating as this is, we don’t care anymore because we will not need the assistance of Aby, Rosita, the birth mother or the foster mother anymore. The appointment is done and we now wait for PGN to release the file. They did release about 230 files today.
Luis came back after he dropped off the birth mother and her uncle. He had to take Ester back to Mixco, which is on the way to Antigua. We decided to ride along with her to go to the apartment in Antigua where Hannah would be familiar with everything. Ester invited us in so her family could see Hannah again. Ester’s family was very nice and was extremely interested to see and play with Hannah. We immediately recognized the home from Hannah’s referral pictures and a video. Ester insisted we eat and cooked us some customary Guatemalan food. It was potato and beans in a rectangle with a piece of chicken in the center served on a banana leaf. It was pretty good. We showed them many pictures of Hannah from our visits. Luis then drove us to Antigua. Jessica was happy to see us back. Hannah went to sleep and the three of us sat outside for a while to unwind after a very stressful day. Hannah started to run a fever before she went to bed. She had a very stressful day also.
We would like to give a special thank you to Luis for all of his hard work. Adoptions are not his business; he runs a transportation and tourism company. He has gone above and beyond assisting us in our case. We would never bring Hannah home without his help. He has become our trusted friend and advocate in Guatemala. Thank you Luis! If any other adopting families want to contact him, please let me know and I will share his contact information.
Please also keep the many other adopting families in your prayers. Many of them are in similar situations as us, and some much worse.

Progress

We are making progress in the adoption. Luis has been a lifesaver. We do not know where we would be without him. We will explain more later. Kevin is going to Guatemala tomorrow for the PGN appointment and to try to help move things along. We will let everyone know how things go Thursday.

Not in Coban

Hannah’s birth mother was not located in Coban. Her stepmother says she left 8 days ago to go to El Petén which is 10 hours away from Guatemala City and is 12,960 square miles, larger than the state of Maryland (can you say needle in a hay stack?). Luis has no idea where she could be there. He is trying to contact the man who knows the birth mother and walked for two days to the village to find her. Luis is going to try to hire him to go to El Petén to look for her. Our appointment at the PGN is Thursday and we are cutting it close. Prayers are welcome.

PGN Appointment Scheduled

We have Hannah’s birth mother’s PGN interview scheduled for Thursday. We pray Luis can find her before that. Luis is supposed to pick her up in Coban on Saturday. We will pay for her and a translator to stay in Antigua until her appointment. We will also pay for their lost wages during this time. Luis left the translator/local in Coban to travel to the outlying village the birth mother lives in. Apparently it takes days to travel to the village from Coban. They must cross rivers and other obstacles. We will know more tomorrow. Please also keep the other families in your prayers as many of them are in similar situations.
Faithful Adoptions seems to have come to the understanding that Aby and Rosita are the cause of the problems and seem to be working for all of the families. We have had more communication from them in the last week than we have in the last two years. Lets pray things are moving forward.

Luis To The Rescue

Luis called someone in Coban who speaks the Mayan language who also knows where Hannah’s birth mother is. Luis left this morning to pick them up in Coban and travel to the village where she is at. It may take a few days for them to get from Coban to the outlying village, so we wait to hear from Luis. Luis will call us and let us know how things are going. We just pray they find her and bring her back to Guatemala City for the appointment. It will still cost us $1500 to find out where the birth mother is, but it is well worth it to bring Hannah home. We will also have to pay for the contact person’s days off of work, hotel and food for the birth mother and the contact person and Luis’s time and costs. We also have to pay the birth mother for money she was promised by Aby and Rosita but never received from them. I guess this was the other $1500 Aby and Rosita wanted. This really makes us believe the foster mother Miriam was telling us the truth that she was never paid either. Where did all of this money go?
Debbie and Myra are meeting with our attorney in Guatemala today. He is going to Antigua to meet them. Maybe he will have good news about how we are to proceed. We worry he is too close with Rosita to really help us much, but we will see. He called Luis last night with Rosita in his office and scolded him for working with us without Rosita being involved. This is strange because Rosita told us she was through with the adoption and Luis would have to find the birth mother without her help. Does she want to help now?

What To Do Now?

Rosita has told Luis that she will no longer assist us with the adoption, and therefore, it is effectively over. She is doing this in response to Faithful Adoptions’ call to her. We do not know what was said in the phone call to cause her reaction. We are really scared right now. If Hannah’s birth mother does not go to the next PGN appointment, PGN will order the Police to take custody of Hannah and put her in an orphanage and the adoption is over. Rosita did give Luis the name and phone number of the contact person in Coban, but he is not sure if she is telling the truth. He is going to try to call tomorrow to try to work something out if she is really the contact person and she answers. He also told us the contact person has a criminal background. This just keeps getting worse by the day.

No Luck Today

Luis and Rosita are on their way back to Guatemala City right now. They are stuck because the road is flooded from all of the rain. They did not find Hannah’s birth mother today. It seems the “contact” person is hiding the birth mother until we give her $1500 for the information on where the birth mother is at. It seems everyone involved is demanding thousands of dollars to do the job we already have paid them for. We just want this done and have Hannah home. Luis and Rosita are going to go back to Coban tomorrow to try to find the contact person because she is not answering her phone anymore.

Coban Search Trip

Luis and Rosita made it to Coban today, but Rosita now says she has to leave early today. So much for the three days she originally said she would go for. They (we) had to hire a Mayan interpreter who speaks Q'eqchi' (Mayan dialect) to speak to the people in Coban. They found the address where Hannah’s birth mother is supposed to live, but no one was there. They are going to lunch then they will try again. Locating her may be difficult as many of the Mayan Indian people are migrant workers. Our paperwork does say Hannah’s birth mother is a housekeeper, so maybe she is working locally in Coban and they will find her. We will keep praying and wait for Luis’ update.

The Good, The Bad, and the VERY Ugly

Jessica moved to Antigua today next door to Debbie and Hannah. This should make things a little more bearable for Debbie and Hannah.
We spoke with Sally from Faithful Adoptions about our situation. She stated Faithful Adoptions is hiring a woman in Guatemala to oversee Aby and Rosita and trying to negotiate a contract with our attorney to take over the adoptions after the cases are done with PGN. This may be difficult as our attorney, we have learned, does not work for us or Faithful Adoptions. He works for Aby and Rosita. Faithful Adoption’s US employees have expressed their anger about the situation, but it does not seem there is much they can do to about it.
Debbie spoke with Aby today and asked her how we came move our case along. She stated she now has no information on where Hannah’s birth mother lives. Funny how her husband has been there before and knew the address the other day, but now nobody knows where it is. Aby stated the only way to find out is to have Luis drive Rosita and Debbie to Coban to find Aby and Rosita’s “contact” there. It must have become much safer there since last week when they said it was too dangerous. She says if we find the “contact” we will have to “tip” him to “help” us find the birth mother. We have to get her assurance that she will come to the next PGN appointment. Aby told us if the birth mother does not come to the next appointment, PGN will order the Guatemalan Police to take custody of Hannah, put her in an orphanage and terminate our adoption. We are terribly scared. Aby and Rosita seem so cavalier about the whole situation while it is tearing our hearts apart. Their stories keep changing and the threats of Hannah never coming home keep coming from the people we pay to help us and the only people who have any control over everything.
Luis says he is uncomfortable bringing Debbie to Coban as he is unsure of Aby and Rosita’s intentions. Many people in Guatemala that Debbie has spoken to tell her Aby and Rosita are criminals and only care about the money, not the children. We still worry if Aby wants to take Hannah away from us and is purposely creating problems for our adoption.
Rosita told Luis she is willing to go anytime tomorrow. Luis offered to leave at 4:00AM to give them more time. Rosita stated she would not be able to leave until 8:30AM. Luis agreed. Rosita then said she would not be able to leave until after noon. Luis agreed. Rosita than told Luis she would not be able to go tomorrow at all. Now she says she can go on Sunday at 4:00AM. She also says it will take 3 days once she gets to Coban to find the birth mother. Luis has agreed to spend the 3 days in Coban for us. He has been such a great help. We will have to pay Luis for 3 days in Coban to bring Rosita to look, plus driving fees and our “tip” to the “contact” (as Aby put it) and “other” fees for Aby and Rosita all on top of the thousands of dollars of “incentives” they just had demanded of us last week so Aby and Rosita would do their jobs that we have already paid them for. Aby and Rosita have recently began extorting money from families starting with a few hundred dollars to complete tasks, then $500, now they are demanding families pay thousands of dollars for them to complete small tasks, i.e. deliver a document to an office. These are not part of the final fees we still have to pay according to our contract. Aby and Rosita have control of our children and we can not tell them no, and they know that. The new Hague laws meant to prevent possible corruption in the system are causing more corruption.

Absolute Disgust

Aby called Debbie late tonight to tell her, oops, she forgot Hannah’s birth mother really is in Coban after all. She must have imagined she talked to the birth mother today in Guatemala City. Aby says the appointment will be cancelled tomorrow and we have to wait for PGN to schedule another one. We pray it will not be put at the end of the 2900 other appointments. Luis offered to drive out to Coban and back tonight (a trip that would take all night) to get her so we could have our appointment, but Aby said no. She claims it would be too dangerous for anyone but Aby’s husband to go and only he knows where the birth mother lives. It seems Aby’s husband knew the address and where to find her all along, but Aby didn’t have that information to help us send still doesn’t. Is this the prelude to the next scam? It is difficult find words to express our disdain for Faithful Adoptions at this point. We just want our daughter home.

PGN Appointment Back On

We have our appointment back. Aby now tells us Hannah’s birth mother just happened to be in Guatemala City after we talked to her. We are completely disgusted with our agency. We can not discuss what we were forced to do to help Aby “remember” Hannah’s birth mother just happened to be in Guatemala City, not Coban, today but we were told by Aby that this was the only way we would be able to finish the adoption. Aby and Rosita told us that if we did not meet their "demands" Hannah's adoption would never be completed. It looks like we have no other option. We are just thankful we still have our appointment tomorrow.

PGN Appointment Cancelled

The PGN appointment to interview the birth mother has been cancelled because Aby and the attorney are unable to locate Hannah's birth mother. She lived in Coban but Aby stated she does not have an address for her. Debbie spoke with Aby and is waiting for a return call when she has some news. One would think they would have an address for her because they knew for a long time that she was needed for this appointment.

Warning To Antigua Fostering Parents

We can not verify this, but we have just been told PGN employees are patrolling Antigua streets looking for "American" parents with Guatemalan children. We were also told one mother was confronted by PGN employees and had her child taken from her today in Antigua. We do not know the legal ramifications of these seizures, but it is scary. We do not know the specifics of the encounter either. Debbie looked at her paperwork she received from our attorney, and being all in Spanish, we are not sure if it gives Debbie legal right to have Hannah with her or not. It appears to say someone else is the foster mother and Hannah is in the process of being adopted by Debbie. This is scary, and may prevent Debbie from leaving the apartment with Hannah until she is out of PGN and legally our child. We will post more when we know more.

Good News - PGN Appointment Set

Luis brought Debbie the paperwork from the attorney so she can legally foster Hannah. Luis had good news for us. His news was that Hannah's birth mother's interview appointment with PGN is Friday at 11:00 AM. From what we understand, our file should be "approved" after the interview. PGN still has not released any of the "approved" files. Some believe they may hold all the files for the full month, until the beginning June sometime. Others believe they were going to start releasing "approved" cases this week. Nobody seems to know. Nobody ever seems to know what PGN will do, even PGN. It would make the process easier if PGN would disclose their plans, even if it was not what we wanted to hear. At least we would know what to expect and not constantly have surprise delays.
We have not been asked for extra money for her to get from Coban to Guatemala City and back again yet. We are nervous about the appointment, but we have heard all of the previous appointments have gone well. We worry what will happen if she does not show up or if there is a problem or she changes her mind after she sees Hannah. Aby has told us that the birth mother has been cooperative during the whole process.

First Steps

Yesterday Hannah took her first steps all by herself. She actually took two steps. She was pushing her laundry basket across the floor and decided she wanted to go to Mommy. She turned around and took two quick steps to Debbie. She giggled and giggled after she did it. It won’t be long until she is walking all on her own.
We have finally spoken with our attorney about Debbie’s foster paperwork. He stated it would be completed today. Luis will pick it up and is delivering it to Debbie tonight. Luis told Debbie he had to tell her what the attorney told him about our case, but wanted to do it in person. Now we wait on pins and needles for him to arrive in Antigua from Guatemala City. Please be good news. We could really use some right now.
Also, La Asociacion Defensores De La Adopcion's website has a posting on their website about the new birth mother interviews. It states that all of the first 25 interviews went well, but now they want the birth mothers interviewed by psychologists also. Another delay. We still have not heard about when our appointment is scheduled for. Our attorney says he has not been notified. We pray we will get our appointment soon.

Happy Mother’s Day

We would like to wish all Mothers a Happy Mother’s Day. Debbie is spending it with Hannah in Guatemala. What a great Mother’s Day!
Debbie’s arrival in Guatemala was a bit scary. Aby was acting strangely when she brought Hannah to Debbie, almost like she was not going to give her up. She told Debbie how Hannah has a special place in her heart and how her family loves her so much. She wanted to go to Antigua with Debbie and Hannah and spend some time there with them. She held Hannah for about 45 minutes during the meeting before she would give her to Debbie. Debbie, Luis and Jessica were so concerned she was not going to give Hannah to Debbie that they all left without receiving the paperwork for Debbie to foster Hannah. We now have to contact our attorney to get her paperwork and find out if PGN has scheduled the birth mother interview for Hannah. We heard 100 new appointments were set on Friday. Maybe we are one of them.
Hannah is adjusting well. She is becoming more like herself as time goes on. She loves to walk while pushing a plastic chair or a laundry basket across the floor. She still will not walk on her own, but it is coming soon. Jessica will be moving into the apartment that shares the courtyard with Debbie and Hannah on the 21st of this month. It will make both of us feel better to have a friend of Debbie’s close by. It will also give them the opportunity to venture out and shop together.

Bittersweet Day

Debbie left to foster Hannah in Guatemala this morning. It is incredibly sad and great at the same time. We will miss each other very much, but it is great that Debbie will be able to spend so much time with Hannah.

16 Months

Hannah is 16 months old today! Debbie leaves Friday morning to pick Hannah up and move to Antigua with her, just in time for Mother's Day. We spoke with our attorney yesterday. He told us PGN will be contacting all adoption attorneys on Thursday to schedule appointments with PGN. The adoption attorneys will be required to bring the birthmother to PGN so PGN can interview the birthmothers to determine if they were coerced. PGN will also review the adoption file with the attorney at that time. If there are no “red flags” from the interview and the file is complete, they will sign off on the file and approve the adoption. This may speed up our process or slow us down, depending on when Hannah's appointment is with PGN. We have been in PGN for 58 days.

PGN Announces Delays

We called PGN today. Christina has now taken Laura's position at the PGN. We were told we were still with the second reviewer. Christina also told us that she saw on the news (she was not told this at the PGN) that PGN wanted to interview all birthmothers to determine if they had been coerced. Our attorney and Aby have told us Hannah’s birthmother is very cooperative, so we don’t really worry about our case. According to a story in the Prensa Libre newspaper in Guatemala, PGN is suspending all adoption cases for one month while they investigate the cases. This is bad news for us and many other families. At least Debbie will be there with Hannah for this time, but all three of us will be apart for that much longer. We are excited that Debbie will be with Hannah and she will not have to be in the orphanage, but sad that we will not be together as a family. It is a little scary to think about living in a foreign country, away from family and friends, where one does not speak the language. Moving there is in the best interest of Hannah, which is our paramount concern. We do not want her to be back in the orphanage.

Antigua Video

We found a nice video of Antigua (Thanks Luis!).

PGN Not Releasing Cases

The PGN is not releasing any cases at this time. This was expected because of the changes on personnel. We hope they begin again next week. They have posted this sign on their door:

Also, we would like to thank Sen. Norm Coleman for his support of adoptions from Guatemala. this is an article from his website:

April 28th, 2008 - Washington, D.C. - As Co-Chair of the Congressional Coalition on Adoption, Minnesota Senator Norm Coleman tomorrow will meet with the President of Guatemala, Álvaro Colom, and U.S. Ambassador to Guatemala, James Derham, to discuss how to ensure the completion of Minnesota adoptions underway in Guatemala. They will also discuss how the two countries can move forward in facilitating new adoptions between them in accordance with the Hague Convention requirements. During the meetings, Sen. Coleman will advocate for a smooth transition to the new adoption system and push for assurances that President Colom’s Administration will work to ensure that the adoption cases of Minnesota families already in the process will be finalized. In order to comply with the Hague Treaty on Intercountry Adoptions, the Guatemalan legislature passed legislation in December to establish a new central adoption authority, the National Adoption Council (CNA). The law also included a provision that addressed concerns raised by Coleman with respect to adoptions by U.S. families in Guatemala that were already underway on January 1st, 2008, when the new Hague treaty requirements went into effect. The grandfather clause provision allowed adoptions already underway as of December 31st, 2007 to be completed under the previous adoption system, as long as they are registered with the newly-established CNA. Approximately 3,000 cases have been re-registered with the new authority, although the procedures that will govern the disposition of these cases and future cases are still being developed by Guatemalan authorities. Moreover, President Colom recently replaced the Solicitor General, who is the head of the Procudaria General Nacional (PGN), which was the central agency in processing adoption cases under the old system. As a result, concerns have been raised by families that adoptions currently in process will be put on hold as the transition in leadership takes place. Last November, Coleman traveled to Guatemala to meet with government officials to urge them to pass legislation and other reforms make the adoption system in Guatemala Hague-compliant, as well as identify solutions to protect adoptions already underway for Minnesota families. Since taking office, Senator Coleman has assisted with almost 400 children in their adoptions. Of the 62 children, Coleman helped place in Minnesota families last year, 56 were from Guatemala.

Mommy is Going to Guatemala

We purchased Debbie's plane tickets to Guatemala today. She leaves Friday, May 9, 2008. Luis will pick her us at the airport and take her to shop at the Hiper Piaz for supplies then off to pick up Hannah in Mixco. They will then go to their little home in Antigua until Hannah's adoption is complete. We never have to leave Hannah again! This is exciting and a little sad at the same time. We will miss each other, but this is best for Hannah. We will keep in contact via Skype so we can all see each other.

Day Nine

Jessica, Josie, Hannah and Mommy
Playing with Josie
Showing Josie my teeth
Playing with bubbles

Sick little girl
"Working" with Freddy
Daddy's Hat

Kissing Pooh-Bear

Hannah left with Aby tonight at about 9:00 PM. She cried for a little while after she left. Aby called us about 15 minutes later to tell us she was drinking her bottle and stopped crying. We miss her so much. Visiting Hannah is great, but leaving her is terrible. Debbie will be back to foster Hannah in about two weeks.

Hannah's word for this trip is "tickle tickle". She loves to say it. She just says it all of the time, sometime she even tries to tickle Mommy, Daddy or one of her toys. She played with her bubbles (from Auntie Reene's wedding - thank you) outside today. She played with Josie and played hide-and-go-seek with Josie's toys under Josie's walker. And Hannah walked, and walked. Up and down stairs again and again. She loves to walk. She spent time "working" with Gloria and Freddy at the front desk of the hotel. She moved everyrthing on the desk and then puts it back where it was. The hotel phone rang and Freddy picked it up and put it to her ear. She talked for a minute to whoever it was before Freddy answered. She then picked up the fax telephone and started talking on it while sitting in Freddy's lap. It was really cute - wish we had the camera then. Hannah also found Daddy's hat. She thought it was fun to put it on and take it off. She also learned to drink from a straw today. We used to put the straw full of juice in her mouth and let a little into her mouth at a time. Today she drank from the straw while it was in the glass of pineapple juice. This is the only way she drinks juice. Hannah does not believe anythink other than milk belongs in her bottle.

Hannah didn't sleep well last night. Her cough woke her up and she cried for awhile. She finally fell asleep on the bed with us. She took a long nap this afternoon with Mommy and Daddy.

We fly home tomorrow at 12:20 and arrive at 5:05PM (two hour time difference). We miss Hannah so much. :(

Day Eight

Courtyard at Mommy and Hannah's Antigua house

Kitchen in Mommy and Hannah's Antigua house
Fireplace in Mommy and Hannah's Antigua house
Bedroom in Mommy and Hannah's Antigua house

Hannah telling Mommy about the cobblestone streets
Hannah and Mommy walking in Antigua

Hannah napping in the van

Ruins in Antigua
Old building at Central Park in Antigua

Juan flew back home to Miami today. He was alot of help with translating and calling PGN for us. Today we went to Antigua with Luis and Jessica to look for an apartment for Debbie and Hannah. Guatemala City is in a valley surrounded by mountains. To get to Antigua, one has to go up steep roads and then back down. Some parts were a little scary. The ride takes about 45 minutes. Luis kept us safe though.

Antigua is beautiful. It has many colonial building build in the 16th Century. Many are in disrepair, but are still beautiful. The roads are cobblestone and one can not drive very fast. It sits at the base of three volcanos. the "Fire Volcano", the "Water Volcano" and "Acatenango". We visited the market and the Jade Factory. Hannah was flirting with everyone in the Jade Factory. Several employees picked her up and showed her around - two of them even showed her the ATM machine which she liked too much. There was some very nice jewelery there. Debbie bought an Adoption Ring, Kevin bought a jade ring and a pendant with Hannah's Mayan birth symbol, and Hannah bought a jade bracelet. We also went to McDonalds for lunch. It was a beautiful McDonalds; it even has a large courtyard with a fountain, but the food was the same.

We looked at several placs to rent, and decided on a little apartment for Mommy and Hannah. The area is quiet and gated. There is a little courtyard behind it where Hannah can play.

Hannah took her first step by herself since we have been here. Well, it was just a little step, but a big one for her. She loves to walk but she needs the security of someone's finger to hold on to. If you let go, she stops and refuses to move. She will take anyone's finger and walk and she will do anything to walk - throw her toys on the floor and point at them. Once she is down, she is off walking.

Day Seven

Hanging out with Mommy
See how well I can stand?

Hannah's friend Raoul

More playing with Juan

Our attorney was out of town today and was unable to meet with us, so we were unable to go to PGN. We were able to meet with our attorney's son. He works with his father and knows the status of the cases. Aby, Rosita and the attorney's son met with us at the hotel. They told us our case was doing well and not to worry. The attorney's son told us he would call us today to schedule a visit to PGN today to show us our file and to find out exactly where we were in the process. He never called us. Aby and Rosita were asking us for money for the orphanage. They said they needed $800 to buy a dryer.

The newspapers in Guatemala today had articles about the head of the PGN being fired by President Colom. We were also told Mr. Barrios' last day was today. The article stated he has been holding up cases and his desk is covered with piles of cases awaiting just his signature. The news article also stated PGN is only supposed to be a three day process, not this crazy never-ending mystery. People in Guatemala have told us this is a good thing that Mr. Barrios is gone. We will see.

Hannah seems to be getting a little sick. When she came to us she had a runny nose and a little cough. Each morning she seems sick when she wakes up, but is better shortly after. Today she was cranky at times and has more of a cough. Tonight she seemed a little warm. She did not fall asleep until 10:30 PM. We may have to take her to the doctor before we leave on Friday.

Tomorrow we are going to Antigua to look for an apartment. Luis is driving us and Jessica to Antigua in the morning. Jessica has been fostering at La Casa Grande since March 11. She is also interested in staying in Antigua. We hope Hannah is not too sick for the trip.

Day Six

Hannah with wonderful Luis

Going for a ride with Mommy, Daddy and Luis

Hannah playing with Juan

Gloria put Hannah to work at the front desk of La Casa Grande

Our friend Juan arrived today from the US to be an advocate/translator for us. We called PGN about coming to visit. They told us we could come to PGN, but we would not learn anything more than what Christina tells us unless our attorney comes with us. If our attorney is with us, they will show us our file and explain exactly where we are in the process. Christina told us we are still with the second reviewer. We decided to not go today, but we will meet with our attorney in the morning. We will ask him to go to PGN with us. If he can't, we will call Mr. Barrios to see if we can meet with him.

Yesterday La Casa Grande had about 35 young teenager futbol players staying at the hotel. They are from local Mayan villages and come to Guatemala City to play in tournaments. They were a little loud - a little different then usual at this hotel. They all seemed so excited. We hope they did well in their tounament. La Casa Grande used to be only for adopting parents, but with the adoptions ending they have to look for other business. The hotel is still usually only adopting parents. It is sad to see this end in the hotel. The staff could not be better with the children. This hotel is then best place for visit trips.

We went to San Carlos for dinner this evening. Hannah is such a ham. She continues to be more like herself every day. She was "flirting" with the waiter. He picked her up and walked around carrying her and playing. Then he made the mistake of letting her walk while she held on to his finger. Once she starts, she never wants to stop. They walked and walked around the resturant. She giggled and laughed at everyone she passed. It was very cute.

We went to visit the hogar today with another couple adopting through Faithful Adoptions. We are not going to post any pictures of the hogar, the children or the area it is in for privacy and safety concerns. It is an orphanage in a third world country, but I think it is the best Rosita and Aby can do with what they have. It was heart-wrenching to visit. You want to do so much more for these poor children. The whole thing really makes your heart sink. We know they are doing what they can, but it is very hard to think about our daughter living there. There were many children there who have not been adopted and may never be adopted. There are some very young children, and some older children and some with special needs. It is hard to imagine many of these children will never get out. The orphanage in in a bad area of Mixco and a little scary just friving through there. It is incredibly sad to see these children in the hogar. Almost everyone of them had bald spots on the back of their heads from laying on their backs all day in the cribs. Many of them were wet. They don't use diapers, disposable or cloth. They use cut-up sheets. Seeing this hogar just makes your heart hurt and makes you feel like vomiting. It was an experience that will, unfortunatly, live in our memories for the rest of our lives. We just pray Hannah does not remember.

After seeing the orphanage, we decided Hannah can not live in the hogar any longer. Debbie is moving to Guatemala as soon as possible. Aby said she would bring Hannah to her house to live until Debbie moves to Guatemala. We gave her bags of clothing, toys and food to take care of Hannah and paid her well for this.

Day Five

More Walking with Mommy
Hannah's Car
Getting Ready for my Nap

Hannah continues to become more and more like herself. It makes us feel so much better to see this, but makes us dread letting her go back to the hogar even more. We are going to the hogar tomorrow to check it out. We are also going to PGN on Monday. Tuesday we are meeting with our attorney. Wednesday we are going to Antigua to look for a apartment for Debbie to foster Hannah. We have a busy week ahead.

Day Four

National Hero Statue of Mayan Indian
Roar!

Mommy and Hannah at the Zoo

Daddy and Hannah at the Zoo

Mommy shopping at the Market

Kissing my Daddy

Hannah's defensive hand gesture

Today Hannah is much more like her normal self. She is a happy little girl again! She still puts her fingers up to her face defensively when she is approached by strangers.

Today is also Debbie's birthday. To celebrate we went to the zoo and the market across the street from the zoo. We had a great time. Hannah would roar at all of the animals. We felt safe at the zoo and the market. She was so well behaved even two hours past her nap time.

We met another couple adopting from Faithful Adoptions today. It seems most, if not all, of the children being adopted through Faithful Adoptions at at the same hogar.The family is going to the hogar (orphanage) on Monday with Aby. We will probably go along to see the place. We just learned it is in Guatemala City, not Coban as we believed. We thought the video of Rosita Zet said the hogar was in Coban.

Day Three

Hannah talking to Jose

In my tree

Upside down

I like my "Um-ums"

Look at my teeth

Last night about 8:00 PM, Hannah seemed to instantly snap out of her new "attitude". She became much more the happy little girl she has been for all of our visits. She still cries more, but it seems she is happy again. She has 5 (almost 6) bottom teeth and 5 top teeth. She can eat pretty much anything - and has. She still only walks while holding on to one of us. This morning she started calling for Mama and Dada. That was comforting. We are unsure how much of her changes were from lack of sleep and confusion and what was from the changes in the orphanage. The next few days should tell us alot.

We are exploring our options for what we can do. We spoke to Luis again about fostering Hannah until we can have Debbie move to Antigua. We have to speak to our attorney on Tuesday about that. He has final say because he has legal custody of Hannah.

We have heard of some PGN outs from the end of February this week. Maybe we (and our PGN buddy Stacie) are two weeks away. We will keep praying!

Day Two

Sorry we didn't post too much yesterday. We arrived in Guatemala without any problems. After we got to the hotel, Kevin went to the Piaz to buy Hannah supplies while Debbie waited for Hannah. Aby dropped her off and left. She was wearing clothing for a three month old, which is way too small. She was very dirty and even smelled dirty. She has a terrible diaper rash to the point where she is bleeding. She even has lice! As the night went on we noticed she is very shy. This is very different than our last visit. When anyone speaks to her she puts her head down and puts her fingers on her nose. She is not speaking and cries easily. She does not walk either. We expected her to be running when we arrived. She just does not seem like the same child. We know she is, but it is strange. We though it may be that her very regimented sleep schedule was messed up and we would wait until tomorrow to see how she was. This was all was a surprise because her foster mother is great and takes good care of Hannah. We e-mailed Aby to ask if she was still in foster care.

This morning she was still the same as yesterday. Today we received an e-mail from Faithful Adoptions stating they just learned Hannah had been moved to an orphanage. We were assured that we would be notified before they moved her, but this is no surprise from this agency.

We are trying to set up transportation to visit the orphanage. We are waiting to be told where it is. We are also supposed to meet with our attorney on Tuesday. Our employer was nice enough to fly a Spanish speaking employee to our hotel in Guatemala all at their expense. We are also going to visit Christina at PGN while he is here.

This all leads us to push Debbie's timeline ahead for moving to Guatemala. Luis, our wonderful driver and friend, has offered to foster Hannah until Debbie can work out the details for moving here. This is all so confusing. We will let everyone know more when we find out. Until then, we will enjoy our time with Hannah.

Day One

We made it safely to Guatemala to see Hannah.

PGN Status

We have called PGN two more times to inquire about our status. Christina has told us both times that the computes have not been updated, but it looks like we are still with the 2nd reviewer. At least we have not been kicked-out! Maybe we will find out that we are out while in Guatemala. We will be in Guatemala in three days. We get to spend ten days with Hannah. We are looking forward to seeing her again.

Hannah saying Da-Da

PGN Second Reviewer

We had our friend who speaks Spanish call PGN today. We were told Laura does not work at PGN anymore. This is sad because she was the only one who spoke English there. A nice lady named Christina answered our questions in Spanish. She told us Hannah is through with the first reviewer and is with the second reviewer. This is great news. After the second reviewer, the last step at PGN is Mr. Barrios’ sign-off. Maybe Laura was correct, PGN is only taking about a month. Let’s all pray for no previos!

Here is a little video of Hannah from our last trip. She is laughing from the bottom of her toes.

Good News about PGN

We called PGN yesterday and spoke with Laura. She said we were submitted to PGN on November 2, 2007 and received a previo (kick-out) on November 16, 2007. We were resubmitted on March 11, 2008. We are concerned that the updated medical exam has not been submitted with our file and we will receive a previo for that. Hopefully, Aby can submit Hannah’s medical update before we get a previo. Laura also told us that it is taking about a month to get through PGN. We are cautiously optimistic about this. If it is true and we don’t get any previos, we may be in Guatemala when we get out of PGN. Yes, we bought tickets to go see Hannah again. We will be back in Guatemala on April 16 – 25, 2008. We can’t wait so see her again.

Happy Easter

We would like to wish everyone a Happy Easter. We had hoped and prayed Hannah would be home by now. Please keep Stacie in your prayers for a safe pick-up trip as she arrives in Guatemala today to pick up Danilo.

More Delays

How could you not love this little cutie?

We tried to call Laura at PGN today. We were told she would be out for the next week for vacation. We then e-mailed Aby to ask for the PGN case number and date of submission to PGN since she told us we would be submitted 5 days ago. We received an e-mail reply from her stating that she had given Hannah’s medical update to our attorney. Unfortunately since they have not been paid by our agency, our attorney had to get rid of all of his employees and he was working by himself so things will be very slow from now on. She told us that she told our agency this, but we have not heard anything from our agency. Also, PGN will be closed this week and part of next week due to Holy Week.
Before our last trip to Guatemala we received an e-mail from our agency asking for an advance payment of approximately $1000. This would be deducted from our final payment. Initially we didn’t want to send it because we had not seen much progress in our adoption. We told Aby we would give her the money providing she furnished us with proof of CNA registration and proof that Hannah’s HIV test was submitted to the US Embassy so we could get Pre-Approval. We received the CNA registration form and proof of the HIV test submission and we gave her the money while we were in Guatemala. Our agency collected the money from many other families and is holding it until they receive updates on all the children being adopted through them by Aby. Since the agency has not given her the money, we have to wait. We have paid her part of our final payment for services we have already paid for and we are told to wait because they do not have enough money.
It is nice to see other families bring home their children, and we are very happy for them, but it frustrating when we keep seeing other families who began the process months after us bring their children home. We know we still have months left even if there are no more delays or problems. We understand this process is unpredictable (and very trying) but these delays are due to inaction, not bureaucratic red tape and unforeseen problems. We received Pre-Approval two weeks ago we are still waiting to be submitted to PGN. Hannah’s paper is just sitting in our attorney’s office. One would think it would not cost much to drive this one piece of paper to PGN – close by in the same city.
Every day we wait and Aby does nothing is another day we miss with our daughter. This is time we will never be able to make up.

No New News

We tried to call Laura at PGN on Friday. The phone was answered by a woman who we thought was Laura. We were surprised. It was not Laura. She is out sick and will not be back until Monday. We will try to call again Monday to verify if Hannah was submitted to PGN.

Here are a few more pictures from our last trip.

Auntie Rene's Favorite Picture
Come on Daddy, this way!

Ha, Ha!

Hannah's first TV Commercial for baby wipes

PGN Submission?

We were told today that Aby has submitted Hannah’s file to PGN but they require an updated medical form on Hannah. She stated it was done and would be submitted tomorrow. We will try to call Laura at PGN on Thursday or Friday to verify.
We would like to congratulate Stacie. She received “Pink” for Danilo and verified Maysa was submitted to PGN on March 7. We will be PGN buddies.

Pre-Approval for US Embassy

This morning we received Pre-Approval from the US Embassy. It took 90 days, but we finally received it. While we were in Guatemala Aby told us she would submit us to PGN within two days of receiving PA. Come on PGN, let’s get Hannah home!

Day Seven

Hannah has gone back with her foster mother. This is a heart-wrenching time for all of us. Hannah cried as they left and broke our hearts. We had another wonderful day with our Princess as you can see. Every day she gets older and older and it gets harder and harder to leave.
We pushed Aby for answers about being submitted to PGN tonight. She said as soon as we get Pre-Approval, we should be submitted to PGN within days. Time will tell. If not, we will be back in Guatemala to personally push for progress.
More pictures of our little Hannah...

Hannah Burrito

Sitting with Daddy

Our little Princess fast asleep

More walking with Mommy

Tickle, tickle, tickle

Good "Um-Ums"

Hannah Fixing the broken down convertible - again

Feeding Mommy "Um-Ums"

I love my Mommy!

We are sneaking Hannah home in our luggage (we wish!)

HIV Test Submitted

Hannah's HIV Test results were submitted this morning to the US Embassy. Kevin was at the US Embassy at 6:30 AM to be sure he would not miss the attorney's representative at 7 AM. He was the first one into the US Embassy other than the guard. Kevin was supposed to let the "receptionist" know why he was there and who he was looking for. No such luck as nobody that he could find spoke English in the US Embassy. He waited until 9:30 but he could not find the attorney's representative. We called Aby and she said her husband came to the hotel at 8 AM, but left because Kevin was not there (because he was told to be in the lobby of the US Embassy by 7 AM). After a few angry phone calls, Aby said the gentleman who was supposed to meet Kevin at 7 AM was at the US Embassy. Kevin went back and found him. He gave us a copy of the receipt that the test results were submitted. Now we wait for Pre-Approval.
We have heard of more people who have received PGN approval in less than two weeks right now. We hope we are submitted to PGN soon and maybe we can get out soon!
Hannah is going back to her foster mother's home at 8 PM tonight. We will miss her dearly. This is the worst part of the visit trips. We fly home tomorrow afternoon. :(

Day Six

Auntie Rene went home to Florida today. We had another adventurous day with Hannah. She loved sitting by the fountain and pushing her car everywhere. She tried Chinese food for dinner and she really liked it. We are not sure what it was because it is difficult to order Chinese food in Spanish. We had birthday cake with a little boy who turned one today and is waiting for PGN approval. We met them on our first visit trip.

Sitting by the fountain getting splashed

Trying to take her first steps all by herself

Hannah repairing her car

Day Five

Hannah still loves to walk everywhere. She thinks she can walk up stairs with one step on each step even when they are taller than her little legs. We have spent a lot of time walking in circles up and down steps. She also has discovered her voice in an empty dining room. She loves to yell "words" and hear the echoes. She is a very independent little girl.
She still loves her car. We have also made many, many circles in the hallway upstairs and outside in the circular drive in the car. She honks at people, adjusts her mirrors and sometimes talks on her Cinderella cell phone while drinking her bottle. She would sit in the car all day if we would let her. She has special spots on the floorboard of the car for her bottle and cell phone.
We went to the hotel next door for dinner with Auntie Rene. Hannah had her first taste of Fettuccine Alfredo and 7-Up. She loved them both. She made the craziest faces because of the carbonization, but she wanted more. Later she had vanilla and strawberry ice cream for dessert. She made the same crazy faces. It was classic.
We have heard some rumors about PGN "outs" in less than two weeks while we are in Guatemala. We can not verify this, but it is something to pray for. We now hope to be in PGN next week.

OK, we know everyone wants pictures also.... The higher Daddy puts me the better

Big Steps

Texting Cinderella

Pretty Girl in her Convertable

Update on HIV Test Results

We couldn't wait any longer and we called Aby again tonight. She stated the HIV test was not submitted today as planned, but it will be submitted on Thursday. She agreed to let Kevin meet the attorney's representative at the US Embassy on Thursday morning at 7:00AM to witness submission of the test results. It is possible that we could be in PGN next week. We are now on day 82 waiting for Pre-Approval.

Day Four

We were supposed to go to the US Embassy this morning with our attorney's representative. Aby was going to call us last night to set it up. We did not hear from Aby yesterday or today, but we finally got in contact with her this morning when we called her. She stated she would call us right back. More waiting...

Anyway, here are some more pictures from today.Hannah loves her car

Our happy family

Walking with Daddy

Walking with Mommy

Playing on the bed

Day Three

Dancing with Mommy

Feeding Daddy soggy Cheerios

Good Morning juice with Auntie Rene

Laughing from the bottom of her toes

Driving her car with her cell phone

Hannah has discovered she can walk while only holding on with one hand. Now she wants to walk everywhere! She loved the car, but she had to have her drink and her cell phone with her in the car. I see trouble in 15 years :)
We have not heard from Aby yet today about our trip to the US Embassy in the morning. We will see what happens.

Day Two

We didn't post anything yesterday, but we are having a great time with Hannah. She is still such a happy baby. Even after two days, she has not even cried. She loves to play games and picks up things quickly.

We were able to meet with Aby and Hannah's foster mother. Aby says the HIV test has been completed. We are supposed to accompany the attorney to the US Embassy on Monday to witness the HIV test being submitted. She also stated it may be possible to be in PGN on Thursday. Maybe we are making progress!

OK, we know everyone wants pictures, so we have put a few on here.

We are in Guatemala

We made it to Guatemala. Hannah should be here in two or three hours, so we will go to the Piaz with Luis to get supplies.

Central Authority Registration

We have received proof of Hannah’s registration with the Guatemalan Central Authority. This is big news for us. If she had not been registered by the February 12, 2008 deadline, our adoption would have ended pursuant to the Ortega Law. Thank God she was registered. Now we have to wait for Pre-Approval from the US Embassy once the HIV test is done and submitted to the US Embassy. We will check on this tomorrow when we are in Guatemala.
More good news…We will be in Guatemala with Hannah tomorrow morning. Things are very hectic with getting everything at work set for our absence and we still have not packed. We are still at work and hope to get home soon to get ready. We will see you tomorrow Hannah.

Day 75 Waiting for PA

Today we have been waiting 75 days for Pre-Approval from the US Embassy in Guatemala. We do not know for sure if the HIV test has been completed and/or submitted to the US Embassy in Guatemala. We will request that Aby provide us a copy of the HIV test when we arrive in Guatemala on Friday. If it has not been provided to the US Embassy by that time, we will walk it over. We believe that the test will be done and submitted before we arrive because we will be in-country and seen Aby face-to-face. We hope that gives her a little incentive to have it done before we get there. It is just frustrating to have to fight to get each step completed and still have delays.
We will be with Hannah in Guatemala in less than four days. Irene “Auntie Rene”, one of the Nurses we work with, is going with us to meet Hannah. We had planned to have Hannah be a flower girl in Irene's wedding on April 13, 2008, but it does not look like she will be home in time. Congratulations to Irene and Steve.

Ughhh!

Our agency told us the HIV test was not done yet, never mind submitted to the US Embassy. They stated it would be done today, Friday.
We did get one thing accomplished though. We had our FBI fingerprint background clearance authenticated by the Consulate of Guatemala on Thursday. Kevin drove to the Consulate Office in Miami and arrived there at about 3:00 PM, only to find their “working hours” are from 9:00 AM to 2:00 PM. He asked (OK, begged) them to do it anyway and they agreed. They let him in through the back door and through the office to the office of the woman who does the authentications. It was actually a very quick process. The whole thing took about two minutes. The woman was very pleasant and asked if we were adopting and seemed pleased that we were. We would like to thank the Consulate Office for accommodating us when they were under no obligation to do so. We will hand deliver the paperwork to our coordinator in Guatemala next week.

We Spoke Too Soon

OK, so we spoke too soon. The great Ronald Reagan said it best "Trust, but verify". The US Embassy in Guatemala just e-mailed us to say “According our data base, we have not received the answer yet”. So, the HIV test results have not been submitted to the US Embassy as we were told on Monday. We are awaiting an explanation from Faithful Adoptions. This is becoming more and more like the DNA problems every day. We are not even sure if the test was completed. We will be in Guatemala in 9 days and will try to take care of this personally while we are there. All that is required at this point, if the test was done, is to deliver a piece of paper to the US Embassy in Guatemala City, which is next door to the hotel.
On a good note, Faithful Adoptions also told us that all of the families working with them have been registered with the Central Authority, and therefore “Grandfathered” in for the Notarial Process of adoptions. That is great news, if it is indeed accurate. It is difficult to know what to believe anymore.
This entire adoption process has been an absolute emotional rollercoaster. We have felt elation, sadness, anger, optimism, confusion, desperation, frustration, anxiety, betrayal, pessimism, happiness, and definitely love, but never remorse for starting this adoption. The thought of bringing Hannah home keeps us going every day. The journey has been a very trying and protracted one. We still have a long way to go but it will be worth every minute once we have Hannah in our arms forever.
We would like to thank everyone who has kept us in their prayers. We, and all the other families and children, will continue to need them.

The deadline for cases to be registered with the Central Authority expired yesterday at 4:00 PM. All cases not registered will fall under the Hague Convention requirements. The Guatemalan newspapers are reporting that 3000 cases were registered by 11 AM on Tuesday. We are waiting for a registration confirmation from Faithful Adoptions. They stated we were registered, but “proof” would put our minds at ease. If we were not registered, it would most likely be the end of our adoption. The new system put into place by the Berger administration appears to be the end of adoptions from Guatemala. While we are happy for the 3000 or so children who were registered, the future of the children left behind in orphanages without any money looks bleak. These children will need all of our prayers.

HIV Test Submitted

Faithful Adoptions told us on Monday that Hannah's HIV test has infact been submitted to the US Embassy before Monday. This is good news. Maybe we will have some forward progress. For right now more waiting for Pre-Approval.

More Frustration

We were told by our agency that Hannah’s HIV test had been completed prior to January 30 and would be submitted to the US Embassy in Guatemala on February 4, 2008. We sent an e-mail to the US Embassy on February 8 asking if they had received the HIV test. They e-mailed us back and stated “We sent on 1/22/08 an I-72 requesting: HIV test for minor child, no answer has been received yet.” today. We called Faithful Adoptions several times today and, of course, no answer.
This is very similar to the DNA issue where we were told the DNA was done and submitted three weeks before it was actually drawn. We would much rather be told the truth that it has not been done yet and not lied to.

13 Months

Hannah turned 13 months old yesterday. Happy Birthday. We will be in Guatemala again in two weeks from today. We can't wait.

There have been MANY developments, some good, some bad and some just crazy, in the last few weeks with the process in Guatemala that we have not posted. We will summarize them in one post soon.

US Department of State Statement

From the US DOS website:
Guatemala: Registering In-Process Cases with the National Adoption Council
January 2008
The adoption law passed by Guatemala’s Congress on December 11, 2007, permits notarial adoption cases initiated before its effective date of December 31, 2007, to be completed under the old notarial process, provided those cases are registered with the National Adoption Council (CNA), Guatemala’s Hague Convention Central Authority for adoptions, within 30 business days after the effective date of the law. Unless a case has already received a favorable opinion from the Guatemalan Solicitor General’s office (PGN), it still needs to be registered with the CNA to be eligible for processing under the old law. The Embassy, therefore, recommends that prospective adoptive parents confirm with their Guatemalan legal representatives that this registration "Aviso" has been filed with the CNA for their adoption case.
Following receipt of the “Aviso” by the CNA, they will issue a confirmation of registration (“Constancia”). Cases are considered registered and pending only if a “Constancia” has been issued. Filing the “Aviso” with the CNA before February 12, 2008, should be sufficient to register the case, even if there is a delay in issuing the “Constancia.”
Prospective adoptive parents should be aware that the Government of Guatemala is engaged in establishing the CNA and that the definition of “registered case” is still subject to change. Prospective adoptive parents should remain in direct contact with their adoption service providers to ensure that any requirements set forth by the Government of Guatemala are being met.

No Pre-Approval

Today we received an e-mail from the US Embassy in Guatemala. It was exciting because we thought we had received Pre-Approval. Instead we received an I-72, an objection letter sent to the attorney asking for more information, very similar to a "previo" or kick-out of PGN. They are requesting a HIV test for Hannah. We can not find a requirement for this on the DOS website, only one for the birth mother. We are confused. Hannah has two letters from her physician in Guatemala stating she has had these tests and they are negative. Faithful Adoptions is stating this is required because she is 1 year old now.

One positive note, maybe we will have PA soon if they are actually looking at our file. We have seen some timelines where PA came a few days after an I-72 was sent. We just pray Aby and our attorney get this information to the US Embassy soon and we don't have to wait for another blood test, especially after the DNA problems.

New DOS Statement

The U.S. Department of State has issued a warning regarding adoptions initiated on or after December 31, 2007 in Guatemala, which states the following:

"The Department of State advises potential adoptive parents and adoption service providers not to initiate new adoptions from Guatemala because of the great uncertainties surrounding implementation of Guatemala’s new adoption law.We do not know when the Government of Guatemala will be prepared to process cases under the new system set forth in the new Guatemalan adoption law that went into force on December 31, 2007. The Government of Guatemala is now working to put into place the infrastructure necessary to implement the provisions and obligations of the new law. The National Adoption Council, Guatemala's Hague Convention Central Authority , was installed on Jan. 11 and is expected to begin initial operations soon and to quickly ratify and publicize the registration procedure required for adoptions initiated prior to the law’s effective date. But the full process must be in place and functioning before an adoption can be completed under the new law. There is no process in place at this time.In addition, the new Guatemalan law appears to prohibit new adoption cases with non-Hague countries. Article 39 states that "in international adoptions, the persons who wish to adopt a child must initiate the process through the Central Authority of their country of residence, which will forward the request and appropriate certifications to the Guatemalan Central Authority." Since the U.S. Central Authority will not begin processing Hague adoptions until April 1, the new Guatemalan law does not appear to contemplate U.S. adoptions until after April 1.Finally, we cannot guarantee that adoptions will continue between the United States and Guatemala after April 1, 2008, when the Convention goes into force for the United States. The Convention prohibits all members from processing adoptions from member countries that do not have Hague compliant adoption processes. As a consequence, the United States and other Hague Convention countries will have to determine whether the new process in Guatemala meets Convention requirements. If a fully Hague compliant process is not in place in Guatemala by April 1, 2008, the United States government will not be able to process new cases with Guatemala. While we will assist the Guatemalan government as much as possible to ensure that the new processes are sufficient, we cannot at this time predict whether or when we will be able to process adoptions from Guatemala after the Convention goes into force in the United States.With regard to currently pending adoptions (those initiated in Guatemala before 12/31/2007), the U.S. Embassy in Guatemala remains committed to processing adoptions according to previous rules. The Embassy is working closely with the government of Guatemala to help complete those cases as soon as possible."

Recent News

We haven’t posted in a while due to a hard drive failure. During that time we have learned some good things and one incredibly sad thing.
First the sad news; Another adoptive family needs your prayers, and lots of them. They found out this week that their daughter died in Guatemala of pneumonia. We could not imagine receiving that phone call. Please pray for the family and Ariana.
The Central Authority (CNA) seems to be coming together. They have released the form for families to register with their office. The procedure is not in place, but this is a start. Senator Norm Coleman continues to assist families by writing a letter to the newly inaugurated President of Guatemala urging him to continue the in-process adoptions. The President of Guatemala also, within days of his inauguration, replaced three of the directors of the Central Authority. We do not know if this will be beneficial to the process or not.

Today is day 45 for waiting for Pre-Approval from the US Embassy in Guatemala. This means we could receive PA as soon as Monday. Unfortunately we can not enter PGN until the CNA gets the process figured out.

More Fingerprinting

We mailed another set of fingerprints to the FBI today for a background check because our last background check expires today. Once we receive the results, we still have to have them notarized, certified and authenticated.
We have learned the new Central Authority, Consejo Nacional de Adopciones (CNA), now has a physical address but has not been created as of yet. Pursuant to the new Ortega law, there are only 20 days left for Guatemala to create the CNA and register the 3,000 or so families to grandfather in the cases.