February Pics!

The pediatrician sent new pictures and an update from Elizabeth's visit to his office on February 23rd. Here is his report: Estrella came today to my office, she is 7 months old, weights 18.4 pounds, length 71.5 cms, head circumference 42 cms. She has 4 teeth visible, drinks 8 ounces of formula and 3 solid meals during the day, sits down without help, babbles a lot, goes to bed at 9pm, she received a booster vaccine.

By the way, she is not in the outfit I sent down. My guess is the foster mom has not received it yet (boo!).

It has now been 3 weeks since in PGN and no word, but that is typical. The good thing is now we are in the time period where we should hear from PGN soon! Pray for an approval!!

Sent Gifts To Guat

I am so happy to be able to send gifts down to Elizabeth and her foster family and know that they get them! Monday I bought an outfit, toy, disposable camera, and jelly beans (for the foster family - apparently they like them) dropped it all off at the adoption agency office and then someone will be hand delivering to my foster family in Guatemala. The foster mother was wonderful about taking pictures with the other cameras I sent to her. It was great to see Elizabeth in her foster home environment being loved and cared for by the foster family! I can't wait to see these pictures!

Elizabeth typically goes to see the pediatrician at the end of each month. The doctor sends me 2 pictures from each visit. I hope to see Elizabeth in the outfit I sent down in the next set of pics!

No news yet on the progress at the PGN - but that is typical as my case has only been in a little over 1 week.

Back in PGN!

Good news, my case re-entered the PGN (Guatemala Attorney General's office) on Friday, February 2!! The standard process is that we wait to hear and the wait could be 3-6 weeks. We want the outcome to be approved, so keep praying! This is the final hurdle, once the PGN approves the adoption, it is official.

Process Update

Finally, some news on the birth certificate error that got my case kicked out! Since the error was noted 12/19/06, my attorney in Guatemala hired a couple of people to fix the error with the town's registrar only to come back each time with the error not appropriately fixed. So, finally, my attorney sends someone from her office to go the the town's registrar and fix the error. I got word Thursday evening that it has been fixed, and they have a lot of documentation to back it up! This is great news!
The next step is to get my case back into PGN (the attorney general's office). I am hoping it goes into today, if everything looks good. It takes about 4-5 weeks to hear anything from the PGN. When my case is re-submitted it goes in a stack and in order with all the other cases (it does not go to the top of the list because it is a re-submission). A couple of things can happen at this point - the person assigned to review could see that the error is fixed and send off as approved for the attorney general to sign, or the reviewer could again look at all the documents. If that is the case, please pray they don't find any more errors!

By the way, we have had over 400 hits to this website since the end of October. Thanks for visiting and following the story of bringing Elizabeth home!

Sleeping Beauty...

Look at these latest pictures of our precious Elizabeth! The foster mother takes her to the doctor once a month and the peditrician takes pictures and e-mails them to Chrissie's adoption agency.

This one is the little princess crashed out at the doctor's office (this must be before the shot!).. it's so funny the way she falls asleep with her arms out to her sides, like she doesn't have a care in the world!

It says "Estrella" on her dress because that is the name on her birth certificate.. it means "star", and of course she's a star to us, but we'll be calling her Elizabeth (or Princess Elizabeth!!) :)

Along with the pictures Chrissie got this e-mail from the pediatrician:

[Elizabeth] came today to my office, she is 6 months old, weighs 18 pounds, length 70 cms, head circumference 41.5 cms. She is receiving 6 ounces of Similac 6 times during the day and 2 solid foods, but now she starts with Step 2 of Gerber Products which includes mixed cereals, chicken and more vegetables. Foster informed that she sits down with help, rolls over her body, grabs objects, goes to bed at 9 and awakes at 2 am asking for milk. She received third dose of B hepatitis. Looks healthy.

Isn't she beautiful!?!?!

Chrissie hopes to get confirmation that the case has been resubmitted to PGN this week, so that we can start adjusting our expectations on her arrival in March.. of course we want her here with us already, but we're focusing now on March.. the good thing is that Grammy & Papi will move into their new home less than 10 miles from Chrissie's by then, so they'll be nice and close! :)

PGN Update - Still Fixing

PGN approval is the major final hurdle in the adoption process, and for my case, seems to be the most challenging. The errors were discovered December 19, and the last error is still not fixed. This means that my case has not re-entered PGN for the Guatemalan attorney general's review. It seems my attorneys need to hire a second person to fix the error they discovered on the birth mother's birth certificate. The attorney they hired to fix by 1/12/07 was unable to do so.

This is frustrating. I hope they are able to fix this week, so I can re-enter PGN next week. Once I receive the approval from PGN, it takes 3 weeks to finalize the paperwork and I can bring Elizabeth home for good.

New Pics!

Merry Christmas! Today I received 3 new photos of Elizabeth from her visit to the pediatrician. His report states: Elizabeth came on Dec. 22 to my office, she is 5 months old, weights 17 pounds, length 69 cms, head circumference 41 cms. She has two teeth visible, she responds when you mentioned her name, has good appetite, activity, and neurological development, no vaccines in this visit.
Wow! 2 teeth! She is getting so big, I hope to have her home very soon!
Please continue to pray for a quick resolution to the name issue in PGN.
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

PGN Update - 3 Errors

The PGN report came back on December 19 with 3 errors. Two of them are minor and resolved, but the third error is more difficult, and one they haven't seen before. It seems that the bio mother's father legally changed his name many years ago, but the bio mother's birth certificate has his old name. All my documents are correct as legal as they reflect what the town's civil registry has, but the PGN seems concerned about this discrepancy and is wondering why he changed his name (and it looks to be his middle name, or first family name).

When I talked with the adoption agency, they said the attorneys in Guatemala were working on it, but they have not experienced this before. They were not sure if all they need is a letter from the town's civil registry confirming the name change, or if they need to interview the bio mother and grandfather, or if they need to reissue the bio mother's birth certificate or do all three of those.

This is a bummer! There is not a specific time to resolution, I hope to get more information later in the week. When I asked if I should book flights for my business trips in early to mid January, I was told I would be fine to go - meaning my case will most likely not have cleared by then. Trusting that all will work out fine is a tough one at this moment, I am trying to remain positive that all will be cleared up soon and Elizabeth will be home in no time.

Merry Christmas to you all! Thanks for your support throughout the year, and let's continue to pray for quick resolution and completion of the adoption process!

PGN!

Yahoo! We are in PGN as of November 29, 2006!!! This is great news, and the last, big hurdle to finalizing the adoption. PGN is the supreme court of Guatemala and they review everything in order to rule out fraud. Many cases get kicked out of PGN, this means you need to fix errors on your documents and enter back in. We will find out in 4 weeks if we have any errors - that would be around December 27. The attorneys in Guatemala check on the case status each week, so hopefully we will get a heads up if we need to fix any documents.

Please continue to pray for a speedy process!

Here is an explanation from another document on the PGN process:
Once in the Procuraduria, PGN, (Solicitor General’s Office) the case will be considered for the issuance of the adoption order. In the Procuraduria, the case is carefully scrutinized by Guatemalan Government attorneys who make sure that all of the requirements for a proper and legal adoption have been met. Time frame for completion of this step is highly variable, and depends mainly on how many of the documents that the Procuraduria attorney asks for clarification or correction on. Usually when a case gets “rejected” by the Procuraduria, the corrections can be made in Guatemala (errors by civil registrars in Guatemala on birth certificates, birthmother’s cedula, etc.) such that the case can be resubmitted without the adopting family having to re-do documents. However, if the case gets rejected from Procuraduria because of faulty documents that were included with the family’s dossier, the adopting family will be expected to reimburse for expenses of registering and translating new US documents, (for example, a police clearance which does not indicate “no record”, a marriage certificate that does not have a date of issuance, a doctor’s letter or homestudy report which causes question of mental illness or alcoholism in the adopting parents, etc.

More Video

There has been considerable demand for additional video footage, so here it is! This video was shot on our November 2006 visit to Guatemala. Elizabeth was spending time on her tummy - something I think may be new to her. She is resting on a rolled up towel under her arms for more support. Elizabeth starts entertaining me and Aunt Carrie by making raspberry noises into the towel. Looks like we have a performer!!