DATE: 09/10/2005 09:26:14 PM
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We got word on Friday that our case came out of the Guatemala court system (PGN) on Thursday. What does this mean in real words?

The birthmother will have her final sign off. A new birth certificate will be requested from the city she was born in with her birth name and our last name on it.

Once our attorney receives that, she will then take all the paperwork she has to the US embassy. They will then translate the documents and issue a passport and "pink slip", in other words, permission to travel. We are then able to take her to the embassy doctor for her final visit, the US embassy to get her visa, then home!

All this should take about 3 weeks.

I am headed down on the 19th to stay for the duration. If it's a week, great. If it's 2 weeks, ok. I'm nervous about leaving the boys behind, but very excited about seeing our new baby girl! I'll be staying in an apartment in Antigua. A town 45 min. outside of Guatemala City, known for it's beauty and history. Many adoptive parents stay here while fostering their children. I can't wait.

Please pray for us in the next few weeks. A lot of little things have to happen before we can bring Ellie home for good. Pray that our "pink slip" is issued in record time and I'll only have to be away from the rest of the family for a few days!

We'll keep you posted!
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Ellie a month ago while we were visiting.



Not the best picture, but the most recent one we received in an update.

Just testing

Just testing this to make sure it's still working. thinking about moving my most recent blog back over to this page.

Have to vent

Ok. I have to vent or I'm going to go crazy.

We're selling our house and are moving in 2 days. When negotiating the price of our house, we finally compromised with the potential buyers for a price 1K lower than we paid a year ago and 1K lower than the appraisal we had done at that time.

Fast foward to last week. Their appraisal was done and it came back 6K lower then the one we had done a year ago. After much gnashing of teeth with the mortgage company, it seems our appraiser way over-appraised the house and it's not really worth that much after all. So, we were duped I guess. So, down goes the purchase price 5K for the buyers. Great news for them, not so great for us as we'll have to pay in at closing now. That's fine, but we're dropping the 1K we were going to pay for them at closing.

that's what we thought. Nope, their realtor will not let us out of the contributing towards closing costs. On top of that, they want a $375 home warranty.

The next cannon to be shot at us was the inspection. Their inspector found trivial things wrong with the house......electrical stuff mostly, but they want it ALL fixed. Even things that he just recommended be inspected or checked out, they want it done.....at our expense. So, we've fixed what we can ourselves, cause we have no money to pay for all this with after the news that we had to pay in at closing. You'd think they'd be more than happy to do the rest themselves.

Well, they would. But their realtor is INSISTING that we have it fixed or they're backing out.

So, here we sit, getting the raw end of the deal on this. They, however, are being blessed beyond measure. 5K less for the house, help with closing costs, less down payment, new wiring, and much much more.

I'm trying to be content no matter the circumstance, but it sure is hard!

WE HAVE A REFERRAL!

On the morning of July 6, the last thing I was thinking about was the adoption. OK, so maybe it was somewhere floating around in my mind, but I had resigned myself to the fact that it may take a few more weeks that previously thought. There just weren't any girls being born. Several referrals had gone out in the past few weeks, but they were all baby boys. Now, I love boys, but in my heart, I knew that God intended for us to adopt a girl. So, I waited.

The boys had been at my parents house for a couple of days so I could get some packing done for our move. My mom brought them back on Wednesday morning and was hanging out for a while waiting for lunch. I was about to sit down on the couch when the phone rang. Thinking it was Kyle, I didn't rush to answer it. When I picked up the phone and saw the 214 area code, I knew it was Traci (our agency director).

I answered and heard the soothing voice on the other end of the phone (Traci really should have been a therapist, her voice is so calm). "Rebecca, this is Traci. How are you?" My heart went to my shoes. Was this "the call", I wondered?

She went on to ask if we had moved yet, and made small chit chat, then said "the reason I'm calling is......." then there was a pause. I thought to myself something's wrong with our paperwork or she's calling to tell me that it's going to be a while to wait.

But then I heard the words "I have a baby girl for you." Now, I had waited for this moment for quite a few months, and thought I had my reaction all planned out.....tears, crying, drama. But, none of that happened. All I could say was "you do?" Then "I'm so excited." Then I think I attacked Traci with hundreds of questions she wasn't prepared to answer.

After my brain started functioning again, I heard her say "I just sent an email to your inbox." I ran to the computer to check it and it couldn't come fast enough even with high-speed internet. I didn't even read the wording in the email, but clicked on the 1st picture. There she was. Her cheeks were so chubby that I had to laugh. All our boys were 6lbs and under, so I'm used to seeing scrawny (is that a Mississippi word?) babies, not chubby ones. As I looked at the the pictures Traci had sent, all I could think was there she is, there she is. It was very surreal.

After getting off the phone with Traci, I called Kyle at work. He had pretty much the same reaction....just complete dumbfoundness I think. Not really knowing what to say. After a couple of days, it began to sink in that she was here. This was (or will be) our baby girl.

Now, I sit wondering what she's doing, if she's eating enough or too much, does she spit up a lot, is she healthy, are they taking care of her, does she sleep well, does she cry alot...and on and on and on.

But for now, I'll just wonder. On July 29, I'll get to meet this precious child and hold her. For a week, I will spend every moment with her, learning her personality, her schedule, and find out the answers to my many questions. I'll meet her foster mom and confirm that she is, indeed, being well taken care of. I'll get a few fleeting days to spend with this soon to be daughter of mine. Then I'll give her back to the foster mom and come home, left to wonder again. But, just for those days, I'll have the wonder of watching her and praising God that from the beginning of time, He planned this child to be ours.

Our 171H has arrived! That is our USCIS (immigration, basically) approval. We are now ready to accept a referral. I think we're probably behind one other family, but there are no baby girls right now....only boys. I love boys, but we already have our hearts full of them! Now, our hearts are ready for a girl. So, we may wait 2 weeks or 2 months, but we know that God's timing is perfect.

On another side of things..........we're moving back to Georgia. We are so excited, and actually have a couple very interested in buying our house here. We should know something about that tonight or tomorrow.

So, our lives are far from dull right now. The boys are doing great. They are busy, busy, busy and very much "all boys." But, we love it.

We were fingerprinted yesterday for USCIS. This is our last step, basically. In 4-6 weeks, we should get our 171H, which is immigration approval.

Our documents were going to be on their way to Miami, the Guatemalan consulate. However, one of our notaries stamp and signature did not match the way her name was listed with the secretary of state. So, we are having to redo 12 of those documents. We were lucky that she was in Kyle's office and we had not paid for them! Once those are redone and our 171H comes in, we will be "paper ready."

So, we are looking for a referral of a baby girl sometime in June!

Our experience yesterday was such an answer to prayer! Our appointment wasn't until next week, but we will be out of town. So, I called the office in New Orleans to see if we could come earlier. I was given a very emphatic NO. Frustrated that it might be weeks before we could be fingerprinted again, I called back a while later and was told by a different person, the supervisor, that it would be completely fine. We knew that it was risky to drive to NO yesterday as whether we got to be fingerprinted early or not was at the mercy of the lady at the desk.

There was no one at the desk when we first arrived. After a few minutes, though, a lady came out and said that the regular worker was on break and she would help the next person in line. When I told her our situation, she gladly cooperated. 5 minutes after getting our information and giving us a number, the regular person returned from break. By looking at her nametag I realized it was the same person who had told me NO over the phone. We could see that God had answered our prayers by her being on break for the 10 minutes that it took to get us ready for fingerprinting!

We look forward to watching Him work in many more ways throughout this process.

Weekly Update

We are waiting on our homestudy report. All of our visits are finished, but our social worker has not finished writing the report. She said it would be finished by last week, but we are still waiting. As soon as we get that, though, we can send our paperwork off on it's journey.

We are getting closer, and I'm so excited!

In addition to adoption stuff, we are still busy. Lucas has started t-ball. He had his first game last Saturday. It was so cute! He thought he was big time. His team is on the Braves team, and he thinks he's a pro! As soon as his team got out on the field, he started stretching and doing jumping jacks! He wouldn't even smile at us as he went to bat. Just this stern, seriuos look on his face! HIs team also has a problem with catching the ball. Instead of waiting to see who the ball is closest to, the whole team chases it down then tackles it. So, we'd have to wait to see who emereged from the pile of kids with the ball.

Jacob is sick. 4th day of fever. He's on antibiotics, but must not be anything that can cure. I'm just ready for summer and healthy kids!

Ooops. I used his real name. Oh well. Too hard to remember to use fake names for my kids!

I better go check on them. It sure is quiet back there.......