Ella is a "MXXXXX"

Our attorney has Ella's new birth certificate so she now has our last name . I hope to post more good news soon. Please continue to pray for our file and our little girl as we finish this adoption.

Steps Left
Passport - 1 day
DNA Authorization Orange- 2 days
DNA Test to Embassy - 8-14 days
Embassy issue pink (appt) - 3 days
Pink to Pick Up - 2 weeks
Estimated Pick up Sometime between last week of February to first week of March

I love bed head

This is my favorite





Less than a week and we get to see 7 days of bedhead.

Waiting to hear

We are still waiting to hear if our birth certificate was done and picked up Thursday or Friday. I hope to hear something before the weekend is over and hopefully we will have DNA authorization this coming week.


In less than a week we will be holding our little girl again for our third visit trip. It never ceases to amaze me at all the stuff we need for such a little girl. Right now she has one big suitcase and one little suitcase packed. On this trip we are fortunate enough to be joined by several adoptive families and some of our own family on this trip. Ella's foster sister's mom and grandma will be there, we will have my sister and her fiance for half the week and we will also get to meet a another family I have known mostly through email who will be picking up Natalie.


Please pray for our file to continue to make progress so we can get Ella home. I also ask you to pray for the Guatemala Government to get the Central Authority up and running so all the babies waiting can get home. Last but not least please pray specifically for Gabi and Jeremiah's family as they continue to wait for the Central Authority to release their files.

A little Update and a few prayer requests

Our attorney now has our file in hand and hopes to have the new birth certificate with our names on it by Thursday or Friday. My first prayer request is that this happens on time. So we can get her passport and DNA authorization next week. I also ask that you pray for the timing of Ella coming home. I know it is all in God's time but there are a few things with my job I just cannot change. I am praying she comes home the last week of February or first week of March. If it is much later than that I may not get to take off all the time I planned on or it may be interrupted.

Also I ask that you pray for Gabi's file and Jeremiah's file. They received their referrals shortly after we received Ella's and they are stuck waiting on the new Central Authority to register and process their files. This should take a minimum of 8 days after they are registered.

It is official

We now have a copy of our PGN approval signed off by Victor XXXX Barrios XXXXXXXX. It is a wonderful relief to see it on paper. Hopefully we will have our new birth certificate in the next week. I can't believe our little girl will be home soon.

WE ARE OUT OF PGN!

We got the call last night that our file has been approved from PGN. Our sweet Ella is coming home. From here our attorneys will have the birth mother sign off for the fourth and final time, then they will get her birth certificate issued in our name, a second DNA test will be performed, a passport will be issued in her new name and then we are scheduled an Embassy appointment where will pick her up and bring her home. We are starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel.

Thank you all for you prayers and support. You honestly have carried us through this adoption.

Updated Pictures & Medical

Recently Ella had a medical check up and she now weighs 17 lbs and 10 ozs. She is pretty darn cute if I do say so myself.

Dateline Story on Sunday

http://insidedateline.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2008/01/14/577517.aspx

Sunday Dateline will be airing a story on Guatemala adoptions. It will be interesting to see what side of the story do they portray.

Sara & Jim are going with us to Guatemala

Sara (my twin sister) & Jim (her fiance) are going with us to Guatemala. They just booked their flight and will get to meet Ella for the first time. I am so excited they get to see Ella's birth country and to meet her.

Getting Close to Something & Not Sure What

This week we will be entering our 7th week in PGN. We are either getting close to a previo or exiting PGN. This is our first round of PGN and we entered with our pre approval. Our file was stuck in Family Court for 6 1/2 months. Our first social worker felt it was her place to convince our birth mother to keep the baby. She tried this over 6 months and thanks to the Good Lord our birth mom wanted to continue with her adoption plan. Our attorney finally was able to get our file from this social worker and submitted us to a new family court to which we got in and out of in 8 days.

Mike and I have booked our 3rd visit trip for February. Since we will be missing her first birthday. We felt like we need to make one last trip to hold us over until we pick her up. We also will have the pleasure seeing Ella's foster sister and mom while we are there. On our last visit trip we met them and enjoyed their company while staying at the Marriott.

Make a postcard - it's easy!

A few updates

Effective 1/1/08 the new adoption law went into effect. Any file not in PGN at that time was rejected for a resubmitt until registered with the Central Authority. The Central Authority now has a building and should be up and running by the end of the month. Fortunately We are still in PGN and oour file is still in processing. As of January 10 we are still with the second reviewer.

Mike and I have scheduled another visit trip for February 2-9. We are in the final stage of this adoption but there is no guarntee that we will make it through PGN on the first try (Please pray that we do). This adoption is taking longer than we had imagined and we feel like we will only regret not making this trip rather than making it.