DNA Results Received!

I received the results from the DNA test in the mail today. They of course showed that the mother that relinquished Evvy is indeed her biological mother. I received a picture of the birthmother holding Evvy. It really breaks my heart to look at it. She looks so sad. Evvy looks like a little angel.

I also received the quilt that my mom made for Evvy. It is even more beautiful than the pictures. I know it will be well loved by Evvy and me. Thanks mom/grandma!

Susan

Oh yeah...

I also forgot to mention that the director of our agency is travelling to Guatemala tomorrow (8/11) and will be in Guatemala until 8/16. She will take lots of pictures and videos of all the children that the agency has placed who are waiting to come home. So next week we should have new pictures of the now 2 month old Evelyn May. I can't wait!

Update

Still waiting on DNA results which typically take about 2 weeks. The two week mark is tomorrow. I did leave a message for LabCorp this evening to make sure they received the sample and to find out if they had sent the results yet.

Status of PGN court: Very good news regarding this court. It has been VERY slow since April. Well yesterday and today the floodgates have opened up and tons of people have posted that they have finally been released. Apparently, the court hired a new "helper" to review and do the final signoff on the cases. On the webforum that I am a member of there were 20+ cases released today. The most that has been released in any given month since April has been 18. So it looks like things are speeding up. This gives me renewed hope that Evvy might be home by Christmas time. That would be so wonderful!

So, what have I been doing to keep busy waiting for Evvy to come home? Well, I have done a little shopping since everyone seems to be having their summer clearance sales. I went to a department store last week (one that I don't ever shop at because they are too expensive) and they had all of their clearance baby clothes 75% off and then another 40% off of the 75%. I got quite a few outfits (mostly for next summer) and paid about $2.00 for each outfit. Many of the outfits were 3 piece outfits (bib, onesie and sleeper). I did pay $5.00 for one outfit was just beyond cute. It is a little pink jacket and skirt to be worn over a pink flowered onsie. It is a 6 month size so I am hoping that she will be able to wear it when I go pick her up and take her to the Embassy for her visa. Little girls are definitely fun to shop for especially when everything is on sale.

I have also almost completed a quilt top. It has pinwheels on it in pinks, blues and purples. I just have to finish one side of the border and then it will be ready to quilt. Quilting just makes me so happy. It is a great release for me when I am stressed out. It is customary to give a gift to the foster mom when you pickup your child from Guatemala. A lot of people really go overboard and take electronics down or buy all sorts of expensive gifts. I think I have decided to try to make a lap size quilt for my foster mom. I have a pattern that I made for myself that I want to try to make again. Hopefully I can get it done in time. When I made the one for me, it took about 5 years :) However, I was just starting out in quilting and it was really too hard for me then. Once I picked it up again and sewed on it, I was able to get it pieced pretty quickly. It has a lot of small pieces. I thought this would make a nice gift and show Evvy's foster mother that I really appreciate all she is doing for my little girl.

Hopefully I will have an update about the DNA testing soon. I am also hoping that the Family Court process has begun. Many cases seem to start Family Court simaltaneously with the DNA process since one of the processes is a US requirement and one is Guatemalan so they are not dependent on each other.

After the DNA results are received by the US Embassy, they will review the case file again and hopefully issue "pre-approval" to proceed. After Family Court and pre-approval are completed, it is into PGN which with any luck will now be a shorter stay than originally thought.

I will update again when I receive DNA results.

Susan

DNA test completed early!

I received an email from my social worker this morning that the DNA test was completed on Friday instead of today. I just received notification that the authorization was received on Thursday. This is excellent news to have it completed so quickly. It usually takes 4-8 months to get this completed. We are under that average as it occured 3 weeks and 1 day after I received the referral of little Evvy.

What's next? Social worker interview of Evvy's birthmother and of her foster mother. This often occurs close to the DNA testing so hopefully I will hear word on that soon.

The DNA test kit should be overnighted to Lab Corp her in the states and as soon as the test is processed, the results will be mailed to me. So hopefully in the next couple of weeks I should have the results.

The DNA results are also faxed/emailed to the US Embassy in Guatemala. The Embassy then reviews the case file again and hopefully issues "Pre-approval" which means that the case can proceed through the courts in Guatemala and then be resubmitted to the Embassy for final approval after the courts finish their process.

I truly believe I have an excellent attorney to get things moving so quickly. I just hope the process continues swiftly so I can get her home for Christmas!

Here's to a great Monday!
Susan

A bit of Guatemala in Missouri

So this friend Julie and her husband Mike came over last week to hear about my past experiences in Guatemala. I served a mission for the LDS Church there from 1987-1988. I lived and worked among the local people. This is where my love of Guatemala came from. This is why I knew I would eventually adopt from there. I looked at a lot of different countries but everything just kept leading back to Guatemala. Not really surprising.

Anyway, I started pulling out all of my keepsakes from Guatemala and just kept finding more and more and more. My dining room looked like a booth at the Guatemala Central Marketplace. I have left a lot of it out because I have enjoyed seeing the beautiful colors and textiles again. Guatemala is a land of many colors. Some of the most talented artisans I have ever seen come from Guatemala.

Here are some pictures that I took of my keepsakes while they were displayed in the dining room. I have moved some of them back into Evvy's keepsake cupboard in the nursery and just spread more around the house. I don't know if I will be able to put them back in the trunk again.

How I found my agency....

I had another couple who is adopting a baby girl from Guatemala over to chat last week. Julie and I work out at the same gym and I heard her talking about starting the adoption process last August or September. She said she was adopting from Guatemala and had just started the process with a local agency. She had been referred to this agency by another family who had adopted and was pleased with the agency. At this point I had decided that I would start my journey the following Spring after getting my current debt paid off. I was in the process of researching agencies and hadn't yet found a local one that I felt I could work with. This agency wasn't on my list and I hadn't seen them in the Yellow pages. She gave me the name and I found them on the internet. I requested an information packet from them. I was impressed. Shortly thereafter I received an invitation from them to come and learn more about their new China/Korea programs. I called and talked to the social worker and she discussed the pros and cons of singles adopting from China. Singles can't adopt from Korea. I then also talked to her about their Guatemala program. I decided to go to the meeting just to get a feel for the agency. My good friend Brenda went with me. It ended up being a somewhat rainy night and we were the only ones that came. The social worker and an intern gave us the presentation about China & Korea and then we pretty much talked the rest of the evening about the Guatemala program. I was very impressed and knew that I had found the agency that I wanted to handle my adoption process.

That was last October and I told them that I would probably start the process in April. In the mean time, my friend Julie was starting the process. It has been nice to see the process happen ahead of me to help me know more about what to expect. Well, I finally started my application process in March (one month sooner than I planned after receiving a generous bonus from work that allowed me to pay off my debt). My homestudy was completed in April , my USCIS paperwork was submitted the middle of May and approved on June 30. I received the referral of the most beautiful girl in the world on July 6 and now we are at the beginning of the Guatemala process.

I love my agency. My social worker turned out to be the intern that was at my initial agency meeting. She took over for the other Social Worker who left after she had a baby of her own. My SW is very detail oriented and did a great job of helping me gather all of my documents. Then she took care of all the certification and authentification process which after reading about other's journeys is time consuming and nerve racking. It is just one of the nice services that this agency provides. She has kept me informed every step of the way and when I have emailed her, I usually have an answer back in less than 24 hours (often within a couple hours). This local agency (ABC Adoption) partners with another agency in South Carolina (Adoption Partners www.adoption-partners.net). Adoption Partners actually has all the contacts in Guatemala and is the agency that handles all of the in-country details. They have a pretty good reputation so I feel very blessed to have found them.

Well, that isn't what I had planned to write about so sorry for boring you and rambling. It just seems that choosing the agency that you will work with in this important process can either make or break your adoption experience. I have heard a lot of horror stories about the bad agencies.

Enough rambling. I will write another post about what I initially started to write about.

Susan

DNA Authorization Received!

When I checked my email at lunch today I got an email from my social worker saying that she found out that my lawyer had received the DNA authorization from the US Embassy. The DNA test is scheduled for this coming Monday! That is a pretty quick turnaround I think.

Hopefully Evelyn's birthmother will be able to make the appointment. I have seen a lot of posts on the forum that I post on that it is pretty common for the mother's to miss the appointments due to work or not being able to travel. Evvy's birthmother is from the state of Izabel which is on the eastern coast of Guatemala and they have had severe flooding this past week closing schools and flooding many homes. I don't know if the mother is still living there or if she lives elsewhere right now. Sometimes they stay in Guatemala City during the adoption process I think. Go to this website for more information on this weather situation. http://guatemala.adoptionblogs.com/weblogs/destructive-rain-batters-guatemala-again

If you are wondering where exactly I am in the process and what comes next, look back at this post Adoption Journey: Next Steps.

Anyway, that was excellent news and really brightened my day. I went out to celebrate with my friend Peggy tonight. We usually have a quilt group on Thursday's but the other two gals cancelled so we went to the quilt store and then out to our favorite Indian restaurant. Then we went to Barnes & Nobel. I wanted to see if I could find a "Life Book" which is basically a baby book but geared towards adoptive families. Didn't find exactly what I was looking for but the sales clerk found this wonderful book called "Dear Daughter, a message of Love." It is a hardbound book that has very lovely touching messages for a daughter. It is almost like a pre-made scrapbook (for those of us that are scrapbook challenged). It has places marked to put your pictures. It is a beautiful book and as we stood and read it we both got a little teary eyed thinking about our daughters. Peggy's daughter Erica will be 2 in August. Time sure does fly by.

I also bought my first "parenting" book. It is called "Parenting with Love & Logic" by Foster Cline & Jim Fay. I have heard a lot about it through the school district here. Peggy went to some classes and listened to a series of tapes based on the principles of this parenting style. I really want to read it and learn from it so that I can be the best parent that I can be and hopefully have a calm home. I know parenting is very challenging and everyone has their own styles but I really want this to be my style. Maybe if I spend the next several months reading ab out it and letting it soak in, I will be a little bit prepared when I bring my girl home.

Today brings Evvy one step closer to coming home!
Susan

A Quilt from Grandma!

A couple of months ago my mom called and said that she wanted to make my baby a "raggedy" quilt. She wanted to know what colors I wanted. I asked if she had a pattern yet. She didn't. I told her that I just happen to have a pattern that I bought at Christmas time that I was going to make if I had time. She asked me to scan it and send her the pattern. I got it all scanned and then she went to a fun new quilt store that she had discovered.

I must say that she was very nervous about the pattern. It was not just your run of the mill same size square raggedy quilt. It had all sorts of shapes and then to top it off had appliqued flowers all over it. I felt a little bad asking her to make it. She called several times to ask questions and then my sister-in-law who is a master quilter went out to visit on vacation and helped mom some.

I don't remember the exact date that mom started the quilt but it wasn't that long ago. She called last weekend and said that she had just taken it to the laundry mat and it was done. For those that don't know what a raggedy quilt is....It is made of flannel and the seams are on the outside of the quilt instead of the inside. When you wash it, the seams fray and become "raggedy" and very soft. They are really cuddly, soft quilts. I made one for one of my sister's sons and she said that he loved to "twirl" the raggedy edges in his fingers.

Anyway, I got the pictures of the quilt from mom yesterday and it is absolutely gorgeous. I am jealous of my daughters beautiful quilt. I know she will cherish it for many years (maybe even take it to college with her one day). It turned out to be almost a twin size quilt. I had no idea what I was getting my poor mother into when I sent her the pattern but she sure did a great job! I know that it was made with a lot of love for my little Evvy.














Thanks Mom (you are a great grandma!)

Evvy's first care package!

I received word last week that the director of our placement agency is travelling to Guatemala in the first part of August. She takes care packages down for anyone that wants to send them. The only restriction is that it has to fit in a 2 gallon zip lock bag.

I wanted to send something to my baby girl so she could be wrapped in my love so I made her a soft blankie. It is very simple (flannel on one side and minkie on the other with a satin binding).

I washed it in with Downy Lavender and vanilla fabric softner and it just smells so good.

I am also sending 3 little outfits that I hope she will grow into. They are probably still too big on her since she is such a tiny little peanut. Then I sent a bag of chocolates and a pretty beaded bracelet for her foster mom. I also wrote a letter to her foster mom. Thanks to help from my younger brother Rob who also served a mission in Guatemala (much more recently than me). I did OK but he fixed the grammar and punctuation (accents and all that good stuff). I will post that later.

I love Evvy and can't wait to meet her!

Waiting on DNA authorization and planning a visit?

Well, no news on whether attorney in Guatemala has received authorization to have the DNA tests performed. This authorization is given through the US Embassy. They review the initial file to make sure everything is in order and then give the authorization for the DNA test. I have heard that there are long lines at the Embassy to receive this authorization so I hope my lawyer is an early riser.

Received word today from my Social Worker that my Power of Attorney has been certified by Secretary of State of Missouri and has been sent to the Guatemalan consulate. After it it authenticated by the Consulate it is sent to the lawyer in Guatemala so that he can proceed with the case through the Family Court and PGN (procurderia general nacional).

After talking to my Social Worker (SW) last week she said that I live in one of the counties in Missouri that requires readoption in Missouri Court after my baby comes home if I have not been down to Guatemala to visit her prior to the adoption being final. With that said, she said it would be less exensive for me to go down for a visit trip prior to finalization than to pay lawyer fees for the readoption after coming home. So, I may take a trip during Thanksgiving to go visit little Evelyn (aka Evvy, Evvie, Evie, Evita). We will see how things play out. Social worker said having her home by Christmas would be very optimistic but I am still holding out hope for that to happen. There is just no way to predict. I saw someone post on a forum that had completed the whole process in about 3 months so I know it can happen.

I did go ahead and make hotel reservations tonight since the hotels will probably be full around Thanksgiving (they were already showing sold out on Travelocity but I went directly to the hotel's website and was able to reserve a room).

My friend Peggy will probably go with me on the visit trip and then Mom & Dad (if he still wants to) will go with me for the final pickup trip. Of course this is all still up in the air until everything gets finalized and we see where everyone is living and if they can get away. Mom & Dad finish up there mission in January and will be moving back to Texas so we will just have to see how the timing works out.

Well, not much else new happening. I am working on a care package to send down when the director of our agency goes down in the next few weeks. I got ambitious and decided to make a little lightweight quilt (just simple pinwheels inspired by my niece Abby's first quilt) out of some fabric that I have had for years. I have it all cut out and many of the squares partially sewed. I also want to make something for the foster mother who is caring for her. Maybe I will make a pillow or wallhanging with a picture of Evelyn on it.

Hopefully will have more news coming soon.
Susan