Part 2
Once we had picked our agency and sent in our application, it didn't take long to receive our acceptance letter along with a ginormous folder that had all the information about adopting a child from Guatemala - and so began the arduous paper chase.
We made appointments with doctors to update every one's health information, verified employment, got friends to write letters of recommendation, had background checks and fingerprints taken, took on-line classes that were required and had a social worker come and do interviews with us at home...just to name a few. Each document that was submitted had a specific way it was to be written and each one had to be notarized. I remember having to redo the ones from our doctor about 3 times before it was done right.
After collecting all those papers, we then had to send them in to the state for certification. A few weeks later we got them back and were able to mail everything in to the agency, finally, done, or so we thought... At this point it was late March/early April and during those weeks the wording on the medical form had changed combining two sentences into one. You guessed it, we had to do it over.
We got that done as quickly as possible and during that time, since our agency knew everything had been turned in and they were only waiting on that last document to arrive...we got a phone call! I'll never forget it. It was a Wednesday night and Madeline and I were walking up the ramp that connected our church's fellowship hall with our children's building on our way to children's choir. Our rep was calling to tell us that one of the lawyers they used had just gotten a bunch of boys files in their office and she wanted to know if we'd be interested in receiving a referral for one of them. That was the first moment I knew I'd be a mommy again.
She started telling me all about Marco Tulio Garcia Hernandez born three weeks ago on March 11, 2007 but I was in such shock and tears I could hardly pay attention. Of course I told her we'd love to receive the referral and the next afternoon a package arrived with pictures, background information and a DVD of our little boy.
We were given 72 hours to look everything over and make a decision. I took the DVD to our pediatrician Friday to get his medical opinion, we called our parents to see if they could help us with the financial side of things since this referral happened much sooner than expected and by Monday, we sent in our acceptance letter.
It was official and now all we could do was sit back and wait for the legal process to slowly unfold.
