Part 3
Now that we had accepted our referral, all the documents we had collected made their way to Guatemala to be translated into Spanish. In June, Marco had to have a DNA test done which meant being reunited with his birth mom. They collect the samples at the same time in order to take their picture together and to prove it was from the correct people. This made me nervous...I didn't want her to see him and change her mind. Everything went fine and we have a copy of that picture. This and the one taken at the hospital of her holding him when he was three days old are the only photos we have of his birth mom. She is so beautiful and you can see the love for him in her eyes knowing that what's she's doing is to provide for him a better life. Oh I could cry!
In August, his birth mom had to go to family court to sign papers stating that she was doing this of her own free will and that no one was forcing or paying her to give up her son. Once that was completed, these had to be translated. October is now here and we get a phone call telling us that our file had finally made it to PGN. That stands for some Spanish words I don't know, but basically this was the last stage of the process and the most difficult one. Many families have their files thrown out due to errors the lawyers find because they are so picky. We were told not to be surprised if this happens to us too. We received another phone call in early November notifying us that our file had been kicked out because of a typo on the family court papers but that they had fixed it and it had been resubmitted.
Also during this time a government process was occurring that is in essence designed to help adoptive families and children in many countries around the world called the Hague Treaty. It was very possible that our process would come to a stop until an agreement had been reached which meant not being able to finalize for many more months. We went into major prayer mode and contacted every representative we could think of to inform them about the Guatemalan 5000 Initiative. I don't know all the legal things that happened but our prayers worked and we were told that all the families that had received referrals before September could finalize under the law as it existed then and didn't have to meet the new requirements. OK, things were looking up.
The phone rang yet again so our rep could tell us we had been kicked out of PGN for a second time. Each time this happens it adds 4-6 weeks to your wait. By now it was early January and this had happened late November - we never understood why it took that long for them to notify us. Come to find out, the mayor of the town the birth mother was from didn't sign the initial papers from when she gave up her rights at the hospital. This problem was corrected and our file resubmitted. At least they never found anything wrong with the papers we turned in.
God had his hand on this whole thing from the very beginning but what we were told next just confirms for me that this was meant to be. Our rep said we were very lucky to have been kicked out when we were because just a couple weeks after that, a new rule was passed that said any files thrown out of PGN would have to go before a committee for review before they could be resubmitted. The committee wasn't even going to be appointed until the end of January. She told us of a family that missed the cutoff date and they were now at a standstill.
We had yet another phone call three days later. I thought to myself, "If we've been kicked out again..." I was starting to get angry. This call was totally different - she said that we had made it through PGN and should get an email with our court date to finalize in a few days! Sure enough, that email came and we only had 6 more weeks of waiting. Crunch time! Gotta get everything ready!
A year ago tonight we went to bed aware that in the morning we'd be getting on a plane to go get our baby. Here are some pictures we received every month or so while we waited.
