A long one about Gussy's asthma, Cati's visit with Santa, & more on Max

After posting Cati's thoughts on a different Max, I thought I would update everyone on where that process stands. Our completed dossier was sent to Guatemala early in November, so we've officially reached the "hard" part: the waiting. Here's a boiled-down version of the process from here (from guatadopt.com). In fact, I needed a little refresher because, in the interest of my own mental health, I purposely forgot about some of it.

1. POA REGISTRATION. The attorney registers our power of attorney ("POA") with the Archivo de Protocolo and the completed dossier, which has been translated to Spanish, is verified by the Minister of External Relations.
2. FAMILY COURT. The attorney submits our file, which includes the dossier, POA, child's and birth mother's identity and medical documentation, birth mother's signed Express Consent, to Family Court, and petitions the court to assign a social worker to investigate the case. The social worker does an in-depth review, including interviews of the birth mother and foster family. The social worker writes a report that summarizes the facts of the case and attests to the birth mother's reasons for deciding that she cannot parent the child. The court reviews the social worker's report and makes its recommendation.
3. US EMBASSY - DNA TESTING. The US Embassy reviews the adoption case file and authorizes DNA testing of the birth mother and child to confirm their biological relationship. After the testing is complete, the US Embassy reviews the results and all supporting documentation. If all documents are in order, the US Embassy provides the attorney with a consent form, which is required before the PGN will authorize the attorney to prepare the final adoption decree.
4. PGN REVIEW AND APPROVAL. The attorney submits the adoption case file and a petition for approval of the adoption to PGN. A PGN notary reviews all documents in the case file and, at his/her discretion, may independently investigate one or more aspects of the case. Ultimately, PGN typically concurs with the Family Court's recommendation and issues its approval for the adoption to proceed.
5. ADOPTION DECREE. The attorney then prepares the final adoption Protocolo or deed, and meets with the birth mother for her to sign her final consent to the child's adoption. The executed Protocolo is filed with the Archivo de Protocolo. At this point, the child is legally the child of the adoptive parent(s) under Guatemalan law.
6. CIVIL REGISTRY AND PASSPORT. The attorney presents the required documents to record the adoption at the Civil Registry where the child's birth was recorded, and requests that a new birth certificate be issued to reflect the adoption, and to change the child's surname to that of the adoptive family. The attorney then takes all documents including the new birth certificate and applies for the child's Guatemalan passport. The child is again fingerprinted to affirm his/her identity.
7. US EMBASSY - FINAL APPROVAL AND VISA. The attorney presents the case file with the child's passport and new birth certificate to the US Embassy. The Embassy again evaluates the file and, if all documentation is in order, issues a Final Document Approval. After the attorney receives this approval, the adoptive parents and child appear at the US Embassy for final verification, and an embassy official then issues a visa for the child's entry into the US.

For some people, the process discussed above only takes a few months. For others, a year or more. For us, last time around, it took almost 11 months. Our agency contact from last time is no longer with our agency. Our case is now being overseen by a legal assistant and an attorney. Thus far, I have been very pleased with their communication skills (our previous agency contact was severely lacking in this area). We'll see how things go from here. I haven't received any recent updates, but I will call this week to find out where they expect us to be at year-end.

I guess that brings us to the Ortega Law. I wish I could tell you more about it and where it currently stands. Originally, adoptions were supposed to cease as of December 31, 2007. I've heard lots of things, most of it through the grapevine, and it seems that things are not likely to change that soon. That is good news for us, because the further we can get into the process, the better. The outlook is everchanging, though, so we're just taking it as it comes.

During our last adoption, I was at the computer day and night, following the progress of other adoptive families and the gossip that they and their attorneys provided. My friend, Stephanie, and I used to talk about how all that information was like a double-edged sword and sometimes we wished that we had never stepped foot on the internet forums. This time, I am proudly OFFLINE. I love Max and I want him to be part of our family as much as I ever wanted Catalina and Gus, maybe more. But, I cannot follow all that online gossip and still be normal and sane and take care of my first priorities, which are Louie and Cati and Gus. So, I am happily ignorant this time, just getting my limited, filtered information from our agency, and trusting that God has control over this whole crazy situation. When Catalina made those comments last week about Max, I took them as encouragement straight from God - a sign, even - to keep pressing on and trusting Him to take care of things. He put little Max on Catalina's mind and in her heart without my even mentioning it. And, it was a reminder to me that there is a biological connection between Catalina and Gus and Max that defies all of the Ortega Law nonsense. They, and we, are family no matter what happens.

Okay, so, enough of that stuff and on to my other little sweeties. Poor baby Gus has had a monster of a cold this week. As usual, his asthma started acting up a few hours after his first sneeze. Because of his coughing, he didn't get more than 10 minutes of continuous sleep on Monday night. Our doctor has now prescribed daily medication for his asthma, so we are hopeful that his future colds won't be so bad. Monday was awful...he coughed so much before his visit to the doctor that he threw up all over the house. I'm not kidding, like 13 times. I was running around the house trying to get his albuterol with him coughing and throwing up over my shoulder. I know that it's not a nice mental picture, but imagine what my shirt and my floors looked like. Yesterday was a little better as the day progressed and then last night he actually slept pretty well. In fact, I woke up at 5:45 this morning and sat straight up in bed thinking that something must be wrong because I hadn't heard him since 2 or so. He's napping quietly right now, so we seem to be on the right track.

Whew, are you wondering if I'll ever stop typing? One last thing...we took the kids to see Santa last weekend. It wasn't as magical as I wanted it to be. Gus fell asleep before we got to the front of the line. He didn't miss much. There were pictures of "Fred Claus" all over the place and a clip of the movie playing in the background. Santa was kind of sweaty and the elves were yawning and bored. But, Catalina was pretty excited and after a little coaxing, she even took a picture with him, as you can see below. She asked him for "a beehive game," which is this game that she saw in a catalog right after she saw "Bee Movie." Bibi, don't go buying it because I have it on good authority that Santa will come through for her.