SAY YOUR PRAYERS!!

We have received some potentially devasting news out of Guatemala. The President of Guatemala is planning on issuing an Executive Order tomorrow that will SUSPEND ALL ADOPTIONS! The announcement will be made tomorrow at 10:45am in Guatemala city by the presidents wife and will impact ALL Guatemalan children and adoptive parents. I will keep you posted on what happens but PLEASE say a prayer tonight that this does not happen and that if it does, our elected officials in the United States will stand up to defend us. To keep posted you can go to www.guatadopt.com

Another sleepless night!
Lee Anne

We have been KO'd

BUMMER! That is all that we can say. After almost three weeks in PGN (the last court we have to endure) we were kicked out on Friday. Receiving a kick out (the technical word is previo) is VERY common in PGN but we were praying that after almost four mo. in family court we would breeze through this part. Unfortunately no! We were notified by the hired help (Adoption Supervisors) that our file had been reviewed and that some type of error had been found. However, they were unable to determine at this time what the error is because our main attorney had retrieved the file quickly (hopefully so she coud fix it). We hope to find out Monday what the exact problem is and when we can be re-submitted to PGN. Typically it takes ANOTHER 6-8 WEEKS to get reviewed after a kick out so it is a significant setback. We will keep you posted...the saga continues!

PHOTO UPDATE

Hi,

John, Sarah and I just returned from a vacation with John's parents in the Cayman Islands! We had a wonderful time and it was a welcome break from the freezing cold and stress of the adoption. I have attached a few photos of Sarah on vacation and one of us all together. While away we received a photo update of Joey and he looks so cute. He just turned six mo. old the other day and seems like a happy baby in the photos. Our thanks goes out to Karla the attorney's (in Guatemala) assistant. She always puts so much thought into doing the pictures for us and made sure that he was wearing some clothes that we just sent down (12 mo. mind you!) We also found out that our case has finally been assigned to a PGN reviewer so hopefully she will get to our file soon and be in a great mood when she does:)

Take Care,

Lee Anne

WHOO HOO!!!!!!!! ONTO PGN

Finally...that is all I can say. After almost four monthes in family court (an unheard of record) we are onto PGN (the final court). The last few weeks have beene especially stressful. After monthes of nothing, we finally could not take it any more and hired additional help with our adoption. The people that we hired are called Adoption Supervisors and their basic function (for a heafty sum of money) is to step into stalled adoptions and get the ball moving. Now you may be thinking "isnt that what you pay the agency for?" and the answer is yes!!! But, they were not doing their job so we reached out to this very reputable third party and they got us out of family court. They are a Godsend really! We never received much communcation from our agency unless we asked questions, however with the Adoption Supervisors we received weekly sometimes daily updates on what is going on. John will tell you, it has saved my sanity (sorry hun, I was alittle crazy huh). So now that we are in PGN our dossier (the papers we put together mo. ago that back up that we are good stable people) will be reviewed by a Guatemalan attorney who works for the government. This process can take anywhere from 6-12 weeks and our paperwork can get kicked out for any reason. If we do receive a kick out the errors must be fixed and then we would get re-submitted. So we are praying that we get through PGN quickly with NO kickouts...I think we deserve it after 3+ monthes in family court!

Joey is doing well. We received a medical update a few days ago and he is upto 18 lbs!! Insane huh, that is how much Sarah weighed at one year old. We have not been sent new pictures yet but when we do they will be posted here.

Sarah now knows about her little brother and asks about him constantly. "When is he coming home" "who is going to watch me when you go get him"? Oh I feel so bad for her, this process is confusing for an adult never mind a three year old. She loves to look at his pictures though and tells everyone she knows about him and what she is going to teach him. We just know that she will be a wonderful big sister!

Thank you again for all of your support. Keep the prayers coming and stay warm!!
Lee Anne