2 month medical visit

Shes growing like a weed! Up to 8lbs 9oz and 50 cm long. Shes smiling when spoken too and making little baby noises "as if trying to talk herself" the doc says.
Here she is in a baby ponytail! No smiles for the camera yet but hope to see her sweet smile soon in person! Only 3 more weeks till we can hold her (at least for a little while).

FC update

We were thrilled to get the update today from our agency that the social work interviews have been completed with Nora's birthmom as of 9/21. The director said its taking on average 3-6 weeks after the interviews to get the final ruling from the judge. These interviews are a huge milestone completed for family court.
After the judge approves Nora's case, we can move onto the next step, PGN. I will post more about that when we get there.
Our fingers are crossed we get a speedy judge!

PA!!! SHOCKED!!!

Excellent news!!! We are still in FC/family court as far as I know. FC is a Guat side process. In the meantime, since DNA match we were also waiting for PA or preapproval from the US Embassy. The PA is basically the US saying we have looked over Nora's documents and we approve her as an adoptable "orphan". On average it was taking 60 days from DNA match. A few lately have been 35-40 days.

Well, we got PA today!! Thats only 17 days after we got DNA match in the mail. Unbelievable!! What an awesome email to get from the governement. :)

Yeah!! We really needed this news! Now if we could only get out of family court!

Please sign this online petition!

On Tuesday, the US Dept of State came out with a warning saying people should avoid adopting from Guatemala. We went into this knowing changes could take place but the US Dept of State and Guatemala both had agreed that in process cases as of Jan 1, 2008 (like us) would be "grandfathered" in and safe. The US is now saying they arent sure this will happen. Meaning, people like us in process may never bring these children home. Our adoption agency and others in the adoption community are outraged at this latest statement by the US. Why arent they forcing Guatemala to comply to the rules of the adoption laws instead of just warning everyone?

So please take a minute to sign this online petition. They only need your name and email address for verification.
We need to let the US know that it is not okay for them to allow Guatemala to ignore the rules and disallow inprocess adoptions to continue. Thousands of children, like Nora, would be left in foster care instead of having permanent loving homes.

So please, help us get Nora home!!

http://www.petitiononline.com/foafoa1/petition.html

Thanks Jeri!

Someone decided the background of the photos wasnt the most photogenic option. I must admit the horn coming out of her head in the one pic cracks me up. Shes still beautiful though. So thanks to Jeri, she made a couple a changes to highlight our daughters pretty face.

Shes awake!

In her September surprise visit pictures. She goes to bed at 8pm and is now eating every 3 hours.

September social visit pics

Every month the agency gets the foster moms and babies together to take photos and just have fun. Heres our sleeping beauty. This is a preemie sweatshirt that Ryan insisted we buy his baby sister. He would not leave the store without it. He will be so happy to see it on her. Shes growing out of those preemie clothes pretty quick. Yeah for growing healthy!

7 week old weight check

Nora saw the doctor on Wednesday. Shes now 7lbs4oz and 19 inches long. Shes gained another pound in the last 2 weeks. No new photos though yet. :(

DNA match

We finally got the official papers, DNA is a match. The lab is 99.96% sure that Nora is the birthmoms baby.

We entered Family Court

We are still awaiting the results from the dna test. We get the results mailed to us directly from the lab here in the US. We are guessing we had at least a 1-3 day delay due to the holiday so we hope to get them this week.
But good news tonite as we found out we entered family court. Theres many steps in this process. Heres a cut and paste from our agency website....
The Guatemala adoption then progresses in the following general order:
DNA (this is in process)
Family Court
PGN
New Birth Certificate and Passport
Translation and submission of documents to U.S. Embassy for pink slip
Medical Exam from U.S. Embassy Doctor
Embassy Interview with Family and Travel Home

And a tidbit on FC (family court) also from the agency website...

Around the same time DNA is happening, your Guatemalan adoption file will be submitted to Family Court in Guatemala City, where it will be assigned to a court social worker.
The social worker will review your home study, the birth mother's documents and the child's documents, and then interview the birth mother and see the child and the child's foster mother.

If everything is in order, the social worker will issue a report and make a recommendation in favor of the Guatemalan adoption and your case will exit Family Court

First day of first grade

Ryan woke up early he was so excited. He practically ran to the bus. I met him at school to show him where to line up and help put supplies away and all I got was "when are you going home mom?" He got off the bus tonite and said "I likeded every thing about it!".