Week 4

Of a probable 12 week wait for a referral. I find myself moody at times. I know many have not gone thru this experience before and are unsure of how to support us. We are just as excited as if I was in my third trimester of pregnancy. We know our daughter will be arriving soon. We are planning her room, talking about names, buying a few things. I know for many this will not be real until they see her photo or when she is home. But as adoptive moms will say, the child is born in their heart instead of in their belly. We dont know what she looks like yet but we still can not wait to meet her. To us she isnt any less real just because I cant feel her kicking or because we havent seen her on an ultrasound.
There was an interview on the radio recently and a lesbian couple expecting their first child said something that really has stuck with me.
...We will not hide our excitement just because others may not understand or are uncomfortable with what we are doing...
Jim and I very much feel the same way.

Paper Pregnant

Now that all the paperwork is done, we are "paper pregnant". All we have to do now is sit and wait for a referral. Because we know there are quite a few families ahead of us waiting for a girl with our agency, we are expecting to wait a minimum of 8 weeks and even up to 12 weeks.

Paperchase is OVER!

We just got an email from our agency saying that our dossier (paperwork) has been officially approved and will be sent to Guatemala with the next shipment in a day or so. This is a huge relief to know the paperchase is finally over!

Mothers Day

Today is actually Mothers Day in Guatemala. How fitting that our completed paperwork arrived at our agency today. They are doing a critical review of each document. So fingers crossed for no redo's!

Local news segment

We did not see it but were told a story about Guatemala adoption was shown on Channel 4 last night. I did read the story online. We just want to let our friends and family know that this is NOT new news to us. This agency has been under investigation for several months. It is partly because of this agency that we are expecting a few delays and why Guatemala is currently trying to change the adoption process for the better. Once we get a referall, we are hoping to get Watermela home in 6-9 months. We are now guessing it may very well be closer to that 9 month timeframe due to known delays. We are very up to date on the adoption process in Guatemala. Please know that there is much more going on down there than what ends up in the news. Adoption is always a risk but we are keeping ourselves educated.

171H!

It arrived in the mail today. We love mail from the Department of Homeland Security! This was the required form which basically says the USA gives us permission to bring a child from overseas into our family. We filed for it on 2/2 and today, 85 days later, we got approval.