It is probably foolish to try and draw pregnancy analogies to an international adoption, but at a time when I am pretty much speechless, it is the best I can come up with. I found out yesterday that I got approved by PGN!! I feel like my water broke because I got a huge sign that a baby sighting is imminent...I just don't know the exact time...just soon. I am in total shock a day later. PGN is the equivalent of the Guatemalan Attorney General's Office and is supposed to be the last hurdle in Guatemala before I can finalize my adoption at the US Embassy. What is so shocking about this is that I got approved in PGN in 7 weeks!! My agency told me that my case was one of the fastest cases they have had in a long time. The fact that I did not get kicked out at least once like so many other cases do for minor or inconsequential reasons, is just GOOD LUCK. Plain and simple. There is no rhyme or reason to why my case was approved without any kickouts. Wow, what an amazing, thrilling surprise!! I was prepared to be kicked out to have the process start over within PGN at least once, maybe more which would put getting Abby late summer. What this means is that I might be picking up Abby FOR GOOD and taking her home at the end of March when she will only be 7 months old!! That is about 4-5 months earlier than expected!!
Let's be honest. I am not ready. Probably no amout of preparation is going to get me ready, but I will go into overdrive over the next 6 weeks to be as ready as I can be. There are things I just wasn't focusing on because I wasn't expecting to get her so young. This could not be a better problem to have, but it is time to find day care, get that crib set up, and buy all that age appropriate stuff that I didn't think I would be getting for her now. I feel like a mad woman about to jump out of my skin. I have never been so excited for anything, and nothing has really truly prepared me for the wave of emotions that I go through on a daily basis. I can literally cry happy tears just thinking of Abby and her beautiful smile no matter what I was doing 5 seconds before that. If I told you my body was physically aching to hold her, I would be telling you the truth. What a strange yet wonderful feeling it is.
I have to put a * on this PGN approval because there is still one legal issue hanging over my head. When the new law was passed and all "in process" cases like mine were to be grandfathered in under the old laws, there was one stipulation. You had to register your case with the newly created Central Authority, CNA. It seems silly to have to register with the new CNA when my case was filed in PGN before year end 2007, but it seemed like a minor, manageable requirement. Unfortunately, the CNA did not become fully operational until last week, and there are over 2000 cases to get registered by the deadline, today, 2/12. The CNA's original staff was fired because they were appointed by the previous Guatemalan president days before the new president, Colom, took over. Colom appointed his own people, the location of the CNA changed in mid stream, the form to register the cases changed, the CNA didn't have the funding to pay their employees and they didn't have adequate supplies to run the office at full steam. Reports of long lines of attorneys trying to register multiple cases at once were widespread. Many people in the same boat that I am got confirmation from their agencies that they were registered by the deadline today. I did NOT get that confirmation unfortunately, and the lawyer in me is very stressed about this.
My agency is confident that the deadline will be extended. My case was registered at the first CNA office a few weeks ago, but Guatemala is requiring that everyone re-register. The CNA did stay open on the weekends and has showed a willingness to work all the cases, but I wish I could share my agency's optimism that this will work itself out. I have to believe that because the alternative is too scary and painful. I am also hopeful that my PGN approval would effectively render this registration moot since the PGN is supposed to be the final authority on the Guatemalan side.
I am still going on my visit trip on the 28th even with this new development. If everything works out, I will be returning to Guatemala 2-4 weeks after the visit to pick Abby up and bring her home. Maybe she will remember me. That would be pretty cool.
What's next is getting Abby's birth certificate again, having a 2nd DNA sample taken to match Abby to her birth mother and then once the results come back, the US Embassy sends me a "pink slip" which is basically an email stating I have an appointment at the Embassy in Guatemala on a certain date where I show up with Abby and finalize the adoption. After that appointment, she is legally mine. I will have to re-adopt her again when I come home, but that will be a piece of cake compared to everything else!
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