Rylan’s Journey Home

The past couple weeks have been so great for me!  I’ve been feeling SO much better knowing that we are back in PGN and moving along towards the end of this journey.  Marco (from Adoption Supervisors Guatemala) informed me that we definately are on the 2nd reviewers desk.  We should know the outcome this week or next for sure.  This meaning will the reviewer find an error they want fixed or will they approve and send us to the directors desk for a FINAL signature!?  It is a complete guessing game.  No one knows what will happen.  I can only keep my fingers crossed and continue to pray that can find our way to completion soon.  If we pass this reviewer it will be a major hurdle completed.  Knowing we would be on the directors desk for that signature would be fantastic!

To add to the excitement of the past couple weeks is knowing that one week from today I will be on my way to Guatemala!  I can’t wait to see Rylan again.  I have a feeling I will have my hands full with him!  His is fiesty and all full of boy energy.  I only hope he isn’t scared of me and that maybe this visit will help him ease into the transition of coming home with John and I in the future.  I can honestly say my bags are packed and ready to go!

I will miss Cameron so much it is insane!  I can’t stand leaving him for more than a night.  John isn’t able to go with me to Guatemala, so he will be home with him.  That helps me feel better.  I’m sure the trip will go fast.  Such a conflict of feelings.  Wanting to be with one, but not wanting to leave the other.

On to the accomplishments of the other mom’s that I am so connected with.  Terri is home with Isaiah!!!!  They came home this past weekend and he is such a cutie pie.  While they were in Guatemala they were able to spend time with Abbie.  Her abandonment hearing is next week.  Sonja (who I went to Guat with in May) just entered PGN too!  They have been at their adoption for 1 year now too.  Anna is awaiting her pre-approval any day and finally was able to get family court completed.  Their journey has also been over a year long.  Some major progress for all of us!  And to Michelle…who is OUT of PGN with her daughter!  Another miracle.  I am so happy for all these ladies.

I follow so many blogs of families fighting their way through their adoptions.  My heart is with you all.  It takes a tremendous amount of strength and patience.  Somedays I too feel that I don’t have much left.  All I can say is hang in there and fight and always ask for help when you need it!  Thanks to everyone for hanging in here with us!

***Added 8:30pm - We just received word from Marco that the 1st reviewer is satisfied with the corrections our attorney made!  We are moving on to the 2nd reviewer in PGN!  I could NOT be more excited and happy right now.  I feel like despite all the turkey I ate, I could run 100 laps around the house!  Thank you GOD!!!!***  More on this later…..

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!  As this day has approached I have been constantly reminded how blessed I am and in so many ways.  I have a happy, healthly (and somewhat) crazy family that I adore - from our parents, to aunts, to cousins, and beyond!!!  I have an abundance of friends who I’ve known what has seemed my entire life!  I’ve met new friends throughout this adoption journey that have become a huge part of my life.  My wishes are for you all to have a fantastic day!  

We are most certainly thinking of Rylan today and wishing he were here.  But I am thankful that he is being blessed with a foster family that loves him….and who are taking care of him until he can come home.  So Happy Thanksgiving Rylan.  We love you and miss you.  We are getting closer to bringing you home where you belong. 

Love, 
Daddy, Mommy, and Cameron

I have VERY good news!  Marco confirmed that our file was resubmitted back to PGN last week!  Thank you God!  Now if we can only move through the reviewers in a timely fashion we have a chance at being “out” by the end of the year.  This would mean that the few weeks following the “out” (the month Jan) would be spent finalizing paperwork in Guatemala (new birth certificate/visa/2nd DNA test, etc), and then we would travel to get him not long after that.  Don’t get me wrong.  I am still hoping and praying that just maybe a miracle will be granted and we get out of PGN before that, but if not I am prepared maybe for our little guy to be home by Valentine’s Day!  What a gift that would be!

The not so good news is that John won’t be able to go with on the visit to Guatemala.  I am so bummed out about that.  I really wanted him to be a part of this, and to see Rylan in person.  With my parents we own and operate our own family business.  John is the only one who knows his route and the route must be done every day.  Well we’ve been trying to hire a full-time helper for John now for several months.  There is no way John is missing out on the pickup trip, and lets not forget that John has not had a day off work in several years!  Yes, I said YEARS!  My husband has a work ethic like my dad which is vitually unheard of these days!  And the work they do is far from easy.  All elements of the weather, physical labor, and if your sick, you still work.

So anyway, the first helper we hired with a CDL lasted not even a month.  He couldn’t show up for work on time, and missed several days in the first couple weeks!  The 2nd helper we had loved the job, but got in a horrible motorcycle accident and has a long road of recovery!  The 3rd helper we have is working out fantastic except he doesn’t have a CDL and failed his permit test.  He will keep trying until he passes it of course, but we didn’t have much time to work with before this visit trip came up.  I have to admit part of me is glad that he will be home to care for Cameron though too.  Cameron is a big time mommy and daddy’s boy so I’m not sure how he would do with both of us gone.  I’m planning to take a laptop so I can webcam back home.  We’ll see what happens!

That is about all the news I have for now.  I’d like to wish Terri a wonderful trip picking up her son Isaiah and visiting with her daughter Abbie in Guatemala.  Sonja should be getting into PGN real soon.  Anna is waiting on her family court to be done…maybe this week!  And Michelle is going on her 8th week in PGN with no kickouts.  Things are looking good…so now if they just vote in that grandfather clause and push back the new law implentation date to April 1st we all will be sitting great for once!

Well, I heard from Adrian yesterday.  He sent me an email telling me that he has the last document we need!  Yeah!  He also stated that yesterday he would take our file to PGN.  Now, I’m not holding my breath for that.  I always know when Adrian says “today” it probably means “2 days later”.  In all honesty, I am fine with that.  I am just relieved to know he has everything, and we are on our way again.

I do expect Marco to confirm our file being resubmitted though in the next few days.  He has been such a help to us!

I’ll keep you all posted!

Me!!! I couldn’t stand it any longer. I have to see Rylan again. It has been 6 long months since I last held him and I can barely stand it anymore. It is great to see him by webcam and I know how lucky I am to be able to have that opportunity… but I need to be with him. I think this will help him in his overall adjustment when he can come home too. He probably doesn’t remember the my visit in May, but he will maybe recogonize my voice and face from teh computer. So this with another visit will hopefully be more familar to him come our pickup trip. So with Christmas coming (our 2nd without him) I just want a little time with him. I can take some presents over with me which makes Christmas shopping the day after Thanksgiving just that much better! I am SO excited! It won’t be a very long trip. I leave on Wed, Dec 5th and return on Sun, Dec 9th. Adrian will have Rylan brought to me on Thursday morning at 8am and I have to return him on Saturday at 5pm. So just 2 1/2 days. Besides getting to bring Rylan home, this is the next best thing. I couldn’t go without seeing my baby, and this is my Christmas present. I want for nothing more than to have my two boys home with us - all together as a family. A family of four! Of course leaving means Cameron will be here and I’m not sure of those arrangements. We are unsure yet if John will be able to go. He has a demanding job and he is the only one who knows his route. His helper is getting better but doesn’t have a CDL. He is testing for his permit tomorrow (Wed). If he passes, John can go. If he doesn’t, he probably won’t be able to go. We know a few people who have CDL’s to go with our helper who will just have a permit, so that isn’t an issue. So I really hope we can make this work! Cameron will be happy as a lark without us though! He has grandparents and aunts/uncles/cousins that he loves. I never worry about his safety when I go, which is such a relief. As much as I would like to take him with me to Guatemala, I don’t think it is a good idea. On the adoption front, no news from Adrian. He was supposed to have our final document yesterday or today. I did break down and email him today, but no reply. That means either he isn’t in the office, or he didn’t get it done. I plan to maybe see if we can make a phone call tomorrow or Thursday. We need to kick his butt in gear! My patience is running out.

Thanks to Terri and my “hubby” we got through to Adrian yesterday afternoon!  He has 4 of the 5 documents needed to get us back into PGN.  He is expecting to get the 5th one on Monday or Tuesday.  I waited this long, so I can certainly wait a few more days.  To be honest I wasn’t expecting our file to be ready.  I’ve come to know Adrian all to well!  Adrian and my “hubby” communicate perfectly!  I’m typically dismissed by him so this seems to work very well.  I’ll give Adrian until Wednesday, then I’ll email or maybe see if we can call again.  I need to stay on him now.  He has had our file for two weeks now, and next week will be the 3rd.  Plenty of time in my book to get things done.

I am very seriously thinking about another visit trip, and this time John will go with!  Of course I won’t be able to tell Adrian he is coming because he is expecting a fluent spanish speaking man!  We are thinking of Dec 5-9.  John has a very hard time getting off work and just to do this will be difficult.  Now that I’m accepting the idea that this could be another 12 weeks yet, I can’t imagine going that long without holding him.  It has already been 5 months since I handed him back.  I know deep down I have been pushing off the visit because it hurts so much to have to give him back… but it is begining to hurt more not seeing him.  I was SO hoping we’d be on a pickup trip by now.  No time to feel sorry for ourselves though.  Keep moving forward.
 
I am extremely thankful though that we have such a wonderful foster mother.  I know how incredibly lucky I am.  We are talking tonight at 8pm with them via webcam….so in an hour I’ll be seeing them!  It’s been 3 weeks since our last chat, so I’m pretty excited to touch base with what is going on there. 

We had our very first parent/teacher conference with Cameron yesterday too.  His teacher had great things to say about him.  She said in the last month he has shown great improvements!  Very bright, quick learner, intelligent and all around a very pleasant little boy.  He is gaining more independence every day.  He still gets a little impulsive and  loves to antagonize the other kids once in awhile.  A perfect example is when they are in the gym on scooters.  H’ll get a wild hair and decide to ram the kid in front of him!  So we need to work on that…. he has this issue at daycare too.  I know some days Mindy is about ready to pull her hair out as he is worse there with that sort of thing!  So we continue to to work with him and follow through on discipline (but I know we spoil him to much) so we can be part of the blame!  I am really proud of him though, and he knows it!

Congratulations to Sonja on getting Family Court completed last week!  You’ll be in PGN soon.  Also, congratulations to Terri on getting pink with Isaiah!  Pink means that she has received her pickup date which is next week!  Anna, I know your family court is coming… and we’ll continue to help you however we can.  Michelle, your doing awesome in PGN and I have a feeling in another 3-4 weeks you’ll be out.  Persistence, faith, friendships, and lots of tears have brought us ALL a long way!

Great news everyone!  So many adoptive families, US Agencies, US Government Entities were working to implement a grandfather clause for “in progress cases” to the current set of laws going into effect come Jan 1st.  It sure is looking like that will happen.  This is the best news.  But it gets even better!  It is reported that the Guatemalan Congress has decided NOT to implement new laws come Jan 1 but rather post-pone it until April 1st.  This will most certainly allow cases to finish up before then!  For those yet in the system come April 1st it will still be quite important to have that grandfather amendment added, so we will continue fighting for it!

Before I post the official wording of the notice on those laws, let me give you an update.  We’ve heard nothing.  How’s that for an update!  Seriously, I emailed Adrian Saturday morning telling him to look for my Fed Ex.  I intentionally had not asked anything because in an email to me before that he said he “hoped” to get our file back to PGN this week.  In another way I’m glad he hasn’t emailed because we are calling him tomorrow!  That way my “hubby” can speak directly to him to find out what is and is not done, and when everything can be expected to be complete.  I sure hope it is all like Marco said “easy fixes”.  Keep your fingers crossed and prayers coming.  We need to get back into PGN now because we’ve been out two weeks already.

So, here is the post on the adoption laws…..

Ortega/Hague Update

“Guatemalan papers are reporting that committees of Congress met yesterday on the adoption law. This was NOT the vote on the ammendments. But based on these reports, Guatemala will postpone implementing the Hague until April 1, 2008 in order to better coincide with the US’s likely ratification date”.

Well, it finally happened, our family got its first 10 seconds of fame!  We had an event last evening at a local Children’s Museum.  I am on the Advisory Board with Lutheran Social Services (LSS) and over the past year we have done some fundraising to do more promotion and adversiting about adoption.  We had excess funds and decided to do something fun for the families.  So we booked a private party for all families to come free of charge.  It was a great success, and lots of fun!

WKBT News showed up and wanted to interview a family.  Our social workers from LSS came and found us and asked us if we would do it.  We knew we didn’t look the part as we had been running around all day doing errands!  No chance to comb the hair or make John shave…. but we jumped in to do it anyway! 

I am passionate about adoption and I love sharing our story so we couldn’t say no.  In fact afterwards on our ride home we discussed how honored we felt to be asked to do the story.  It isn’t long or anything major, but yet just getting the word “adoption” in the news is huge - and especially when it is uplifting and not negative.

So here is the link http://www.wkbt.com/global/story.asp?s=7312433

When you click on it you will see a short story about the video, then click on the purple camera above the story to see the video.  Cameron thinks its funny to himself on tv!  I think we all look funny! 

We’ve had a good weekend so far.  Thursday I sent a document Fed Ex to Guatemala so that Adrian can put it into our file with the corrections he is working on.  It is a document on our end that I found a mistake on, and I know the PGN Reviewers would have caught it and kicked us out again.  So I was tracking the package and it made it to Guatemala Friday night at 4pm!  Wow, within 24hrs…that was pretty good.  I sent Adrian an email telling him I sent it and it looked like it had arrived.  So I pray that he has all his corrections done and that he gets our documents translated fast…….and now this week gets that file back to PGN (final court) asap!  They are closed Monday because the Presidential Elections are today, so I’m guess it won’t happen until Friday at the earliest.

Today Cameron and I are going shopping and to the Children’s Musuem.  I’ve been working on an Adoption Advisory Board doing fundraising over the past year.  We were able to do some advertising and other items, but we thought something fun for families would be nice.  So we have the musuem privately rented for adoptive families from 5:30-7:30pm tonight!  It should be a fun way to end the weekend!

Here is the latest on the Guatemala 5000 Initiative.  For those of you who haven’t read prior posts, this was started to help bring all in-process (meaning referred children) home under current laws before they change in Guatemala.  Guatemala had been threatening to suspend all current adoptions and to stop any news ones.  The president of that country is not adoption friendly, nor is his wife or the vice-president for that matter.

Anyway, elections are this weekend (Sun Nov 4) in Guatemala for a new President.  The current President Oscar Berger has been inspired by UNICEF to STOP ALL adoptions before he leaves office for a substantial amount of money.  They have been waving this carrot in front of him really since 2003.  A rift in adoptions was caused at that time, but after a short suspension of a few months things went back to normal.

Because of the threat that families like us may lose our son to a system so unstable with no securities in place to care for these thousands of children, many adoptive families, adoption agencies, friends, family, co-workers, etc, etc got together.  We wrote, called, faxed, and emailed our Congressmen, Senators, our President, UNICEF staff, etc, etc. to plead our cases.  To allow the referred children to come home to the families who await them.  There was an on-line petition that had more than 25,000 signatures.  It is sounding like our collecitve efforts worked.  The current President is now saying he supports and amendment for cases like ours.  Lots of other adoption groups are also backing it.  The Guatemalan Congress will be under pressure now to pass an amendment, and I hope and pray that it comes soon.

So, here is the latest I heard;

Through our collective efforts, the Guatemala 5000 Initiative has resulted in 203 Members of the United States Congress supporting the completion of all in-process adoptions via their signature on letters being sent today, October 31, 2007 to Guatemalan President Oscar Berger, UNICEF Executive Director Ann Veneman and UNICEF Guatemala
Director Manuel Manrique. The 203 Senators and Representatives represent the largest number in the 22 year history of the Congressional Coalition on Adoption and the first time the Coalition has addressed UNICEF.”

Link: http://www.jcics.org/Guatemala5000.htm

I’m still promising that post on UNICEF.  All these years I had supported them.  Applauded their work and was proud to be a supporter.  They have the ability to do great things, but their nose does NOT belong where it is right now.