Our youngest son had his first baseball practice last night. He woke up so excited that he wanted to wear his cleats to school. I can't imagine how hard it was for him to get through the day.
Grammy and Pap came to see him at practice. During practice my Mom called Jim and I over to speak with her and my Dad. My parents had a very special gift for us--a gift from the heart. They know how hard we have been struggling with the recent delays in Miranda's case. My Mom has listened to me cry because I miss her so much and I just yearn to hold her. My parents gave us enough money for airplane tickets and some extra to cover our hotel so that we can plan another trip to see our baby!!! Jim and I just stared at them--both of us with tears in our eys--because we just didn't know what to say. It was very emotional! I have always prided myself on being self-sufficient and Jim and I always say that whatever we have we have done by ourselves. Reluctantly we accepted this gift from my parents and professed our sincere thanks to them. The best part of the whole thing is that we are going to see Miranda!!!!
Friday, March 30, 2007
No News IS NOT Good News!!!
We have been trying to be so patient. Finally on Tuesday we just couldn't take it anymore. Jim fired off an email to our agency letting them know that we were less than happy with their communication skills over the past month or so. It is not acceptable that we do not get return phone calls or answers to our emails. He demanded to know if we were in PGN or not? He let them know at this point we would be happy with a simple "yes" or "no" response. For those of you that know Jim it takes a lot to ruffle his feathers.
Unfortunately their reply is not what we were hoping for. We are NOT in PGN yet. Our attorney in Guatemala is still having problems with the Guatemalan social worker and our homestudy report. For some reason the social worker does not like the way our homestudy addresses the guardianship of our children. I'm not sure what else she wants because it indicates in black & white that Michele and Tim would be the guardians of our children. Our attorney in Guatemala had to go to the social workers boss to get this issue resolved. From what we have been told we are just waiting on the final report from the social worker. According to our agency several families had the misfortune of being assigned to this social worker and everyone is having problems.
The hardest part to swallow is the fact that Miranda is now six weeks older than the last time we saw her and she is no closer to coming home. Her case has been at an absolute stand still since we came back from Guatemala. Instead of her being home by Easter we will be lucky to have her home by Memorial Day. Every day is torture when you do not receive an email or some type of communication on your case. We are lucky in the fact that we have two wonderful children at home to help distract us from the fact that absolutely nothing is happening.
Unfortunately their reply is not what we were hoping for. We are NOT in PGN yet. Our attorney in Guatemala is still having problems with the Guatemalan social worker and our homestudy report. For some reason the social worker does not like the way our homestudy addresses the guardianship of our children. I'm not sure what else she wants because it indicates in black & white that Michele and Tim would be the guardians of our children. Our attorney in Guatemala had to go to the social workers boss to get this issue resolved. From what we have been told we are just waiting on the final report from the social worker. According to our agency several families had the misfortune of being assigned to this social worker and everyone is having problems.
The hardest part to swallow is the fact that Miranda is now six weeks older than the last time we saw her and she is no closer to coming home. Her case has been at an absolute stand still since we came back from Guatemala. Instead of her being home by Easter we will be lucky to have her home by Memorial Day. Every day is torture when you do not receive an email or some type of communication on your case. We are lucky in the fact that we have two wonderful children at home to help distract us from the fact that absolutely nothing is happening.
Wednesday, March 21, 2007
I Can't Take it Anymore!!
Bring on the chocolate! Get out the straitjacket! I'm ready for the little white padded room!
We typically receive our monthly update and pictures around the 15th of the month. Well the middle of the month has come and gone, and what do we have? Nothin'! Zilch! This is killing me...
I finally broke down and sent our adoption coordinator an e-mail last week. We hate to bother her because we know that she has a lot of families that she is working with beside us. After several days without a reply I had Jim send her a message asking for an update. Jim did get an auto reply message that she was out of the office until March 19th. What a long weekend we had!
Nothing on Monday from the adoption agency but I was okay with that. I explained it away that our adoption coordinator was trying to catch up on Monday. By yesterday afternoon we still hadn't received any information. In desperation I had Jim call her to tell her that I was driving him crazy and could we please have an update. Guess what? She wasn't at her desk so he had to leave a voicemail message.
Right now it is 1:30 p.m. and we still have not heard any information. We check our email about every five minutes and refresh our screens every ten minutes. This is definitely turning into a sickness!
We typically receive our monthly update and pictures around the 15th of the month. Well the middle of the month has come and gone, and what do we have? Nothin'! Zilch! This is killing me...
I finally broke down and sent our adoption coordinator an e-mail last week. We hate to bother her because we know that she has a lot of families that she is working with beside us. After several days without a reply I had Jim send her a message asking for an update. Jim did get an auto reply message that she was out of the office until March 19th. What a long weekend we had!
Nothing on Monday from the adoption agency but I was okay with that. I explained it away that our adoption coordinator was trying to catch up on Monday. By yesterday afternoon we still hadn't received any information. In desperation I had Jim call her to tell her that I was driving him crazy and could we please have an update. Guess what? She wasn't at her desk so he had to leave a voicemail message.
Right now it is 1:30 p.m. and we still have not heard any information. We check our email about every five minutes and refresh our screens every ten minutes. This is definitely turning into a sickness!
Sunday, March 11, 2007
How much longer?
How much longer seems to be the $1 million dollar question right now. This is the question that we hear over and over. The honest answer is that we just do not know. As far as we know we have not entered PGN yet. This hurts because for the past three weeks we were under the impression that we would be entering any day. This last part of the process is the most heart wrenching because you can be in PGN (aka the black hole) from anywhere between 6 weeks to 6 months. There is no rhyme or reason why they review, KO, or approve files. Additionally during this time we will not be able to get much information from our agency regarding our status. You are either in PGN or out of PGN.
Last night I cried myself to sleep because I miss our little Miranda so much. As of this Thursday, March 15th it will be one month since we met Miranda for the first time. I wonder if she has figured out how to roll over (she almost had it mastered during our visit)? I wonder if she is teething (she really liked to chew on our fingers and knuckles)? Is she sleeping through the night now? I long to hold her again, smell her hair, and feel the warmth of her body as she sleeps on my chest. I ache to hear her laugh, coos, and the rhythmic sound of her breathing at night.
One night earlier this week my Mom boldly stated that Miranda will be home in time for Easter. At the time I agreed with her but that thought stayed with me for the rest of the week. I think that my own realization and understanding is that she won't be home for Easter. It was with this thought that the tears started to build in my eyes and run down my cheeks. The weeks are quickly slipping by. She is already four months old now and by Easter she will be five months old. We are just missing so much!
Last night I cried myself to sleep because I miss our little Miranda so much. As of this Thursday, March 15th it will be one month since we met Miranda for the first time. I wonder if she has figured out how to roll over (she almost had it mastered during our visit)? I wonder if she is teething (she really liked to chew on our fingers and knuckles)? Is she sleeping through the night now? I long to hold her again, smell her hair, and feel the warmth of her body as she sleeps on my chest. I ache to hear her laugh, coos, and the rhythmic sound of her breathing at night.
One night earlier this week my Mom boldly stated that Miranda will be home in time for Easter. At the time I agreed with her but that thought stayed with me for the rest of the week. I think that my own realization and understanding is that she won't be home for Easter. It was with this thought that the tears started to build in my eyes and run down my cheeks. The weeks are quickly slipping by. She is already four months old now and by Easter she will be five months old. We are just missing so much!
Wednesday, March 7, 2007
Legal Guardian Mix up
I just knew something wasn't right. I had that feeling deep, down in the bottom of my stomach. We have been home from our first visit trip since February 19, 2007 and we had not received any news about our case. I asked for an update from our contact at our adoption agency and she responded back to us last night. It seems that there was a problem with the social worker report. The social worker said that our adoption homestudy did not address legal guardianship. What! I know that it was addressed because we had to submit copies of our Last Will & Testament to the homestudy agency. I raced upstairs to tell my husband that our case has been at a stand still for the past three weeks, and together we both start searching through our mound of adoption paperwork looking for our homestudy. After several exasperating moments we find the darn thing and as we skim the report (all nine pages) we find what we are looking for. Sure enough on page 7 of the report the social worker indicates that my sister and her husband have been appointed the legal guardians of our children (including Miranda) should anything happen to the two of us.
I whiz back downstairs (taking the steps two at a time) and fire back an email to our agency. I pointed out the page and section and then quoted exactly what the social worker wrote. "Is this enough I ask?" The last thing that we want is to be kicked out of PGN (like our attorney general) for something being wrong with our paperwork. Once you get kicked out of PGN it takes about 6 weeks for your file to be reviewed again. Such an unnecessary delay since our little girl is getting older each and every day.
Thankfully we heard back from our agency today and it sounds like everything is back on track. Keep those fingers, legs, and arms crossed that we can enter and exit PGN quickly. We are ready to bring Miranda home.
I whiz back downstairs (taking the steps two at a time) and fire back an email to our agency. I pointed out the page and section and then quoted exactly what the social worker wrote. "Is this enough I ask?" The last thing that we want is to be kicked out of PGN (like our attorney general) for something being wrong with our paperwork. Once you get kicked out of PGN it takes about 6 weeks for your file to be reviewed again. Such an unnecessary delay since our little girl is getting older each and every day.
Thankfully we heard back from our agency today and it sounds like everything is back on track. Keep those fingers, legs, and arms crossed that we can enter and exit PGN quickly. We are ready to bring Miranda home.
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