New Pics

She just keeps getting cuter and cuter.......

Absolutely no news

Well, I talked to the agency last week, and they had nothing to tell me. Except that we're among the lucky ones, as we're at least out of PGN, the court system and by Guatemalan law, Katerine is our baby. There are up to 3,000 cases still in the courts and the attorney general has brought in all new people to complete them, had shut them down for over a month AND has implemented a new process that involves the interviews (I've read that this is often also an interrogation and that offers to bribe the birth mother to take their babies back have occurred) of each and every birth mother. They released 180 cases last week, and annulled 15 cases. Those cases may well have been annulled for a good reason(s)... we'll never know.

We're past that stage, which is great, but still awaiting the birth certificate. The agency called us on 4/7 with the news that all we needed was the new birth certificate issued in our names from her hometown (Municipalidad de Barberena, Santa Rosa). BUT that they had implemented a new process for getting BCs and that the first one done in this municipality took 2 months. So they estimated that it would take less than that. This now seems unlikely, as today is 7 weeks. ONCE they get the BC, then we're almost done. They have to finish translating our file (all but the BC could have-and hopefully has-been done in the previous 7 weeks), which traditionally takes 3 weeks, but will hopefully take less. Once the file is translated, then the 2nd DNA test takes place (to make sure it's the same baby they tested against the mother at the beginning), and once the US Embassy gets hard copy results of the DNA test, about a week, then they issue our interview date 10-14 days from then, and THEN we head to Guatemala City.

So, it could be worse, far, far worse, but we're hoping to finish this process sooner than later and meet our little girl. And are hoping that she fits in the diapers/clothes, etc that we finally broke down and bought when traveling looked imminent.

The idiot twins and I road-tripped to Calgary when Dan was on his east coast tour. We had a great time, great weather and a ton of fun. Wendy threw us a baby shower, which was wonderful. We got to see all of our favorite two and four legged Calgarians and the dogs got just a little spoiled. He had scrambled eggs for breakfast more than once. By the last morning, Boo caught on and refused his kibble, so Wendy cooked them both eggs as a sendoff. We were all reluctant to leave.

New Kat pics

Here are some Kat pics that I just received. Can't tell if she has any teeth yet, as she's not smiling. She's 19lbs, 9oz at 8.5 months. She appears to be a good eater. No news on when we move on to the next step, let alone when we go get her.

This week's news

Well, there is no news on the Kat front, I'm really, really hoping there will be some soon. We HAVE to hear something next week. Anything would be good. Well, maybe not anything..... I suspect that it could get worse.

The good news is that I am currently off for the summer (whether or not summer ever actually arrives in the PNW-which is hasn't yet), with partial pay, as I got laid off yesterday! Work has been really slow and I thought that there might be layoffs. I was right.

That's it. I'll let y'all know when we learn something new.