We got the CUTEST pictures of Kevin from our agency's representatives' trip to Guatemala last week. I can't post them here because the adoption is not final, but I know that you'd all think he's pretty cute if you could see him :-) (I know, most of my readers found photos in their email boxes earlier this week and have seen him, but there is at least one person out there who reads my blog who is not a personal friend for family member!)
Kevin went to the doctor last week and we received the report from that visit (yay!) He is diagnosed as happy and healthy! He weighs 24 lbs and is 32 inches tall (at age 2 yrs & 3 mos); he's small but proportioned.
We learned yesterday that the DNA test to match Kevin with his birthmother (to prevent adoption fraud) was not done until this week. After the test is complete, the results will be sent to us and to the US Embassy in Guatemala City. The Embassy will process Kevin's visa pre-approval (so he can travel to the US when we pick him up.) This is currently taking anywhere from a few weeks to a couple of months. Right now, this area of the embassy is understaffed and the adoption caseload is not decreasing, so the wait times are pretty high compared to recent history. We have no idea how it will go once our case is there.
Also this week the social worker from Family Court met with Kevin's birthmother. The social worker will write up a report and then our case will move into the PGN (Guatemalan Solicitor General's office). It could be a few weeks before the report is written and then the PGN could take anywhere from a week or two to longer, depending on which lawyer receives our case and whether they have any issues with us or our paperwork.
The Family Court/PGN process will take place concurrently with the DNA/Embassy process. We'll hope that they finish up around the same time, as that makes pulling our whole case together that much easier for the lawyer.
We've been saying that it'll be 2-3 months for awhile now, but that's still our guess for how long it'll be before we travel to bring Kevin home. My sister asked how we're handling the wait as she can hardly contain her excitement and he's not even her child! Here is my response:
We're able to hold it all together while waiting because we know that
we can't keep a high level of excitement up for very long - that would
be draining. So we temper our excitement, only letting it out to run
every once in awhile :-) Also, we enjoy our quiet house with nobody
to care for but ourselves (and we're low-maintenance at that), so
we're cherishing the peace and quiet that we have now and that helps
to make the wait easier, also. Plus, even if this takes a few more
months, it'll still be less time that we thought it would take! We
initially figured that we'd bring our child home early in 2005, so
anytime in 2004 would be faster than we planned!
No comments:
Post a Comment