The ever-stretching Guate timeline!

How about 10-15 days from this coming Wednesday instead? Sure, I can wait forever, no problem. Just keep adding on the days & weeks & months & years. Actually, we don't have it SO bad because I just read that a case finally got out of PGN last week after SEVEN YEARS in process! Yes, this family's daughter is now 7 years old and still not home with them.

Anyway...we got a call on vacation last week from the agency CEO saying that their contact was to meet with the "court official" (we still don't really know who this person is) last Wednesday, and that all of our paperwork was in order, and they were set to discuss the case. Our agency felt very confident that they could have good news for us by the end of last Wednesday. Don't get your hopes up here. Thursday afternoon Mr. CEO called to update us on what had happened at the meeting which did take place (!) as scheduled. The new doctor's report was not in the file. The agency is blaming us for pretty much any and all delays from this point forward b/c the say their contact was going to get the case through w/out the doctor report that the judge requested, but since Jason went to the court and mentioned the doctor report, it is all our fault that the doctor report now needs to be included. Whatever!

Back to the missing report...our attorney did not like how the doctor worded the explanation that Ali's b-mom is deaf and mute b/c he stated it so it seemed like therefore she cannot communicate with anyone. Our attorney wants it to state that yes, she is deaf and mute (still!) but can communicate through hand gestures, etc. I guess. Our attorney re-wrote the report and needs the doctor to sign it. The doctor is out of town. Of course he is! When all we need is his stinkin' signature, he goes out of town. I almost bust out laughing when Mr. CEO told me this. The doctor will be back in GC this Tuesday, and our attorney hopes to have the report signed and in our file at the court on Wednesday. We have been told that the 10-15 days that they all keep "promising" will now begin again on Wednesday. Big sigh. Vacation was wonderful. Now back to reality.

With each passing day that this drags on, it gets more and more likely that our two missing girls would really need to be picked up in their respective countries AT THE SAME TIME! That is not how we want this all to play out, but none of it has gone how we wanted it to so why should it start now?!!?

As for Chloe's process, we hope to hear word about our Log-In-Date any day now, and we're not giving up hope that she could be home before the Olympics. The back-up plan, in case Ali does get approved for adoption and I am either in Guatemala picking her up or just returned home with her, is that Jason will go to China (I got to go last time after all) with hopefully his sister and possibly Kern kid #1 too. Time will tell.

10-15 Days?!?!?!

There could be a resolution coming from the judge in the near future. Information is at least matching up for once: the agency, the attorney, and what the court staff told J last week are all saying the same thing. I don't know if three separate entities have EVER all said the same thing in this Guate process 'til now. They all claim that we should have a resolution from the judge in 10-15 business days from last Friday or this past Monday. Yesterday the agency said we were on day 5 of those 10-15 days. J's birthday will be day 14 so what a great b-day present that'd be if the resolution is YES we can have Ali. Before anyone gets her hopes up too high though, please remember that we have seen over two years of empty promises from these people. It would not surprise us one bit if a zero was added to the end of the 15 day estimate.

On another note, we have had a really nice week with Cindy, a high school student from Guangdong Province, PRC. I can only hope our kids turn out as well as this 17 year old has. She is easy going, smart, sweet, funny, and quiet. (Okay, I know getting any of ours to turn out quiet might be a stretch.) She'll be back in Shenzhen for the summer, so we are planning on meeting in Guangzhou when we go pick up Chloe. Unless we don't get to go til after the Olympics b/c by then Cindy will be back in St. Johnsbury, VT for her senior year. Just another reason to keep hoping that we get to travel for Chloe before the Olympics. It would be so nice for all of us and especially the kids to see a familar face in China.

It's April vacation this week, so we are headed to Maine. That'll make it'll much easier to get from day 6 to day 10 of the 10-15 days. After that, maybe I'll have news to post.

New Ali pic from agency

The agency received our check and sent some pictures of Ali today. Sort of ironic that we get new pics right after J was there taking hundreds of photos of her. I love to see her any ol' time though! And she's wearing her big cousin E's hand-me-down dress. (They spelled her name wrong too.)