Another bittersweet update

Howdy all! Today we learned for certain that the family court interviews we conducted back on July 6. This is where a Guatemalan social worker interviews Carmen's mother to discuss the circumstances of her relinquishment. Often times this takes place on the same day as the DNA test, but not always - as was the case here. This is another reminder of how difficult this process is for everyone involved. As I've said before, as wonderful as it is to build a family, a great deal of loss takes place in order for an adoption to happen. If you're the praying type, please pray for Carmen and her birth mother.

Nevertheless, the process continues, and the end result is progress on the case. This means that we are officially in "Family Court" and wait for approval of that body just as we wait for the US Embassy to issue their pre-approval. Alas, we have a visit trip to plan and our social worker and lawyer continue to do a great job on our behalf.

Carmen's 3 month birthday was last Friday, and in honor, here's a cute little grin. I know the picture is a bit blurry, but that's OK.

More and More updates

Another day of updates. Just last week we received pictures from Carmen's June "well baby check" and our DNA match. We're still planning a visit in August, so that's got everyone buzzing these days.

Today we received her July medical update and even more pictures! These were taken just last week, and holy wow - she's changed even since June. There were some pics in the batch with the first ziplock package we sent, so that confirms it's arrival. Still not quite 3 months old, she's 13.8 lbs, got a few more of her immunizations, and grew an inch since June. Her foster mommy is sortof holding her up in each of the pictures, but it looks like her head it starting to get stable. I bet the next batch will have one of those on the stomach with head held up shots.

We're on day 13 of our 60 day PA (pre-approval) period. Some folks are getting it in 55 or so days, a few are getting it in 62, so we're being patient. It certainly helps to be getting so many other updates and pictures. But, don't be surprised if we go into a slow period until early August.

And now for the real reason your reading my blog. The adorable, precious, amazing Carmen:

A dear friend of ours tells me this is her favorite so far - she's looking right at the camera:

I really like this one - looks like she's checking out her foot. Come on, let's take the socks off and see those tootsies!
Several people have commented already that she looks good in turquoise or whatever color she's wearing. Can't really argue - looks better than the pink from last month's pictures.
This final shot is the red-head's favorite. She claims CJ is already giving the puppy dog eyes. I'll never fall for it!!! ya right.

Good Grief - DNA Match!!!

As was the case earlier, not much time or energy to post. It's been a crazy day - but we've got just about the best news possible at this point in the process.

The DNA test was done, and we've already got the results - it's a match! Simply put, this means that the woman who presented Carmen for adoption is, in fact, her mother - as proven by a standard maternity test. This is important because it proves to the powers that be at the US embassy that things so far are on the up and up.

More importantly, it acts as an safety point in the process that allows us to plan a visit trip to meet our daughter in person! As you can see, this is a huge deal!

What's more crazy - we totally did not expect it. Generally, folks in the process get some kind of notice that the test is scheduled or has taken place, then sit around nervously waiting for the result. For us, we just learned that the test was authorized a couple of weeks ago, then whammo - the results show up on our door step - we learned about it before our social worker!

What an amazing day for us, but I must digress a tad and mention that our joy is most certainly not matched by Carmen's birth mother. The paperwork we received today included photos of her holding her daughter close, one with a slight smile, one with a slight frown. These pictures will be very important as we share this entire story with Carmen one day. Both of the people in these photos are experiencing a great deal of loss and we cannot come close to relating. More reflection on this will come out in the future I'm sure.

So, now it's off to start planning our visit trip, and to begin the countdown to pre-approval by the US Embassy (DNA match is the starting point). We haven't even talked it over with our social worker yet, so we'll keep you all posted - by the time we plan it all out, it could still be several weeks. Time to get some sleep!!!!

New pictures - she's got a left ear!!!

Not that I was really worried about it - but it was the wittiest thing I could think of quickly.

I've only got a little bit of time to post, but here are 2 of Carmen's latest pictures. She's actually just under 2 months old here - these were taken back in June at her medical checkup. Not sure exactly, but I believe there were some IT problems that slowed down their delivery (please no comments from the peanut gallery). So, it's quite possible we'll get a July update soon as well. As you can tell with this process, nothing is totally predictable - you take care of whatever is in your control and just keep an eye on the rest.

CJ decided to wake up for these pictures, although a couple of them seem like she'd rather be sleeping. Here's one - the woman holding her is her foster mom - you can see the caring look in her eyes - it's wonderful to know she is in such loving hands. But, we can't really post her picture on the web so I cropped it a little:


Here's the cutest picture of all. Not sure what she's looking at, but she's really showing off those chubby cheeks!

It's going to be hard to sleep Sunday night

No real news this week - but I'm sure bureaucrats and lawyers spent some time shuffling papers and filing forms. Some of the more mundane parts of the legal process are not really sent to us as updates - more of the milestones. If 3 weeks pass with no milestone, they will give us a general status report though.

We are approaching 2 months since we received our referral for Carmen. This means we should receive a video of our little girl any day now. Honestly though, we're a just as anxious to receive more pictures, as we have not gotten any new ones since referral. In most cases, pictures are sent with medical updates, but that did not happen for us last month. Most likely, the timing just did not work out for Carmen's foster mom to visit the office after her checkup.

I really can't wait to see how she's grown and changed. A lot of people ask us how hard it is to not be able to watch CJ growing up as an infant. It is very difficult, but we are patient people (as if we had a choice) and have faith in those who are taking care of her.

Carmen's last checkup was on June 7th, so we're hoping that she either went to the doctor for her monthly visit yesterday (Friday) or will be going this coming Monday. That means pictures may already be en route, or will be sent early next week.

This is probably not my most elegantly written post, but I'm up later than I should be and just had to jot something down. With pictures on the way, I already know it's going to be hard to sleep Sunday night. Ugh.

Ziplock Number Two - twice as much love!!!

We just prepped our second ziplock bag to send to Guatemala for Carmen. I think this one has the same amount of stuff in it, but some of that stuff is a little bigger.

Thanks to our new friend from Tennessee who's going down to pick up her son some time this month. How cool is that. You may recall we hooked up with some other fine folks (in that case from MD) who were visiting their daughter for CJ's first package a little over a month ago. I must say it's actually awfully fun putting these packages together, and it's also a cool way touch base with some people who are going through a similar experience.


This time we included 2 more cameras, 2 outfits, a hat, La Oruga Muy Hambrienta (The Very Hungry Caterpillar), and a cute little stuffed Eyore. Ya, the Red-Head is already exposing Carmen to her favorite children's author (Eric Carle), and favorite children's character. You'll also notice some things that clearly are not meant for a baby, particularly one without teeth. In this package we are including a little something for Carmen's foster family - some bubble gum for the kids, trail mix for their Papá, and a dish towel and earrings for their Mama.

Here's how it looked all packaged up. Had to take front and back photos since the view was so different.




It's getting late, but now I'm kinda wound up - so there's no telling how much sleep I'll actually get. Oh well, I just don't care any more. It's so worth it.