Adoption Update....

Thursday, June 28, 2007

Well, we are still hanging in there! At this point we are #3 (soon to be #2 hopefully) on the waiting list for a baby boy in Guatemala. When we applied, we remained open regarding the sex of the baby....they have a long waiting list for a girl, so the baby we are referred will most likely be a boy! Which is fine w/ us....we just continue to pray for a happy, healthy baby!

Since our last post, we have learned of some govt changes between the US and Guatemala....most of which I don't entirely understand. VERY long story, cut VERY short....the US has basically given Guatemalan through the end of this year to change their adoption policies. It's called the Hague Treaty...at this point adoptions out of Guat. and into the US will no longer be allowed by the US, unless Guat. makes the required changes. The deadline for these changes, as I understand, is 12/31/07.

There are many agencies in the US that have completely stopped their programs w/ Guat. Our agency has reassured us that we should be far enough along in the process to be "grandfathered in". However, the US hasn't really made a formal comment about how people in the middle of the process will be handled.

Bascially at this time, we are just waiting and praying. We made the decision to put our profile in w/ another agency for a domestic adoption. However, we remain hopeful that we can still pursue an international adoption as well.

At this time our next steps in the process for the Guatemalan adoption are: *still waiting on our paperwork back from US Immigration (called an I-171H....we submitted it on 05/14/07, first told it would take 4 wks...now being told 60 days) AND *waiting on a referral...our adoption consultant said she is hopeful we will have a referral by mid July. Of course, it would still be several months following a referral that we would be granted permission to travel and bring our baby home.

Thanks for your prayers and support!!