A Heartbreaking Setback...

Today, we received news that our file was kicked out (rejected by PGN - the Attorney General's office) because of a typo on the Social Worker's Report. The wrong birthdate was listed. In the grand scheme of things, this is not the end of the world. This is a setback---probably a 2-month setback. But it's more than a setback...

First of all, we were anticipating "the call" any day now. "The call" would be the phone call that we had been approved by PGN. That call would mean that we had been approved by the government of Guatemala and would be traveling to pick up Cupcake in approximately 4-6 weeks. For the past two weeks, every time the phone rang, I jumped out of my skin. So we are, once again, readjusting our hopes.

In the second place, April 18, will be the 2-year anniversary of when we were matched with Cupcake. In my mind, we were well on our way to beating that ugly anniversary. Now we will surely be facing that day with aching arms and longing hearts.

Cucake 4/18/06

Cupcake 12/16/07

Third, and most frustrating, because of the new adoption laws, a new government entity was established in January to control adoptions. It's called the Central Authority. In order for existing cases to be "grandfathered in" to the old adoption laws, each case must be registered with this new Central Authority by February 12. Here's the kicker...the new Central Authority has not clearly established how to register with them. There seems to be a lot of political power struggles going on and no one is actually able to figure out how to proceed. So, here's the deal...we cannot be resubmitted to PGN until we are registered with the Central Authority. We have 12 days to get registered. We are not alone. There are hundreds of other families in the same boat.

You say, "Surely, they will make extensions or do whatever it takes to help these families." I sincerely hope so. but we are not talking about America. We're talking about a developing country that was pressured by UNICEF and our own State Department to implement legislation before they were ready. One of these days, I'm going to enlighten you on the finer points of UNICEF's intentions. Did I mention that a new presidential administration took office in January too? Yep. So it's not a "for sure" thing that they will just work things out.

So, I'm asking you to pray like crazy that the Central Authority would get it's ducks in a row, so we can begin to begin the 6-8 week wait in PGN again.