Thursday, October 25, 2007
New to blogs?
We decided to create this blog to keep our family and friends updated on our adoption. I am new at this so I am still working on the layout of the page and some other formatting details. Bare with me! For any of you who are not familiar with blogs. There is a comments button below each blog that I post that you can read or make comments on, if you would like. Thank you to Cheri & Nanny for those nice comments. I am sure Devin will have fun reading this when he get's old enough. This is his online baby book :)
Wednesday, October 24, 2007
But I thought I was your baby?
Bailey is not going to know what to do when little man arrives. She is used to being the only child. This is Devin's room. We are almost done. We just need to do some final decorating and we want to get a glider. Philip picked out the dinosaur bedding and border. He did a pretty good job!!
Sunday, October 21, 2007
2 month checkup!!!
Devin's check up was on 10-18-07 and he is growing like a weed. He is now 10 weeks old. He weighs 10lbs 9 oz and is 21 inches. He was very alert in all the new photos we got. He is ready for Christmas early in his Santa outfit!!!
1 month checkup!!!
These are pictures from Devin's one month check up on 9-18-07. He was 6 weeks old. He weighed in at 8lbs 1 oz and was 19.5 inches long. I love those poutty lips!!! He did not want to wake up for the camera. His eyes were closed in all the photos.
Sunday, October 7, 2007
Guatemala Adoption Process
For those of you who have been following our China adoption journey you probably are realizing how different the process in Guatemala is. This is a brief summary of how the process works in Guatemala and where we are in the process:
1/ Complete a homestudy and dossier. A homestudy is a report, prepared by a social worker, about your family. This report is basically your life story. A dossier is a group of documents that you have to complete that get into medical history, financial history, etc..
2/ I71H approval - This is approval from U.S. immigration for you to bring a child into the U.S. This approval can take several months. However, we already had approval for China. We just had to switch the country to Guatemala.
3/ Accept a referal of a child
4/ Embassy Pre-Approval and DNA test - The U.S. embassy authorizes a DNA test. The baby and the birthmother have to have DNA tests to confirm the birth mother is indeed the actual mother of the child. After the embassy receives the results from the DNA test and reviews your dossier they send you an email confirming you have pre-approval.
5/ Family Court - a social worker in Guatemala reviews the case, interviews the birthmother and the foster mother, and then writes a long report on why the birthmother can not care for the child and approves the adoption.
6/ PGN (Procuraduria General De La Nacion) - After family court approves the adoption the case is sent to PGN. In PGN, all the families and the child's documents are reviewed and they issue there approval. This is where they really scrutinize all the documents and often kick back forms for minor spelling errors and notary issues.
7/ Pink Slip - After PGN approves the case it goes back to the U.S. embassy for them to authorize the child's visa. This is called your pink slip. This pink slip will outline the time and date you will pick up your child.
As of now we have completed steps 1-4. We are currently in Family Court and the birthmother and foster mother are being interviewed on Thursday, 10-11-07. We will keep you posted!!
1/ Complete a homestudy and dossier. A homestudy is a report, prepared by a social worker, about your family. This report is basically your life story. A dossier is a group of documents that you have to complete that get into medical history, financial history, etc..
2/ I71H approval - This is approval from U.S. immigration for you to bring a child into the U.S. This approval can take several months. However, we already had approval for China. We just had to switch the country to Guatemala.
3/ Accept a referal of a child
4/ Embassy Pre-Approval and DNA test - The U.S. embassy authorizes a DNA test. The baby and the birthmother have to have DNA tests to confirm the birth mother is indeed the actual mother of the child. After the embassy receives the results from the DNA test and reviews your dossier they send you an email confirming you have pre-approval.
5/ Family Court - a social worker in Guatemala reviews the case, interviews the birthmother and the foster mother, and then writes a long report on why the birthmother can not care for the child and approves the adoption.
6/ PGN (Procuraduria General De La Nacion) - After family court approves the adoption the case is sent to PGN. In PGN, all the families and the child's documents are reviewed and they issue there approval. This is where they really scrutinize all the documents and often kick back forms for minor spelling errors and notary issues.
7/ Pink Slip - After PGN approves the case it goes back to the U.S. embassy for them to authorize the child's visa. This is called your pink slip. This pink slip will outline the time and date you will pick up your child.
As of now we have completed steps 1-4. We are currently in Family Court and the birthmother and foster mother are being interviewed on Thursday, 10-11-07. We will keep you posted!!
Introducing Devin Buster!!!
On 8-16-07 we accepted a referal for a little boy. His given name was Alfonso Jacobo Mendez. We will name him Devin Buster. We have not decided on a middle name yet. We are considering Jacobo to keep his family name. We may drop the O and make it Jacob. Will keep you posted on that.
He was born on 8-9-07. He weighed 6lbs 4 oz. and he was 18 inches long. Here are some pictures when he was just a few days old
He was born on 8-9-07. He weighed 6lbs 4 oz. and he was 18 inches long. Here are some pictures when he was just a few days old
China to Guatemala....
After realizing that our China adoption was going to take much longer than anticipated we decided to pursue another option to expand our family. We have accepted a referal of a little boy from Guatemala. We expect this process to take at least 8 mos-12 mos. We started the process in August.
I am sure you are all questioning whether we will continue our China adoption. We have not cancelled it and will wait until we have Devin home and it gets closer to the time we would receive a referal from China to make that decision. We do not expect to hear anything about the China adoption until 2 years from now. When we first decided to adopt from China the wait time was approximately 12-14 mos. We are now looking at about 3 years from our log in date of 11-13-06.
I am sure you are all questioning whether we will continue our China adoption. We have not cancelled it and will wait until we have Devin home and it gets closer to the time we would receive a referal from China to make that decision. We do not expect to hear anything about the China adoption until 2 years from now. When we first decided to adopt from China the wait time was approximately 12-14 mos. We are now looking at about 3 years from our log in date of 11-13-06.
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