Today We Hit the 5-Year Mark

Today is the 5th anniversary of the day we started Olivia's adoption. This week we received some very good news regarding all the pending Guatemala adoption cases. Here's a summary from our Guatemala900 group: 


February 25, 2012

The Guatemala900 met with the Guatemalan Minister of Foreign Affairs Harold Caballeros in Washington, DC yesterday.  The Minister outlined a general plan for implementing a new, transparent process for the pending adoptions within the next 100 days.  The Minister asked for G900 support in helping him as he works to draft legislation within the next two weeks for the Guatemalan Congress will then begin to consider and hopefully pass.  Many thanks to G900 executive board member Tracey Hoehn, Guatemalan Waiting Parents Support Group Co-Founder Christina Watson, and Joint Council President and ally Tom DiFilipo, who all passionately represented the campaign.  Also the G900 would like to thank Guatemalan Minister Counselor Fernando de la Cerda, who has always been a champion to the children with pending adoptions in Guatemala and was instrumental in making the meeting come to be yesterday.

Basically, by the beginning of June, there will be a law implemented that will allow a definite path for our children's adoptions to be completed. Of course we don't know what the law will entail, but hopefully it will eliminate all of the problems and roadblocks that have plagued our processes for well over 4 years. The Guatemalan government has said they are committed to making this happen.

Meanwhile, we head back to Guatemala for our rescheduled hearing. If all goes according to plan, and everyone who needs to, shows up, and DNA samples are taken, and the RIGHT tests are done at the lab, and the results come back negative.....we should be on track so that when the 100 days in early June are up, we'll be ready to follow the path that the new law will put in place to lead Olivia home.

As always, prayers are appreciated! We'll update again soon.

Gearing Up For Rescheduled Hearing

Okay, so last week's hearing didn't happen, but we were there. It has been rescheduled for next Tuesday the 28th and we will be there. This week, at home, we are trying to rest and re-group.

The TV interview we did last Tuesday did not air while we were down there due to the prison fire in Honduras. I've been told that it will air tonight on Telecentro 13 in Guatemala and Directv channel 428 (I think) here in the U.S. (8:30 - 10:00pm CST or 9:30 - 11:00pm EST). If anyone sees it, please let me know.

We didn't get the opportunity to see Olivia at all last week, but should see her at this next hearing. We're hoping and praying that all parties will show up. This hearing will still not be a determining one, but will hopefully result in finally getting DNA samples from those in question so that we may once and for all know (probably in 3 months) if we have a shot at adopting our little girl.

Once again, we're asking for your prayers. It's no small feat to travel to Guatemala twice in two weeks. We hope that God brings all things together this time so we can truly see some forward movement in our case. We also hope that the TV interview will air and that it will open eyes of people who may have some influence in getting the 350+ children home to the families that have waited so long for them.

We'll keep you posted.

Today's Hearing Was Postponed, But........

We are here in Guatemala and even though hours after our arrival yesterday, we found out that the hearing we came down for was postponed by PGN, we have had a VERY productive day! 


Not only did we go to the Court in Escuintla and speak with the judge, but we were interviewed for this evening's news program on Telecentro 13! 

Brief history; we have been waiting since June 2010 to determine whether a lady found by PGN is the bio. grandmother of Olivia. She showed up at the hearing in 2010, and after the wrong test was run, has not come back to Court to provide more blood samples (we found out today that was because PGN never informed them of the hearing dates). Here we are 20 months later and PGN postpones the hearing which we thought was because they couldn't find this lady to bring her in. We showed up to Court and guess who was there? The woman and her grandson came to give samples. PGN of course couldn't come because they said they were understaffed and had other hearings today. Uh huh.....

So...after we met with the judge and were interviewed by the reporters, we drove over to PGN and with cameras rolling convinced them that they needed to show up for the next hearing two weeks from today. Funny, at first one guy our attorney spoke with said they couldn't say one way or the other whether they would be able to come. Once our attorney demanded to talk to the guy in charge and we all were standing in front of him in his office with the news crew there, he suddenly cleared his calendar and agreed to be there!

We are so thankful to our attorney who's husband, (who just happens to be the general manager of the TV station) came up with the whole interview idea! They said this could be very big for all the waiting families. 


We didn't see Olivia today, maybe we'll get a chance tomorrow.

Tomorrow morning, we have a meeting at the U.S. Embassy. We'll see what we can do there.

Prayers are appreciated!

Hearing Date Set

We just received news that the next (and hopefully last) hearing date has been set for our case.

It is scheduled for February 14th, 2012, two months from now. The new judge has decided to try for DNA from the alleged family members one more time.....

Please pray for our attorney, the judge and all the folks associated with our case and that this hearing will result in us being able to move forward, out of the Court system and on to the next step. 

Olivia needs to come home.

Prayer and Thanksgiving

We've been waiting since August for our case to be registered in the new Court with the new judge. We received word this week that perhaps by this Friday, the judge will set the date for the "next and final" hearing.  

As with all things in this process, we're not holding our breath, but our attorney has asked for prayer. We ask specifically that the hearing would be scheduled soon and that God would touch the heart of this new judge so that he/she would see by the history of the case, that in the best interest of Olivia, it needs to move forward. Now. That we could be done with the Court process and move on to the next step, which would be the CNA. And most importantly, that Olivia be allowed to stay right where she is.

We know that we have a lot of prayer warriors out there who have been diligently praying for Olivia and our family all along this journey. We want you to know just how grateful we are. It is such a blessing knowing so many people care and are petitioning the Lord on our behalf.

Thank you.

May God bless you and your families this Thanksgiving.

Happy 6th Birthday To Our Little Girl

 

Photo taken in June 2010

Today is Olivia's 6th birthday, and even though we're not able to be with her.....again, we were able to send some gifts down to her this year. Hopefully, she will know how much we love and miss her and that we are still here fighting for her.

As far as our case is concerned, as of last week, we were waiting for it to be registered in the new Court, (I might add, some 2+ months after the former judge washed her hands of it). That was supposed to have happened last Friday. We haven't heard yet if it has. Please pray that once the new judge has our case, that he/she will allow us to move forward. To get out of the Court system and on the road to completing this adoption. It was exactly two years ago, that this whole business with the "grandmother" began. Looking back, it is unbelievable that so much time has been allowed to pass without a resolution to that. Two precious years of a little girl's life gone.....for what?

I have no doubt that Olivia will have a fun birthday with the wonderful folks that are taking care of her. We feel extremely blessed that she's with such loving, godly people. We're hoping and praying that this is the last birthday that we will have to be separated.

Feliz Cumpleanos, Olivia! ♥♥♥

The Latest.

This past weekend, we received news that the judge on our case decided she couldn't do any more with our case, so she sent it to another Court nearer to where 'our family in question' lives. This is approximately 30 miles southwest of Guatemala City (where everything in our case has taken place up to this point).

It has been two years now that they have been trying to determine whether or not this "grandmother" and her family are related to Olivia. More specifically during this last year, these folks have not shown one bit of interest in her. Not. One. Bit. Instead of granting us our Certificate of Adoptibility so that our case could simply move forward and alleviate any more delays and hardship on Olivia, the Court feels the need to cater to this family and give them every opportunity to take her away from us. We just don't get it.

The most difficult part of this is that there is a good possibility that Olivia would be moved to an orphanage in this new town. Olivia is still in the home where she's been for the last 16 months and right now, we're doing whatever we can to assure she stays there. Moving her and once again taking her away from everyone and everything she knows would be devastating.

We are asking for your prayers. Please pray that Olivia will be able to stay where she is until such a time that she would be allowed back with her foster family or until she would come home to us. Any more disruption in her life would surely do long-lasting harm.

Also please keep our attorney in prayer as she will have much more to contend with during this new Court situation and the uncertainty of the ever-changing rules and requirements of the process as it stands now.

Don't misunderstand, God is in control and we are still very hopeful that Olivia will come home to us and we know that even though things in Guatemala seem to have taken a turn towards resolving the remaining cases, we understand we've still got a long row to hoe. We just don't want any more unnecessary, inconsiderate things to happen to Olivia while we're waiting for resolution. We have to do everything we can to protect her.

Thanks again for your prayers, concern and support! It is appreciated so much!