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First of all, it wasn't until last night (Friday about 11:30 p.m.) that we got the story on Wed.'s hearing. Lymaris had sent us an email she had gotten from Beyla on Wed. evening explaining what took place, but unfortunately for us, the email was in Spanish and Lymaris had to run and didn't have time to translate just then, but said she would do it over the phone the next day. (Mind you, this was the biggest event in our case to date, and we were chomping at the bit to find out...) fast forward to Friday night, that's when we finally connected with her and got the lowdown.
The news is mostly good, praise the Lord. The Judge officially made Beyla our Mandatory attorney after our previous attorney Gallo asked to be taken off the case. The Judge however would not exclude Mr. Gallo completely.
We were also officially accepted as part of the process as the "Prospective Adoptive Parents" (PAP). I wasn't aware that this was part of what was going to be discussed, but it was, we were accepted by the Court, and that's a very good thing!
The Court has ordered their own "search" for M., the birth mother, and now it is just a matter of time until the police in her local area bring her in for the DNA test.
The Judge adjourned the hearing until November 16th! That is unless M. has been brought in before that date and cooperates. We're definitely praying that takes place much, much sooner than Nov. 16th! Olivia turns 4 on Nov. 15th, for crying out loud!!!
Lymaris also told us however, that we will have to redo most or all of our dossier all... over... again! There goes my summer! Apparently, the lovely Mr. Gallo says he doesn't have our original dossier and another person who has worked on our case in the past says she doesn't have our original dossier and the two of them aren't on speaking terms, so instead of waiting for them to stop blaming each other and find it, we have to go through getting all the documents together again. Most of everything is going to expire within the next several months anyway, so I guess it's a good idea to get it all updated. Oy!
What this all boils down to is that, we need M. to come in and take the DNA, plain and simple. Beyla and Lymaris believe that once she knows she's "wanted" by the police, she'll have no choice but to come in. We're hoping that the process of her local Court issuing an order for the police to contact her is already under way and that it'll be a short time before they bring her in. That's what our prayer is now.
Meanwhile, I'm off on the paper chase once again..... whatever it takes to bring Olivia home.
I'll post again, when we learn something new.
Well, we had planned on being in Guatemala this week, but as it turns out, we won't be going after all. We have been waiting for weeks to find out whether or not we would be allowed to attend Olivia's abandonment hearing this Wednesday. Just this past Friday, we received an email from our attorney Beyla. This is what she said: "For me its preferable that you do not travel right now. We are representing you and do not know if this hearing will be definitive. I still do not have the judge's written consent, (to allow us into the hearing) but I can still attend without it, as I am already a part to the process."
As for the hearing itself she says: " As a matter of fact, the Judge cannot take the abandonment route now, since he has been notified the birth mom is alive and has family and where to find them. He can suspend the hearing for another date, but I doubt he will consider abandonment now. The advantage is that if the Judge forces her to come, she will have no choice but to submit herself for DNA testing and I do believe she is the birth mom."
I asked if the birth mom, M. could still be located and what the strategy was for getting her to comply and she wrote: "M. can be reached, the only problem is that since the judicial system in Guatemala is so bureaucratic, the process requires the judge seek assistance of the Court in Guanaga*apa, since this is the nearest location to the family's residence, and then that Court notifies the police, so it is definitely slow and bureaucratic. However, I believe it is possible that the court date may be suspended for another date. The advantage is that with the news of M.'s location, they will consider she is alive and can be located . . . I think come the judicial citation she will fear getting in trouble and will decide to step forward and come."
She ends by saying: "To all the above we add the hand of our powerful God who is watching and attempting to restore her (Olivia's) rights as an orphan and the Lord will straighten matters and give us the victory."
So even though we won't be able to see Olivia right now (and spend Emily's 9th birthday in Guatemala) like we'd hoped, it sounds like things are turning in a positive direction for our case. The last thing we really wanted was for our case to become an abandonment case and have it drag on for a year or more longer. But now with the Judge concentrating on getting M. to come forward, that is very good. We pray now that this can happen soon. Once she submits to the DNA test and it is positive, the ball can officially get rolling and we'll be on track for getting Olivia home hopefully much sooner.
We ask for prayer for Wednesday's hearing, that the Judge would make positive decisions for our case and that the process of getting M. to collaborate with authorities would happen quickly and smoothly. Also we pray for peace, strength and safety for M., I can only imagine how difficult this situation is for her.
We will post again once we find out what happens on Wed. Meanwhile, here are a couple of pictures of Olivia that we received last week. She's playing with the bilingual laptop toy we gave her when we visited.
M. did not show for the meeting today. We are more convinced than ever that she is who we think she is. She's afraid and because she doesn't know Beyla, she doesn't trust her.
Beyla said they will give it a few days and then go to the family and friends in person to try to approach her from that angle.
We'll update as soon as we know something.
We just received this email from our agency director, Lymaris~"I just spoke to Beyla. Indeed they called M. from a different phone # and she answered. Beyla explained that if she does not collaborate, she would ask the judge to summon her and her family, and that now we know where her family and some other friends and relatives live... She expressed she was scared and she thought Beyla wanted her to go to jail. She once again stated she has never had a daughter and that now she had to live with this shame because her family was told about this and it is not true. Beyla told her why she needed her with as much detail as she could without wanting to scare her, and that in order to clear her name she needs to come and help Beyla out with the info because all we had was her documents etc... She agreed to come to the park in Vi**an***a tomorrow to meet at 1pm. Praying this time she makes it but Beyla says she seemed persuaded. This is all so dramatic and incredible! I will keep you posted and will be praying..."
That's the latest. Please pray that M. shows up and that Beyla can get her to cooperate. We'll let you know........
After two years of failed attempts to find Olivia's birth family, last Tuesday the investigators found Olivia's maternal grandfather after only 2 days of searching. Although the grandfather was shocked at what the investigators shared with him about his daughter and her relinquishing a child two years ago, he told them he would try to get in touch with his daughter and in turn get her in touch with the investigators.
Later that day, our attorney Beyla spoke on the phone with Olivia's birthmother! Yes, she has been found! (I don't want to disclose her name, so I'll refer to her as M.) However....... she denied that she was Olivia's bmom! Beyla convinced her that she should come into her office the next day and clear this whole thing up. She agreed. The meeting was all set up for Wed. morning. It was arranged that M. would take the bus from her town to a park where Beyla would pick her up and drive her to the office. M. never showed up. Beyla and her investigators tried calling both M. and her father the rest of that day, but they had turned off their phones.
They tried again on Thursday with the same result. We're praying that M. didn't flee again. She's been elusive for the past two years and our concern is that she's taken off and is in hiding again.
Everyone involved with our case is quite confident she is the right person, combined with the fact that if she had nothing to hide, there would have been no reason for her to skip out on the meeting. The concensus is that she is very scared. Her family apparently was not aware she had a daughter that she put up for adoption and we don't know what kind of relationship she has with her father. At the time of Olivia's relinquishement, she had four children, two older than Olivia and a 4 month-old baby girl. The baby was in the hospital at the time suffering from malnutrition. M. now claims she only has two children, so my guess is that she relinquished the baby girl at some point as well, or the baby may even have died. If that's the case, that she gave up two children, she has a big burden to bear. My heart truly goes out to her.
The investigators said they met someone who knows the family well and through this person they will continue to try to access the family and gain their trust.
Our prayer now is that M. thinks very seriously about her situation and decides to come forward and cooperate. She needs to realize this is the best thing for her child.
Olivia's abandonment/adoptability hearing is in six weeks. It would be such a blessing if M. would cooperate and then show up to the hearing. If she would do what's required of her, our adoption would be finished under the old process and we could have Olivia home by year's end. Then we wouldn't have to go through the CNA and wait for who knows how long.
Tomorrow, Tuesday is an important day for our case as well. The document we signed for Beyla while we were in Guatemala, will go before the judge and he will decide if she can become our mandatory attorney. Hopefully he'll take into consideration what she's been able to accomplish in the last week. Please pray he decides in her favor.
Again, we'll update when we hear something.
Thanks again for everyone's prayers and encouragement!
We received an email from Lymaris, our agency director this afternoon telling us she had received word from our attorney, Beyla that her investigators have been in contact with Olivia's birth mother's father (Olivia's maternal grandfather). Apparently the reason she disappeared was that no one in her family knew anything about her having children let alone relinquishing any of them for adoption and was in fear they would find out (at the time she relinquished Olivia, she had four children). Needless to say, the father was quite upset about this. The investigators explained the situation to him and he agreed to try to reach out to his daughter. Beyla is waiting to hear back from the father hopefully later today.
Please pray with us that the birth mother comes forward and now that "the cat is out of the bag", will be willing to complete this process she started two years ago and do the right thing for her child.
I will update again when we hear something more.
Monday was such a wonderful day and when it was time for bed, Olivia got right into bed with Emily and slept soundly straight through the night!
Tuesday morning we had to get dressed up for our meeting with Mr. Jaime Tecu, an attorney who is a real important guy at the CNA. Our appointment was at 9:00 and we expected our attorney, Beyla to pick us up from the hotel at 8:00. Well, as we've now learned, Guatemalan "time" is a little different than U.S. time! 8:00 in U.S. terms means you'll be picked up at 8:00 or very close to it. In Guatemala, 8:00 apparently means 8:45! Beyla and her husband picked us up in their Toyota Yaris and got us to the CNA so we were in Mr. Tecu's office at 9:00 a.m. sharp!
The meeting itself was really just to show him that 'we're here, we're serious, this is our family and when you get our case remember what you see here today'. We asked some questions about what to expect later on, but his response was to just wait and see how our hearing in June turns out and we'll go from there. He took a few notes, we took a few notes, that was about it. A cool thing happened about 15 minutes into the meeting though, we experienced our first earthquake!!! Apparently a 4.4. Bryan and I didn't know what had just happened and we looked at the other folks in the room and their faces showed the tiniest bit of alarm, it had been an earthquake! They weren't terribly phased though, they get about 100 a year down there. We thought it was pretty neat though! When that happened, the girls were next door in a playroom and then Mr. Tecu went to get them. When Olivia walked into the room, she came right over to me, jumped up on my lap and gave me a kiss! I was so glad he saw that! Maybe with the unsolicited affection Olivia showed towards me and the earthquake, he'll remember us!
After the meeting, Beyla, her husband, Mirna, Bryan, Emily, Olivia and I drove back to the hotel in the Toyota Yaris. That's 5 adults and 2 children in a tiny car....I haven't mentioned how they drive down there....anyway we got there safely and were told that Beyla and Mirna would be back at 1:00 to take us out to lunch and have a meeting with Beyla and go over a document she needed us to sign.
1:00 became 3:30, again "Guatemalan time" and we went to Pizza Hut for lunch. The girls enjoyed their pizza and played on the "playland" they had there for the kids while we ate and went over the document. Afterward, Beyla treated us to Guatemalan ice cream, not bad!
Beyla took us back to our hotel and we said goodbye to her there. She is a wonderful Christian lady and I truly believe she will do everything in her power for us. We authorized she and her huband, (he is in the media, newpaper and TV and has his own investigation service) to do an exhaustive search for Olivia's birthmother. They have had great success in the past finding these women who have been missing for years at a time. They feel that the previous searches that have been conducted on our case, were not done sufficiently. Beyla told us that the absolute best case scenario for us is that the birthmother be found. If she's found within the next few months, we could potentially have Olivia home by the end of this year and the case would be completed under the old system that we started with. If she's not found, the case will have to go to the CNA and will take much longer. Please pray with us, that this woman is found...soon.
Brenda, Olivia's foster mom, told us that our 2nd hearing (to determine Olivia's "adoptability") is on June 7th, (that's a Sunday, so I'm not sure if they hold court on Sunday, or she meant the 2nd or something) and she will be there alone with Olivia and would like us to be there with her. We planned to be anyway, but it will be determined by the document that we signed at Pizza Hut, if we will be allowed into the courtroom for the hearing. The document has to be approved by the judge to allow Beyla to be our Mandatory attorney and not the previous attorney, Mr. Gallo who took Olivia to her first hearing. If he approves Beyla, then we'll be able to attend.
Anyway, back to our trip! When we returned to the hotel, we decided we should go swimming in "la piscina". The water was not as warm as we would have liked and poor little Olivia's teeth chattered a bit, but we had fun splashing around.
The girls played beautifully together. They colored, played with Barbies, drew pictures, played dress-up, blew bubbles, watched movies and had a great time. Emily proved to be a very good "big sister"! Olivia is very kind and likes to share. She has great manners and is quite independent. She's just a joy!
Wednesday was our only full day to do whatever we wanted, so we slept in a little, had a wonderful breakfast from the Royale Floor lounge right next door to us that had incredible Continental breakfasts and free drinks and snacks all throughout the day. The girls got baths, well actually showers, there was no bathtub. We set out to visit all three malls within shouting distance from the hotel. We did lots of walking, took in some of the local flavor, ate lunch at Burger King and finally about 4:00 or so, after the big carousel ride, Olivia could go no more and fell asleep on Bryan's shoulder. We took her back to the room and she slept for another good hour. We had planned to go back out for dinner at Pollo Campero, but Bry went and brought dinner back to the room. Have I mentioned Pollo Campero??? (pronounced POY-oh Com-Pedr-oh). This is our new favorite place to eat...anywhere! Awesome fried chicken! Colonel Sanders has nothing on this place! I guess they have several stores here in the U.S., but of course no where around here! Maybe we'll open a franchise.
After we ate, I begrudgingly decided I should get our things packed so I wouldn't have to deal with it in the morning. The foster family was supposed to arrive to pick up Olivia between 8:00 and 9:00. As I was packing, the girls were drawing and coloring, at one point, Olivia came up and handed me a piece of paper she had just "written" on. She looked at me and proceeded to tell me that she had written "Te amo mucho, Mama Susan"! (I love you very much, Mama Susan). She then proceeded to make one for Papa Bryan too. Our hearts absolutely melted!
We put the girls to bed that night about 8:45, but because of Olivia's afternoon siesta, she wasn't ready to go to sleep. Bryan and I were in the bathroom/sink area with all of our camera equipment and our Kodak Easyshare printer trying to print out pictures of our time together to put in a little album for Olivia to take home with her. For the next half hour to 45 minutes we heard giggling and talking coming from the girls bed. I wanted them to go to sleep so they wouldn't know what we were up to, but at the same time, just hearing them enjoyng each other like sisters should, was priceless. Emily told us later that Olivia kept telling her that she loved her and fell asleep with her arm draped over Emily!
Thursday morning we got up around 6:00, Olivia slept a little later, I already had most of ours and Olivia's things packed and ready to go, all we had to do was have breakfast, get cleaned up and dressed and wait till 8-ish for the family to show. Our translator Mirna had told the family to come at 8:00 knowing that would mean at least 9:00 considering they had about a 45-minute drive from their home and of course, allowing for "Guatemala time"! Our doorbell rings at 7:05, it's the family! Olivia had just woken up and Bryan had just brought in our breakfast from next door so they graciously volunteered to wait in the lobby till we were done. We also wanted to wait for Mirna to get there to translate as she was due to arrive at 8:00.
So about 8:15, Bry went down to the lobby to bring them back up. We had a lovely time, they're such a beautiful and warm family. When it was about time to say good-bye, we asked to have a few minutes alone with Olivia. I had given her a bear from "Build-A-Bear" and put a recording of Bryan's, Emily's and my voices telling her we loved her whenever she pressed the flower on the bear's foot. We also gave her the photo album. We prayed with her and then took her out in the hall where the family was waiting. We said adios in the lobby. She didn't cry this time either, but we told her we would be back soon. The three of us held back the tears till they were out of sight.
We got home Thursday night at 11:15 p.m. our time.We can't wait to go back. We miss this special little girl who instantly wrapped herself around each one of our hearts.
