WHHAAAAT!!!!!

So this week did not turn out as well as we had hoped. On Wednesday (not Tuesday as originally planned) I met with the Sub-Attorney General at PGN to discuss our case and learned in a matter of moments that we had another ridiculous previo! I could not believe these words were coming out of her mouth. How could this be after the ordeal with our last previo and additional review that was done by more than one attorney on our file. How could this be?

It has actually taken me until today to feel able to blog on this subject as it just disgusts me right now to see how badly our case is being handled. To gain more clarity on the situation, this is what we understand at this time -- Our file will be picked up from PGN on Monday and immediately taken to our attorney's office so that they can fix the previo. Our attorney believes the previo will be an easy fix as it relates to a legal document that was placed in our file right before it was resubmitted that clarifies a switch in one of our attorney's. Once our previo is fixed and resubmitted back to PGN, we will then have another meeting with the Sub-Attorney General who has promised to help us by then expediting our case out of PGN.

We are so extremely tired of this entire process and are so past it all. I constantly dream about being able to bring Max home and Mark desperately wants to have his family altogether safe and sound. A year away is way too long.

We will keep you posted on things and please keep us in your thoughts.

XXOO Jen y Max

Waiting 'til Tuesday

OK, so we do not have much news for today. Basically, we drove into Guatemala City to have our meeting at PGN and were told that it would have to be rescheduled to Tuesday morning due to the Guatemalan Independence day celebrations that were starting up today and continuing through Monday. Ugh, ugh, ugh! I guess we shouldn't be too surprised as this is how our luck goes --- this is why Max is almost 2 and we have not kissed U.S. soil yet...

However, the good news is that theoretically having the meeting on Tuesday is not going to change a whole lot as not much work is going to get done at PGN between now and Tuesday morning. So we will try and stay positive about this one. Also we have someone that is really wonderful helping us right now. So we believe we are in very good hands and will see some real progress occur very soon.

We will keep you posted on the outcome of Tuesday's meeting.

Keep up the voodoo magic & whatever else you do!

XXOO Jen y Maxito

Will the 6th Time be the Charm?

Well we learned that as of yesterday, we are officially back in PGN!!

This time we are back in PGN with some good 'ol documentation from the Attorney General meeting that took place last week so we really hope that our 6th TIME back in will be the charm. This is all muy loco! We need to get ourselves home rapido. We do not need to set any more 'length of stay' PGN records nor 'length of stay' fostering in Guatemala records. Believe it or not, I think I finally feel like we will have enough stories to share with Max someday about our time living in Guatemala so we just need to get home and enjoy the Chicago life again... We can always travel here later for a VISIT!

So to help our cause, I am going to PGN this Friday with one of our contacts down here and we are going to meet with the Sub-Attorney General who is the one that actually approves adoption cases within Guatemala. We are hoping to plead our case and appeal to her heart so that we can get signed off pronto. We know that the Sub-Attorney General wants to meet adoptive families and also know of other families that have done the same thing with positive results. So we are going to give this a whirl and see what happens as we really have nothing to lose.

Please continue to send us those positive vibes and voodoo magic as they have been really helping! We will let you know how Friday goes and continue to hope that we can move forward to finally see ourselves coming home. By the way, Max is not talking a lot yet, but is managing to say a few key words -- woof woof (for any dog he sees), luz (Spanish for lights), bird, mama, boon (for balloon), and a very infrequent nigh nigh.

XXOO Jen y El Rey Max

We Like the Attorney General!!

Well folks, let's start off with the good news. The meeting occurred today with the Attorney General here in Guatemala and based on the limited information we have at this point, all went well and he agreed that we need help. Our file should be submitted back into the PGN very soon with his blessing. PROGRESS!!! We can only hope that this means a short stay in the PGN, but we will take what we can get. Getting back into the review process is what we needed. Enough stagnation! Thank you everyone for helping work the voodoo and sending those positive thoughts. Finally a little relief. Let's hope things go better from here.

Now for the bad news. Max pooped in the tub again.

Onto other things... Max is showing great signs of athleticism these days. I taught him to catch. He can now catch a wide variety of balls. No jokes Steve and Dave. He can catch a football, soccer ball and a variety of misshapen toys. He can also kick a soccer ball the length of the yard here and score goals. I'm hoping the soccer doesn't lead to rollerblading. I will be teaching him baseball fundamentals on the next trip.

Finally, I leave tomorrow, but yesterday Jen and I were able to celebrate our 7th anniversary at a Mayan spa. Jen got a manicure and pedicure while I went all out with the pedicure and massage. This was my first pedicure and suffice it to say that it was a daunting task for the young woman. Is it good when the woman has to stop multiple times so that she can consult with another person on how to best handle my feet? Also, I didn't exactly enjoy seeing a commercial for a new TV show when the quote from the detective was, "Clearly the victim was gay...How do you know he was gay?...He had a pedicure." My feet are the best they have ever looked and felt though! The massage was great too...until Jen had me lugging groceries on the long walk home. Oh, and it was just a massage.

I really hate to be leaving tomorrow as Max is becoming such an enjoyable kid, but at least I am leaving on a good note. And I'll be back soon!

Love to all,

XO - Mark, Jen and the one and only MAX