Happy Thanksgiving Birthday Cumpleanos!!

Buzz Lightyear, Nemo, Backyardigans, beer... you would think the party was for Daddy. El Rey, Max, turned 2 yesterday and there was nothing terrible about it. After turning down turkey, stuffing, green beans, and giblets on Thanksgiving, Max was all about cake, candy, pop, chocolate milk and presents on his birthday. It must have been the 2 extra days that he needed to mature and accept the difficult things in life. Max worked the crowd of 30+ by performing magic tricks, singing karaoke, and he did a wonderful monologue from Raging Bull that no guest is going to forget. It was a fun day for all and there will be plenty to talk about when dad isn't completely exhausted. Still waiting for one big gift. Should hopefully have something for you in a couple of days. Stay tuned!!

Oh, and Max spit on cake I have been told makes it taste better.

Sorry the rest of you couldn't be here. All are missed greatly. Sorry to hear about the snow back home.

xoxoxoxoxoxoxoooooo Mark, Jen, and El Rey MAX

Speak Up!!

As I sit here enjoying pizza from a quaint little authentic Guatemalan place called Domino's, I am reminded how lucky we have been to be here for almost a year! Receiving news today that our file was resubmitted to the PGN made us melancholy as we realize that our time here could be coming to an end soon. We might actually be able to make it home by Christmas...........2013. Let's hope!!! Again, we won't try to make any predictions.

While Max still is not exactly talking up a storm, he is saying lots of new words. For balloon, he says "booooon". For ball, he says "boooooooo". For moon, he says "booooooon". And then, of course, there is still "deet" for everything else. See an apple, "deet". Step on daddy's head, "deet". Point to poo in the diaper, "deet". Good to see that vocabulary grow.

With weather in Chicago beginning to take a turn for the worse, and rainy season ending here I must admit I am excited to be here. It has not rained once in 2 weeks. Sunny and 70's every day! With that, I was excited because that means the end of mosquitoes...or so I thought. The ones that attack me in the house are gone, but now there is a new breed that comes out at night. Max loves to play outside at night. Bad news for daddy. Apparently they love my rum soaked veins because last night I counted 92 bites on my legs and ankles alone. Meanwhile, Jen gets a couple of bites while in bed one morning and she is convinced we have bed bugs. So now I get to spend a good majority of my time here ironing the bed. Uhhhhh. Oh, yeah, I haven't seen 1 bug yet...other than the carnivorous spiders.

Finally, big ups to Max for having the foresight to vote absentee during the election in true Chicago fashion. His vote, and votes just like them, helped put Obama over the top on Tuesday. He was even smart enough to get his friend Anna Lou and his birth mother to vote. He will have a solid career in politics when he grows up. They did shoot off fireworks here when the winner was announced, and I did hear a rooster crowing, so I think they were excited here in Guatemala. It was a little weird watching them celebrate in Chicago while we watched on a laptop here, but hey, at least we got to watch. God bless the Slingbox!!

As always, all are missed. Wish we were there.

Mark, Jen and El Rey MAX
xooooooooooooooooooooooooooooox

Who's Got File?

Daddy here. It's amazing to think that these days receiving our file so that we can correct yet another ridiculous error is good news, but it is. We got word on Friday that after about 7 weeks of trying to get our file our lawyer was finally able to retrieve it from the PGN. That's it. No more updates for now. No more predictions. Those haven't worked. Just trying to continue our efforts to get Max home ASAP. We'll keep you up to date though!

Friday was Halloween also and we weren't sure Max was going to get to celebrate, but Ana Maria who helps us with Max was sweet enough to bring over a costume for Max. He was a brown care bear. I'm glad she didn't bring pink or try to make him Rainbow Bright. She took him to a day care where all of the kids had costumes and they ate cookies and drank juice. While I'm sure the cookies weren't windmills, and the juice wasn't Hawaiian Punch, I am sure he loved it. He then got to search the house for "hidden" candy. Pretty tough to find on the couch, on the beds, on the coffee tables. It's like the search was designed for me. He also loved his costume. He got upset when we took it off, and we had to put it on again over the weekend. Next year we think he will be Scarface.

Here in Guatemala they don't really celebrate Halloween as much as they celebrate Day of the Dead. As far as we have been able to tell, this means that they all make kites and fly them in the cemetery. Two cities have big kite festivals, but unfortunately we weren't able to get to either of them. Instead we went to the Bodegona. This is the Guatemalan A & P. Pretty fun.

Hope everyone had a good Halloween and rotted their teeth out like a good kid would. Enjoy exciting video of Max eating bread!!

xxoo Mark, Jen, and Care Bear Max

More Skinny...

OK, so this week we did not get our file out of PGN yet again, but we have made a little progress. After having no luck in having our file released on Mon., Tues., or Wed., our lawyers and Mark and I decided that we needed to meet the Sub-Attorney General for the second time. So on Thursday that is what we did. Despite the fact that the Sub-Attorney General, could not release our file right then and there, we were told that she would release it on Tues. or Wed. (as Monday is another stupid holiday here). Also our attorney was able to review the previo at the meeting so that they could work on fixing the previo while we wait for the file to be released. The ultimate goal will be to have the previo fixed by the time the file is released from PGN so that it can be resubmitted immediately to hopefully receive approval within a few weeks of its resubmission. We REALLY hope this is the case - yet we remain cautiously optimistic as we basically have been screwed by each step of our Guatemalan adoption process (minus pre-referral, of course, when we had some control).

We will keep you posted on what occurs this coming week and thank everyone for their continued support - it is VERY, VERY appreciated.

XXOO Jen y Maxito

P.S. - Mark will be traveling back down this coming Sunday and will begin to stay down here more than ever before as it is getting harder for us all to be apart. Look out everybody, you may have another Guatemalteco on your hands! I'm sure by the end of this we will be a 100% Guatemalteco family and have to assimilate to life back in the states. But let's hope that by that time OBAMA will be running things or at least elected (oops, I actually got un poco political). Nigh, nigh.

Hmmm, I'm thinking I need to get home!!

OK, here's the skinny, we are delayed as usual. We have known for three weeks now that we have a previo (our file is being bumped from PGN AGAIN for a stupid error), and we have been unable to get our file so we can correct the error because things at the PGN are out of control. We have been told that the system has been down for quite some time, 2 files were approved where birth mother interviews were not done, and 1 file was found to have a forged sub attorney general signature. For this reason, they are now going back and looking at all existing files to make sure signatures are OK, and all birth mother interviews were done and done correctly. Now why they can't do this after we re-submit our file we cannot figure out. Just give us our file!!!

With that being said, Jen and Max are doing well considering. Daddy is visiting again and getting worn out by the little runt. Chasing Max into rooms and slamming doors never gets old for him. For me, that's another story. At least he's happy, so I'm glad to chase. I can stand to shed a few pounds too. Max still isn't saying much. Can anyone tell us if "deet" is a word? Point, "deet." Drink some juice, "deet." Pop dad in the face, "deet." Seems to be an all purpose word. Farting is now also becoming funny to Max so Papi is excited. There really isn't anything funnier than a fart. Of course, we're guys. We laugh, and Jen stares at us. Ever done the "pull my finger" gag? Yeah, Max likes that one.

Jen, by the way, is getting pretty good with her Spanish. She is becoming a true Guatemalteca. I think that she has surpassed my "donde esta el bano" Spanish. She actually orders food over the phone and asks questions in stores and never bothers me to do these things. I may be losing my purpose. Of course, only I come back from the store with Fud pizzas, so I'm good for something.

Big thanks to Steve and friends for the care package. We're shocked it made it here. It was greatly appreciated, and Max thinks the wax lips are awesome.

Hoping for better news Monday. Keep the good thoughts coming. They have to work at some point don't they?

Cubs suck.

Miss you all,

Mark, Jen, and El Jefe MAX

xoxoxoxoooox

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