Over the past couple weeks, a lot has been going on. Since we began our adoption back in 2006, there has been yet another step added into the process. This step is called the Birth Mother Interview and it takes place at PGN (where our case is at the moment and where the actual adoption will be legalized). The stressful part of this interview exists on many levels. The first stressful step is actually locating the birth mother and making sure she is in attendance for the interview on the right date and time. We initially were given the wrong date and time so we tried to coordinate bringing her in for the interview to find out that it was to be rescheduled to the following week. This is the type of stuff we deal with on a daily basis here and makes this adoption a full-time job for us. Our birth mother lives about 3 hours away from PGN in a very small village. Receiving misinformation about our interview appointment really cost us a lot of time for everyone involved! The second stressful step for us was reconnecting with Max's initial foster family. Since I have been down here for the past 7 months, we wanted to make sure Max's foster family had an opportunity to reconnect with him so he wouldn't throw temper tantrums and other things an 18 month-old could do during an interview with a lot of strangers. This ended up being a really special meeting as I had the opportunity to spend more time with his foster family and see how very much they loved him. In the past, we have had a strained relationship with them due to some issues involved with our agency (more on that when we are home). The third stressful aspect of this interview is the actual questioning that goes on during the interview. The birth mother is asked for yet another time, if she is consenting to the adoption and has to take another photo with the child. As an adoptive parent you can get very stressed about all the 'what if's'. However, fortunately for us, the interview went extremely well and I had the honor of meeting Max's birth mother afterwards. We exchanged some hugs, tears, laughter, and thanked each other for our precious gifts. Max's birth mother stated that she was very thankful to know that Max will always be well cared for in a loving home and I was thankful for her precious gift of this beautiful boy! I keep saying that this experience was all so surreal. In the future we hope to meet again (when the adoption is actually finalized) and also hope to stay in touch for years to come. Despite this whole experience being extremely stressful for us, it has also been quite magical and bittersweet. Someday Max will hear a lot of stories about our time here in Guatemala and we just hope he will appreciate our tales...
Anyway, below are a variety of photos from the past couple weeks. They include: moments with his foster family before and on the day of the interview; Max watching his favorite movie (Curious George); and photos of Max and his play mates Lucia and Andreus while hanging out one Sunday afternoon.
We miss everyone and send our love,
XXOOOO Jen y Maxito
