Caleb is 15 months today!

We just wanted to point out that Caleb is 15 months old today. Who would have thought that he'd be spending this much time in Guatemala. We certainly thought he'd be with us by now.

Our agency is getting us new pictures of beautiful Caleb. As soon as we get them, we'll post them for the world to see.

Otherwise, no update yet on our case. We know we're probably in for a long wait, and it is absolute torture.

Take care,
Keith and Kris

Follow up to bad news post from yesterday...

In checking with a couple of reliable sources, we've been told that the route that our attorney is taking (filing the recurso de ampuro) is the best route to take. We're obviously not at all happy about this setback, but it is nice to know that our attorney is handling it, and handling it well.

We'll give you an update as we find out something. Have a great day!

Bad, bad news

I just spoke with my agency. Our attorney has received some official notice from Petén that they will not release birth certificates (which we already knew, but now our attorney has it in writing). So, he is flying up to Petén sometime this week to file a "recurso de amparo", which is some kind of legal appeal with the court system. What the mayor/official is doing in Petén is illegal, but it will have to go through the court system to be rectified.

This could take months. I suppose it's even possible that we will never be able to complete the adoption, but our attorney seems confident that this will be rectified in the courts. Obviously this is the worst possible news. Thankfully, our attorney in Guatemala is also a trial lawyer, who knows the ins and outs of the complicated Guatemalan legal process. But courts take time in Guatemala as they do in the U.S. Not to sound selfish, but we'd appreciate your thoughts and prayers right now.

The area of Guatemala where we need the birth certificate from is very rural, very poor, and has a very low literacy rate. There are many people in this region who believe that Americans adopt babies so that they can sell the organs when they return to the U.S. Here is an example of what I am talking about from the US Embassy website. http://guatemala.usembassy.gov/wardene20070718.html So I personally imagine that the mayor's decision not to release documents related to adoption is very popular amongst his constituents...although not at all popular with us!!!!

So, this is our update. If you have any questions, please ask! Maybe you'll think of something that we haven't thought of. We're obviously desperate to bring Caleb home.

Love,
Keith and Kris

There's something strange going on...

We learned late last week from our agency that our attorney has been having problems getting Caleb's new birth certificate. It seems that an official in Petén will not process any requests for new birth certificates. Upon learning this, we've "found" two other families who are in the same boat as us...out of PGN for over a month and still no birth certificate. We guess that misery loves company!

The glimmer of hope in this is that our attorney said that he was informed late Thursday that the BC request for Caleb was finally processed and ready to go. WE HOPE SO!!!!

Most people get their BC a week or two after exiting PGN. We've been waiting over 5 weeks, so you can see why we're getting impatient.

If our attorney does indeed have the BC, then our guess would be one month until travel. Yup, right before the Thanksgiving holidays. So we're expecting jam-packed airports AND superduper expensive airline tickets. But it will all be worth it, absolutely! Heck, we'd drive to Guatemala if we had to!

Have a great week. We'll post more as we learn more.

Update - Or Not

This will be short. We haven't heard anything since getting out of PGN 3 weeks ago.

As soon as we hear something, we will definitely let you know.

Trust us - we're tired of waiting, we want to travel to Guatemala ASAP and bring Caleb home!

Love,
Kris and Keith