Welcome!

This blog began as we documented our adoption of our third child, Caleb. It is now an eclectic journal of our often amusing lifestyle with 4 young children.

We do try to "keep it simple" because our lives are obviously busy enough! We try to hold true to what we firmly believe is the most important: family, friends, and faith.

We hope you enjoy our everyday happenings!

12/7/07

No Help from the Embassy, No Luck in the Courts

On Wednesday, we received the following e-mail from the US Embassy in Guatemala:

Dear _____ thank you for your email.

At this time, your case is being processed by the USCIS office at Embassy Guatemala. Please contact the office for more information. You can send them an email at:
Guatemala.Adoptions@dhs.gov

After the USCIS office has completed processing your case, they will pass it to us in the Immigrant Visa Unit. We will be able to assist you with your case after the file is in our possession.

We hope that you find this information helpful.

Sincerely,

The Immigrant Visa Unit
U.S. Embassy Guatemala


We thought this was highly unusual, even impossible, so we contacted our agency. Sure enough, this is a form e-mail. The Embassy Immigrant Visa Unit didn't even read our e-mail, or didn't read it very well. We've been e-mailing them for over 6 weeks with no reply, and then get a reply with inaccurate information.

To add insult to injury, we learned this morning that the appeal that our attorney filed in court (appealing the judge's decision not to grant the Amparo, which would get us our BC from Sayaxché) was DENIED. So currently, our *ONLY* hope is the pending Constitutional Appeal (trying to get the Sayaxché law that closed the Book of Adoptions overturned on the basis that it is unconstitutional). This Constitutional Appeal will take months. We don't know what will happen if the Constitutional Appeal doesn't work...

Today marks 12 weeks since we were approved by PGN. Caleb should be home with us, and instead, he's thousands of miles away, with the possibility of never making it home. It just does not seem right that this is happening.

7 comments:

happykosmo said...

Oh Kris, this just makes me so sick. I'm so sorry, it is all so wrong. I don't understand why no-one will step up and help. Honestly, it makes so sense that they won't issue the visa with the docs you already have. OH IT MAKES ME SICK! Do you think it would help if you contacted the media? If a mass of people could see how ridiculous this is maybe USE would feel some pressure. I wish there was something I could do. I'm so sorry.

Garland Family said...

I will pray for you and your family. Caleb should be home with you. I can't believe your request was denied. It should not be this difficult.

Anonymous said...

I am not even sure what to say except that my heart is breaking for you guys. Like the other comment - it makes me feel sick as well. If there is anything, anything at all that we can do for you guys please let us know. As always you are in our thoughts and our fingers are still crossed that the goverment will pull their heads out of their you know whats.
Love, Jeremy, Jen and the trips

Annie and Greg said...

This just makes me sick. I am thinking and praying for your family.

SueJ said...

UGH! I am praying for you and your family. Your attitude and your "fight" are admirable. Please let us know if we can do anything to help!

J said...

Kris,

This is so horrible. I think contacting the media is a good idea. What about asking Kevin and Kelly to feature this on their home page at Guatadopt? Supposedly everyone reads that site including people at the Embassy.

Stay strong.

Jenn in PA
www.apandpap.blogspot.com

Unknown said...

I'm hesitant to go to the media about this. Too often they've twisted stories beyond recognition. Or, they'll just portray our family in such a way that says "poor them" (which is true, poor us!!!) but all the pity in the world won't help our situation a bit. I don't want to be portrayed as someone who needs pity, either. Instead, we're going to keep on fighting this until we win, and until Caleb comes home where he belongs.
THANKS for all of your thoughts and suggestions. We WILL bring Caleb home, just obviously not as soon as we wanted.
Kris


Caleb, 9 1/2 months

Caleb, 9 1/2 months
Here is a great picture of Caleb we took during our visit trip.

Caleb, 4 1/2 months old

Caleb, 4 1/2 months old
This is our favorite picture from the group we received with our referral.