Kickout confirmed!

Hey, just wanted to let you all know that we did indeed receive a kickout from the Guatemalan court system on Oct 17Th. They had to have it signed off and get through all the channels before it was available to be picked up my attorney there. She went to the court today and picked it up and you'll never believe what the error in the paperwork was! When we had our homestudy done by the social worker, we told her we wished to adopt a baby girl from Guatemala. Well, since we didn't accept a girl but, we accepted Levi, we had to complete an affidavit that was notarized, etc.. basically stating that we chose a boy on our own free will with much consideration and feel that was what is best for our family and things like that. Bad part being that we had to have it notarized here and then get the county seal, Secretary of State seal in Nashville, and then the Guatemalan Consulate's seal in Atlanta. Atlanta will then send the paper onto our agency to overnight back to the attorney. After she gets it back she will take it and resubmit it back into the courts. Also, we start our time over from the 1st reviewer on up since we had the KO. If you get the KO then you have to be submitted back into the process from the beginning. The near month we had behind is just lost time. We cannot afford too much delay with this if he is to be home this year. Praying that God allows it to sail right on through the rest of the process. Love- Tracy **(aka Levi's mommy)

6 Month report

Hey, wanted to post that we got a report from the social worker in Guatemala today on Levi. He is still eating very well. He takes 6 oz of formula with cereal every 2 hrs!! He doesn't like being placed in a walker but, prefers to be held. He is sleeping all night now and wakes up at 6am every morning. His foster mom reports that he is trying to say his first words and sitting up by himself. Those 2 things I don't know about but, just reporting to you what I rec'd. He is to go to the pediatrician the first week of November so we'll see how much he weighs then and get a few more pictures. We called our agency today about the kickout from last week and in turn they called the attorney in Guatemala and they have not been informed of the KO that PGN says we have rec'd. I don't know what to think about it and there is nothing our agency can do until they locate the file and see if we have one or not. Until then we continue to pray that whatever the hold up is they get things moving again. We are losing time with our file just sitting if we do indeed have a KO. If not, then praise the Lord and we need it to continue to move forward. We want so bad for this to just be over. It's literally driving me nuts worrying everyday about something new with the process. - Tracy (aka Levi's mommy)

6 months old today!

Hey, just thought I'd post although no updates yet. I am just blah today I guess. Levi turned 6 months old today. Time seems to fly by when you think of all we have missed the first 6 months of his life. But, then in another sense it crawls by when you think of the day in and day out we wait for the slightest bit of news that we're still moving forward in the process. I guess I could look at it like we're one day closer to bringing him home but, it's hard to when you don't know when that will be. Having to watch him grow through pictures and get updates of all the new things he learns knowing I'm missing so much just stinks in every way. I have to try and stay focused though that God is in control here but, it's hard I'm still human. Yes, I have faith God can and will but, that doesn't make me miss him any less. - Tracy (aka Levi's mommy)

Previo (kickout) rec'd from PGN

Hey, just wanted to post and let you all know we rec'd an update yesterday from our case in PGN (Guatemalan court process). I called last week to check on the status and was told I was on Barrios' desk(the last person to sign off, the big dog). I was so excited and still am, don't get me wrong, to have gone from 1st reviewer to Barrios' desk for final sign off in 5 days. The lady who gives us updates told me to call yesterday on Friday to check the status again. I called yesterday morning and was informed we had a previo (a kickout issued by Barrios). Although it's funny how you can make it through your agency holding your file for 2 weeks from the time we got pre-approval status for his Visa to "review it to make sure it didn't have errors", through 2 more reviewing attorneys and get no kickouts but, he finds something in the end. However, most cases do get at least one kickout and it's nothing to panic about according to the director of our agency. She said that our attorney goes everyday to check on her case status and she knows the day of a kickout so they can get it corrected and back in as soon as possible. Since this was issued on the 17th (Wednesday) and my agency says they've heard nothing and no news is good news, Nancy seems to think that maybe it was so minor of an error or some copy of something was just missing that they could quickly correct it and get it resubmitted without alarming me or calling our agency to tell them even. I so hope that is the case. I feel like if they are there everyday then they know about it. I do have faith in my agency and attorney so far (although, I know we don't get every detail if they feel it's not necessary too). So, what to do? I plan to call back next week and confirm that it was picked up and hopefully will be told it's already been resubmitted and back in. Good thing here is we don't go back to the 1st reviewer and start over, we go back to Barrios' desk and start back where we left off. As far as where in his stack, that I am not sure about but, plan to post on the forum and see if anyone knows that for sure. Of course, nothing is for sure there. There is no standard even flow and all cases are different. It's hard to compare to anyone else we just grasp at any hope we can. I do not think it was a coincidence though that the fasting and praying was called for yesterday and many of my own family and friends joined us in this as well to have us learn the same day we're doing all the praying we get a kickout. It's just the devil. There was supposed to be a statement made from Guatemala's president who wants to stop adoptions in January. However, no statement can be found or confirmed as of this posting. We're not sure if he postponed it or what happened there we just have bot heard a thing from that. Maybe he was going to make a negative statement and our prayers kept him thinking on it who knows? I just have to stay focused and know that God is still in control and He knew we were facing this in our case long before Barrios did. He's still got our timeline when it's in His will for Levi to come home. We can only pray it's still before Christmas and we're not effected by the new laws changing things up for Guatemala. Rumor has it that on Nov 14th they will pass an amendment to the new "Ortega law" that President Berger was all for. The amendment the US and several other parties have asked for was to allow in process cases fall under the old law in which we entered our cases and contracts under so, we can bring home our babies with no added delays. Until I know more, as always, please keep us in your prayers and continue to believe with us that all is still well and this is minor.
We appreciate all your prayers and support to keep us sane through all this. Especially to Nancy who keeps me sane through all this to give me my (daily lately) talks to hang in there and keeps telling me we're still OK and to keep my chin up. I told her to keep telling me that and I might make it. Good thing to report for them is that she is now rolling in PGN also and made it through the 1st reviewer with no kickout. She was on the 2nd reviewers desk as of last week. Praise the Lord for them, finally after the craziness with their social worker having to have charges pressed against her to get her to release her reports for their case and several others she was holding. But, Nancy is a prayer warrior too and we're bound and determined to pray our boys home. Through a translator we had the chance to call the foster mom and check on both Levi and Isaac Thursday night. She reports they are both well and growing. She says Isaac is happy and playful, on the go... (go think his mommy has a farm for him to run on huh? ha ha) and Levi is layed back still sleeping and eating (too much I'm sure). They are both eating vegetables now and loving real food. Nancy and I went this week and bought the foster mom a digital camera so she could get some more frequent pictures of Levi and Isaac and hopefully some video clips. Sorry for the long posts, just trying to keep you all up to date on how this crazy process works.
With love and blessings- Tracy (aka Levi's mommy)

WE ARE IN PGN!!!!

Hey, we wanted to let everyone know we are officially in PGN (this is the final court stage of the process). Our agency confirmed a few days ago we entered on Friday, Sept 28 and were assigned to a reviewer. From what was explained to me by the agency, there are 3 stages of this court process. The first stage consists of a panel of 12 reviewers and they review your adoption file for any missing documents or errors and if you need something fixed you'll receive a kick out as they call it. If this happens (which is not uncommon at all and most people do get a kick out for one reason or another depending on the reviewer), the attorney will be notified immediately to have it corrected and resubmitted. When the resubmit happens you basically start back at the beginning. The one bad part here is this.. if you get a kick out and it's say at the beginning of your file, they don't look any further for more errors or missing documents. therefore, if by chance there were something missing beyond that document you would in turn receive another kick out and this can for some be what seems like a never ending process. Since our particular attorney's office held our file from September 13 until the 28th for "review to check for errors to prevent a kick out one can only hope they caught anything that would have been wrong before we entered. Anyway, if nothing needs correcting, you'll move to the 2nd reviewer panel and this consists of 3 people. Your assigned to one of the three and they say this is where most of your wait takes place. I am assuming since there is only 3 in this stage processing the same number of cases as the 12 did in the 1st reviewer stage. Once you clear the 2nd reviewer, you move to the last sign off by the "big dog", he's like our attorney general and he signs all the adoption cases to finalize it all. I have never gotten whether each stage looks for something different or what but, you can receive a kick out from any of the 3 stages. We know as we have said over and over though, this adoption is covered in prayer and we're on God's timing when we'll be done with this long viscous process. When they warned that adoption is not for the faint at heart boy, were they not kidding about that. Some days we miss Levi so bad it's unbearable. The simplest thing can remind you of him and it's just terrible. Leaving him there and coming home was by far the hardest thing we've ever had to do. That is saying a lot in all that we've been through. Please keep us in your prayers and continue to believe he's home by Christmas. We'll keep you all updated here on his blog with any news we get.
We do still need anyone who hasn't signed the petitions online to please do so now. If you need the link to sign please email me and I'll forward it to you. We are all still in the process of contacting our Representatives i.e. Senators and Congressman to have them pressure the government in Guatemala to allow any in progress cases continue under the old laws we entered in agreement under and not the new ones they are passing now stating adoptions will stop January 1, 2008. We're believing that they'll be an amendment made to the new "Ortega law" that was passed this past week stating there would be no "grandfathering in" of cases not completed by December 31st. We as adoptive parents have bound together to be heard all across the country. there are currently 5,000 pending cases in different stages. If they are not allowed to continue (but, we're praying and believing they will proceed) those 5,000 plus children would end up in the streets begging for food because they currently have no welfare system there to support them. BUT--- God is bigger than the Guatemalan government and can shake that country like never before and bring them all home by December 31st.
One last and very important request, please say a special prayer for our friends, Nancy and Eric McGee. They are Isaac's parents, Levi's foster brother's parents currently in process too. They have had the worst time trying to gather a much needed and required document to allow their case to enter the court stage (PGN). That document was their social worker report. Apparently, after more run around than we care to mention at this point, been informed this particular social worker is holding and refusing to release several reports from different attorneys processing adoptions in Guatemala. That group of attorneys have joined together and learned she has done this to several cases and they are in the process of filing formal charges against her on Monday. Hopefully, this will be a speedy process forcing her through the court to supply these reports. That is all they are waiting for to enter PGN and be assigned a reviewer. Eric and Nancy received their pre approval a month ago and have now lost these precious days waiting for this report. In a time where everyday counts and we're working against the clock to meet the December 31st deadline before all the proposed changes take effect, this happening was not in good timing for sure. HOWEVER, they are yet another couple of praying parents and believe this is all in God's timing and that this must be happening for a reason. I'm sure they'll never know why but, let's just pray for Nancy's strength through all this because her heart is as broken as mine missing her baby too. Every passing day she has waited has taken it's toll on her mentally, physically and certainly brought her under spiritual attack by the enemy too. Please pray for both our boys that they'll be home soon and this mess will all be behind us.- Tracy (aka Levi's mommy)