Alexander

We are planning on proceeding in adopting Alexander! We are very excited and cautiously optimistic. This experience is trying to teach me to take it as it comes, but I am a slow learner.

I guess I should back up a little bit and explain who Alexander is....He is someone we have been discussing and living with for ten days. I say "living with" in that we have been praying for guidance as to if he is our son.

We decided this morning he is our son, so we are going to move forward. Alexander is from Guatemala. His date of birth is 9/16/05. He has the most beautiful coffee colored eyes. His mother is 23 years old and works as a domestic. She is from an Indian village whose name I need to clarify. The village where she is from is Indian, however her surname is Latina. .

He has a cleft lip and palate, so we have been researching the resources in our area and other associated issues. There are two cleft palate teams in San Antonio. One at our children's hospital and a second team at the University of Texas Health Science Center. Both have good reputations and are approximately 5-10 minutes from our home. The children's hospital does a Saturday cleft palate team clinic which is very helpful in our one car famliy.

There is a lot to think about and we appreciate the love and concern of our family and friends. We are blessed to have people who care enough to be involved in our lives. Alexander will certainly be one loved little guy!

So while this is our plan for now, we have to accept the fluidity of this situation. Nothing in adoption is guranteed and I am not going to start fantasizing about his room yet! I just cannot go there.

He had surgery this past Monday. An American surgeon did it free of charge. After my ordeal with the adoption agency, it is really nice to see someone do something kind. I am going to call his Guatemalan pediatrician and get the paperwork from that procedure as well as discuss our list of questions. Then it will be time to consult our pediatrician.

Meanwhile back at CIS, our I-171H is waiting to be finalized. Thank goodness for my illegal alien status or we would have had to go through another round of waiting for our I-171H and paying additional fees. I need to get an addendum or a home study that says Guatemala.

The addendum and the home study change are being held hostage by Dillon and their $900. We have a copy of our study, so technically it is not a hostage,b ut it feels like it! :) Our social worker at Bay Area Adoption Services has a good friend who is a social worker at Dillon. Her friend at Dillon is out of town until the 7th. That is our first plan. Plan B is to have Methodist Mission Home help us with the changes. Our friend Becca is a good friend of the social worker there. So, it looks like one of the two options should be viable.

We need to get my birth certificate authenticated by Passport Services. It also got sent back because I forgot to sign the money order. Then, our marriage certificate and Eddy's birth certificate go to the Guatemalan consulate in the State of California for authentication. My birth certificate goes to the Guatemalan embassy in DC after it is returned to me from Passport Services.

I do not need a divorce decree!!! YIPPEE. I guess the Guatemalan government trusts that I am not a polygamist.

So, homestudy changes get us our I171-H almost instantly, California certificates go to the Guatemalan consulate in CA. My certificate goes to DC and then to the Guatemalan embassy in DC. We go to our doctor for a Guatemalan medical form. Then, it is sent to our attorney in Guatemala and works its way through the court system. Next it will go to the PGN, which is the President and Attorney Generals office. They approve it and his birth mother gets a DNA test. This process usually takes 5-6 months after we get our stuff together. Needless to say my "to do" list is long!