Greetings from Central America! Believe it or not, I am sad to miss all the snow back home but it's nice to wear tanktops and capris each day! There have been several people that have been asking for more details of what's going on and I'm afraid that poor Russ is getting exhausted answering so many questions! I'm sending this email to give everyone the same "cliff's notes" version of what the next steps are in order for Eliot and I to come home. You would help Russ and I if you could pray specifically for these steps and also to spread the word. Please know that we are SO THANKFUL for each prayer, thought and kind word. Hopefully this will eleveate some of the mystery as to what the hold up is. So, here goes:
> >Step 1: Get approval from PGN.
This is the big one. PGN is the Guatemalan government office that gives the final approval on our entire case. They go through each document and have the power to "kick us out" to fix whatever they see as a problem. It could be as huge as a missing Power of Attorney or as small as using the wrong colored ink. So far we've been in this stage since the beginning of September and have been kicked out 6 times already (the average per case is 2). Our file has to go through multiple reviews/people before it gets to the final signature. We've been on the first reviewers desk since Feb. 27. The average time between entering PGN after a kick-out and approval is 6-8 weeks. Our lawyer is hoping to get a meeting w/ the head Attorney General once we're on his desk to see if we can shorten that window of time since we've already "put our time in."
> >Step 2: Final adoption decree
This is where the birthmom signs off for the final time. This should only take a couple days.
> >Step 3:New Birth Certificate
This is where Eliot becomes Eliot Mohr! This can take up to a couple weeks depending how busy the city hall office is.
> >Step 4: Submit case to U.S. Embassy
This is where our entire file is submitted for the U.S. approval once it's all been translated back into English. At this point,
we also file for an appointment for an interview, which commonly takes place a week later. Within that week we also have to meet w/ the Embassy doctor to clear Eliot's health. This is also when we apply for a passport for Eliot.
> >Step 5: Pink slip-Visa
Once that week is over we go into the embassy for our interview and they issue us a "pink slip". Within 24 hours of the Pink slip, we're allowed to come get Eliot's Visa. The tricky part of all the steps that involve the embassy is that the embassy only processes adoption stuff 3 days a week so that they can handle the other stuff they have to do.
> >Step 6: Get on the freakin' plane!!!!
Sorry this ended up being so long, I actually left out a lot of background and details if you can believe it! But now you know and when people ask, you'll have somewhat of an answer. I hope this helps answer the overall question of "What the heck is taking so long". The main prayer at this point goes back to step 1: getting approval from PGN. Once that happens it's usually 2-4 weeks before we can come home!
I will be updating you again once we hear any news! Again, THANK YOU for praying, thank you for getting your friends and family to pray, thanks for making me feel missed, thank you for everything!
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