The greatest experience, the one which shakes a soul with hopes and fears, the results of which are never ending, and incidentally, the one which pays the biggest dividends, is to be found in the adoption of children.
--Anonymous

Lilypie Waiting to Adopt tickers

Wednesday, April 30, 2008

We´re Here!!!!!

Well after worrying that we would miss our flight because of road construction around Chicago, we finally got to the airport with time to spare and had a very uneventful flight (God was definately watching over us). We arrived in Guatemala at 11:45 Guatemala time, picked up our luggage and walked out to find our taxi driver waiting holding a sign with our name ready to take us to our hotel. The hotel is beautiful! And the staff is so helpful! Nola should be arriving in about an hour and a half. I´ll post again later.
The weather is beautiful! Temps in the 80´s. I´m not sure about these computers. We haven´t been able to sign in to our aol account so, so far, we can´t send any personal e-mails.

Thursday, April 24, 2008

A Quiet Week Around the Lane Household

It's been a weird feeling week so far. Mark left on Monday morning for a week long bike trip
(that's "motorcycle" Lisa S). He and a fellow unemployed Pfizerite took off for a 1500 mile ride through West Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee and Kentucky. They've had wonderful weather and I'm so glad he got to go. It's just been odd around here without him, very quiet and very hectic at the same time. I've had to do all the running of the girls, (he usually does about half of it) and it doesn't feel like I've gotten anything else done.
I'm loving the distraction that planning a visit trip has given me. I've been so busy running girls and packing and making lists that I haven't really had time to obsess about PGN. There will more than likely be some delays in PGN now at least for a short time. The President has replaced the Attorney General and the Sub Attorney. The Sub Attorney is the person who does the final check and sign off on adoption cases in PGN. The Men who were replaced are appealing to get their jobs back and the replacements are waiting to begin working until they find out if their appointments are going to hold up in court. It's also being reported that there will be some sort of audit when things begin moving again. I hate to see a hold up but I really feel it can only make things better in the long run. It seems as though Mr Gordillo and Mr Barrios; the previous Attorney General and Sub Attorney, enjoyed demonstrating their authority by causing terrible delays in many adoption cases. Hopefully those two are out of the way for good and the replacements will be hard working people who have the welfare of the children waiting for their forever families close to their hearts.
The clock is quickly ticking down to visit trip time . We will be flying out of Chicago at 6:00am Wednesday morning and should be meeting our sweet Nola by around 1:30 Guatemala time Wednesday afternoon. We are going to be staying at the La Casa Grande. I hope we enjoy the hotel because it's within a block of the US Embassy so it would be a very convenient place to stay for the pick up trip (which hopefully isn't too far into the future). We were only going to take one suitcase, but so far I haven't packed anything for Mark or me and the one is almost full! Oh well, he and I don't need much ;o)
I was going to give my now 16 year old daughter a big Happy Birthday shout and post a birthday picture of her but Mark has the camera with him so the picture will have to wait but I can still give the shout.........
Happy Birthday Kelsey!!!!!
Sweet Sixteen

Thursday, April 17, 2008

UNBELIEVEABLE!! (Non Adoption Related)

My sweet hubby, since he has been home from work for a while, has become quite the house keeper! He actually was very good at it when he worked, but he has the thing down to a science now. (I'm gonna hate it when he finds a job and gets back to work.) This afternoon he went down to the basement to put a load of laundry in the washer. He saw a string, "or something" in the wash tub so he just reached in to grab it out..........and it slithered away from him. Yes, that's right,..........it slithered. He yelled for me to come down and see and I was expecting to see a spider or something. I was extremely surprised!



Yes,.........it's a snake,.............in my washer!

We are "rural" Americans and aren't surprised to see varmints around, but not in my washer!
The basement drain is tied into the perimeter drain of our house and the overflow from our water softener also drains into a rise tube that comes up behind our washer. The drain goes probably 150 yards underground and empties into a small creek behind our house. That little snake had to crawl into the opening of that drain, crawl all the way up to the perimeter drain, and up the rise tube. When he came out of there, he was very close to the washer so he must have crawled across the top and down in the tub. That was a definite first for us!

Now, for some great adoption news................We're going for a visit!!!! We're leaving on April 30th to see our "Baby Nola", (as Maria calls her), for a week. I'm so excited I can hardly stand it. Thanks to a tax refund and President Bush's stimulus check, we decided to splurge! Now I'm going to have to get in gear and get things ready! I just can't wait!
Thank you Lord!

Monday, April 14, 2008

New Count Down Date

Well, after having the week-end to grieve the time we've lost with Nola due to another PGN previo, I am ready to get back on this monster of a coaster ride and ride it through to the end.
Our coordinator let us know today that our lawyer was able to pick up our file on the 9th and resubmit it on the 10th. She didn't know exactly what the problem was that had to be corrected but it couldn't have been much due to the quick turn around.
Now we start all over again. Our file will go back through all of the channels starting with the first reviewers desk. Logical thinking doesn't apply in the world of Guatemalan adoptions. One would think that when PGN finds a problem with a file, the lawyer could correct the problem, show them it's corrected and then get approval. Oh wouldn't that be lovely.......and easy......but who wants easy when things can be made so complicated? ( I do ) We're now back to waiting another 4 to 8 weeks before our file can make it back through the reviews and hopefully to approval this time. Third time's the charm, right?
We are "praying" and "believing" that all is well now and our next call will be APPROVAL!

Not so patiently waiting.........Pam

Friday, April 11, 2008

Not The News I Wanted From PGN!

Well, I called PGN today. This marks our seventh week of being resubmitted. I'm here to tell you that seven is not our lucky number! We received another previo! What a bummer! I'm not sure what the problem is this time and I haven't heard from our agency yet. I just know that I really wasn't expecting this. I thought if we were getting another previo, it would have happened before now.
Those of you who know us, know that we were praying to have the adoption finalized by May 12th. For those of you who don't know, my husband was informed exactly one week after we received our referral that he is losing his job. We have until May 12th (which is his final day as an employee) to finalize the adoption and receive the "very sizable" adoption reimbursement from his company. Any time after that date, we won't be able to receive the benefit.
I have been praying that God's timing would coincide with Pfizers time table but it's not looking like that will be the case. I have been trusting that God would see us through this situation from the beginning and I know He will. Financially, it would make things much easier if we had that benefit to help pay down the adoption debt. Now we will be waiting to see what God has up his sleeve.

Please keep us in your prayers

Tuesday, April 8, 2008

Feeling Especially Blue This Morning

Well..........I don't really have a reason for feeling down........other than the fact we are still in PGN with no exit in sight. I discovered quite some time ago, one thing that always seems to brighten my spirit is music. After quite a bit of time, and I do mean "quite a bit" of time, I finally figured out how to put music on this blog! WOO HOO FOR ME!!! I chose a song that always puts me in a good mood, and if you imagine the letters PGN in front of the word "shackles" in the lyrics, it truly becomes MY SONG! Crank up the sound and enjoy some Shackles by Mary Mary!!!

PGN....LET US OUT!

Please keep the prayers coming!
OOOPS!!! 4/10/08
For those of you who have listened
to my music and wondered why
I would choose the Chipmunks version
of Shackles.........I didn't know until some
good friends broke it to me gently.
(I WOO HOO'd for myself just a bit early)
Just when I think I'm getting the hang
of this blogging thing, I try something new
and find out how truly in the dark I
really am. Hopefully I have it fixed now!

Friday, April 4, 2008

Picture Day

Wow! I didn't think it was ever going to get here but it's finally "Picture Day"! If we can't have PGN out, we'll gladly settle for new pictures. No smiles this time but mercy, look at those cheeks! She looks like they woke her up from her nap and she's not too happy about it.

This has been a terribly slow week for PGN outs for our agency. We're praying for news next week. I did call PGN again today (I'm not sure why) and was told the same thing as last week. It was a new person I talked to but she told me we are with the second reviewer. She has no date as to how long we have been with that reviewer but obviously.... not long enough.

Gordon Mote - Don't Miss the Glory