What a day...............

................and I chose today to wear make up!!!! If I had known what the day held, I would have definitely gone makeupless. Mayra picked me up at around 9:00 and we headed to PGN. Our investigator was in a meeting. We waited for probably two hours before we could speak with her. Then the fun began............(sarcasm). The first thing the woman told us was that the judge had no say in whether or not we could complete our adoption but that it was up to the CNA and the CNA already had their list of adoptions to complete and basically ours wasn't one of them. Of course at that point, the tears started to flow. Then the other woman in the office spoke up and said the first woman wasn't exactly correct but that if the birth mother was found, she could claim Nola or any family member could do the same (we already knew that). But then they told me that our attorney didn't show up to the first hearing in August and that the judge probably assumed we were not interested in completing the adoption. They said we were no longer part of the process. They apologized for the fact that our lawyer has been lying to us and giving us false information.............more tears..........and anger! They told us we should go speak with someone in another office who could possibly help so we went to ask for directions to that office. The secretary we spoke with (Sonja) told us it would do no good to talk to the people in that office and she told us to go try to speak with the judge. We were planning on that anyway and Sonja gave us directions. We were off to see the judge. That was an adventure in itself! After finally finding the building, it was up four flights of winding stairs and I think each step was a different height.............and me in heels.............what was I thinking?!?! Anyway, we finally got to the right floor and the right area and waited for about an hour for someone to come back to the office and found out we were waiting to speak to the wrong person. We finally got to speak to the official (who is under our judge) who has our file. It took her a bit to find it but she finally came back with a file that was at least 3 1/2" thick! No kidding! Mayra told her what PGN had told us and she started looking through our file. She showed me the report that our lawyer had written after the hearing and proof that he was there representing us. She told us that we are still part of the process and showed me all of our family information in the file. She just shook her head in disbelief about the info we got from PGN. She filled out a form with my name and the date and time and a note stating I was there and still wanting to complete the adoption. She had me add my signature to it. She made me a copy and put the original in our file and said the judge would be interested is seeing that I was there. I had put together a little photo book of Nola with us and took it with me. They all loved looking at it and they placed it in our file too. She told me that the judge will make a ruling at the hearing in June and it would be good for me to come. Just in case our lawyer didn't show up, I would be able to go into the hearing and represent our family. She was so nice and so helpful and certainly turned what had started out as a rotten day into a great one!

Mayra has already got me penciled in for June 24 at 9;00. She will accompany me to the hearing. As long as our lawyer is there, I will probably not be able to be inside during the hearing, but we can wait outside and it will be good for the judge to know I'm there.

I'm so glad I came! Mayra has such a heart for the children and families who are stuck in this mess. She is truly a gift from God.

I fly out tomorrow at 12:55. It still feels wierd being here by myself. I can't wait to be back home!

Thanks for all of your prayers and please, keep them coming!