Well, I should have known...

we wouldn't be able to get thru fostering without catching some disease, sickness, or virus. Please pray for the girls. Whatever they do have is contagious, and right now our best guess is the measles :( My poor babies, I just hate the feeling when they're feeling bad and there's nothing you can do to help, besides hold them. Thankfully, Nana and Pops are coming tomorrow afternoon, but it won't be a very fun visit if the girls are sick.

We see the doctor this afternoon, in about an hour. That's another fun part, the doctor doesn't take appointments, so it's first come, first serve. I really hope we don't have to wait too long, who knows what else will be airborne in the waiting area. The one good thing about the doctor visit is I'll get to see the (accurate) heights and weights of the girls, which I have been thinking about since I got here.

I will keep you posted.

Oh, and I did speak with our facilitator this morning. She went to PGN ready to submit our case today, only to find that one of the Previos was not accurately corrected. So, hopefully it will only be 1-2 more days, to fix it and then we can get back IN! Thanks again for all your prayers.

Birthday Party today at...

... see if you can guess!!















There were gorgeous hydrangeas all over outside















Beautiful fountains















This fountain was inside















The girls look happy about something















A huge play-place















And.. Ronald :) (Papa better watch out :)


YEP! You guessed it! We were at McDonalds today!!

PGN - Procuraduría General de la Nación

I apologize to those of you, who have no clue about the Guatemalan adoption process, hopefully this will explain a bit and be helpful :)

The PGN is almost the equivalent to the Solicitor General's office in the United States. Literally translated, Procuraduría General de la Nación means "General office of the judge advocate general of the Nation".

The PGN is responsible for reviewing each adoption case individually when all of the paperwork has been completed by the adopting parents, the agency, and the lawyer. A PGN officer (reviewer) determines whether a case is ready to be signed off or needs additional information or corrections. The US Department of State describe the process the following way.

The PGN scrutinizes the adoption case for signs of fraud or irregularities before providing its approval of the adoption. Upon receiving PGN approval, the adoptive parents in the U.S. are legally responsible for their child(ren). The attorney obtains final approval from the Guatemalan birth mother and then requests a birth certificate listing the adoptive parents as the parents of the adopted child.

If the PGN reviewer sees any irregularities in the file, they will stop reviewing the file and return it to the representing attorney for corrections, issuing a "previo". This is referred to as being "kicked out" of the PGN. While it is a frustrating development in the process, it is a common one among all cases. My agency said over 50% of their families' files, are getting KO's. Very few cases go through the PGN review without having to make some corrections.

If the case is complete, the officer will send it to the PGN director's (aka Sr. Barrios, "the big guy", Mr. PGN, "the big kahuna", etc, etc.) office to be signed. After the PGN signs off, the "Escritura final de Adoption" is issued and placed with the file. The adoption is now completed from the standpoint of the Guatemalan government. This is the event that people refer to as being "OUT!"

Once a case has been approved by the PGN, there are a few more smaller steps before the file is then submitted to the US Embassy for final approval. However, the PGN review is most important step in the process. Once this step has been completed, most adopting parents begin to celebrate as they know the end of the adoption process is near.

Each case is just as unique as the people involved in every step of the adoption process. However, the average PGN review currently is taking about 1.5 mos, from submit date (or re-submit date) to OUT.

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Ok, sorry for all the political jargon... here it is in layman's terms: PGN, is the Guatemalan court system, that is the final, major step in the adoption process. Your file is submitted to PGN and you pray that you will make it thru in a short amount of time. Your case first goes to a "reviewer", I believe there are about 20-25 reviewers currently working for PGN. The reviewer typically looks thru the file and if they see anything they don't like, you will be kicked out (same as being issued a "Previo"). I have heard of just ridiculous KO's.. things like : an original staple was removed from a document, or a signature was in black ink, instead of blue, or a document was missing, when in reality it was just further down in the file, but the reviewer decided not to look that far.

In general, the reviewer stops looking at the file, when they issue a previo. So, once that mistake is fixed and your file is resubmitted to PGN, there's no telling if just a few more documents down in the file, the reviewer might find another reason to kick your case out. It's incredibly frustrating, and while I'm sure some of the reviewers consider the families who's lives they are affecting, by all of these pointless Previos, of course there are plenty that don't.

We have been praying that our reviewer would be merciful and really care about their job. So, after we had been in PGN for 2 weeks, we received a KO. But the awesome thing, is that it only took 2 weeks (many families don't even receive their first KO for months into PGN), and that it would seem that our reviewer gave us ALL our KO's at once (which, truthfully, I've never heard of). So, for the past month we have been fixing the errors and idiosyncrasies that our reviewer found in our file. As far as we know, there was one US side previo, and we're guessing about 4-6 previos on the Guatemalan side.

We have been told by our facilitator (the woman whom we are paying to be our advocate for our adoption case in Guatemala) that these should be our only KO's.

So, we are hoping to get resubmitted to PGN asap. Then if everything is approved by our reviewer, our file is sent to the Director's desk. I have heard Sr. Barrios has over 500 files sitting on his desk.

He is supposed to look through each one and then sign-off (pending him finding nothing worthy of issuing a previo). Once he signs, he releases your adoption file and you are officially OUT (of PGN, of the Guatemalan Court System)!! Unfortunately, there is no rhyme or reason as to how Mr. Barrios signs off. He doesn't seem to work everyday, he does not go in date order or in any order, for that matter. Some friends have been waiting for his sign off for months, and others have gotten signed off on, in weeks.

Adoption is not for the faint of heart, to begin with.. but PGN could seriously push you over the edge! Adoption is one of the most AMAZING journey's of my life, but I will be honest -- never in my life could I have done it, or gotten this far without the LORD. If I didn't have the knowledge that HE was ultimately in control of my case, I just don't know how I would do it.

So, now you know what PGN is, why we want to get back IN, so then we can get OUT!!! God is so much bigger than PGN, than Sr. Barrios, than averages and statistics. He is in control of each one, and that is why HE is so worthy of our PRAISE!!

2 for 1 Thursday!

Guess what we had for dinner tonight...















and since i didn't have to share with a certain picky-eater husband I even got black olives on it!! The girls actually ate them too! Yay for Dominoes Pizza in Antigua!!

A birthday party...

Grandma Ilse, whom we rent our apartment from, turned 80 years old over the wkend. Some ladies from her bible-study decided to have a party for her today, and altho we weren't technically invited they let us crash the party! Of course, everyone went crazy for the girls, and the girls were hamming it up, smiling like crazy and screaming to get attention, or fake coughing, they've found that works too :)















There were two sweeties there, ages 6 & 7 and of course they helped me take care of the girls, and the babies LOVED them! I found it amazing that my girls were practically half the height of the other girls. I really think they've grown a ton since I've gotten down here. They have now outgrown most 3-6 mos clothing, and are fitting well into 6-9 mos size. Can't wait to take them to the doctor and see.















Please keep praying that we can get back IN PGN this week, we only have 2 more days and of course, my facilitator couldn't make any promises today when I spoke with her on the phone. Obviously, we can't get OUT (and come home) until we get IN. Please pray with us!


















































Notice (below) her pants are totally off :) (ok, so 6-12 mos size from baby gap is still a bit big)

Sorry if this is boring...

but i know some family members don't find anything about the girls boring :)

I thought i'd make a list of the things that the girls eat, just for fun and so some day I can share with them what big eaters they were, by age 11 mos!!

~Fruits : watermelon, apple, mango, papaya, banana

~Veggies : corn, peas, beans, carrots, black beans, veggie burgers, dill pickles (kinda a veggie)

~Grains : crackers, bread, waffles, pancakes, pasta (they love mac n' cheese), french fries, tortillas, rice

~Protein : chicken, hot dogs, eggs (scrambled, and hard boiled (not the yolk)), meatballs

~Dairy : yogurt, cottage cheese, cheese slices

~Desserts : pudding, Oreos, ice-cream, whip cream (don't worry, all in extreme moderation, altho they both have sweet tooths :)

I am so blessed that my children are not (for the most part) picky eaters! Can't wait to get these two to the doctor and see how much I've been able to chunk them up, since I've been here!

I am so blessed to have such awesome babies! When I tell people that they sleep 7pm to 7am (and have since 3 mos old) I think most people don't believe it! I know sometimes I have to pinch myself to make sure that it's really true : God has entrusted to me and Papa these children to care for, love, nourish, cherish and teach about HIM while we are here on earth -- wow, i am just so humbled!




Mornin' Sleepy-head :)















This is my foot!














Sweet peas

Celebrity Status

We met a friend for coffee today. We were at Cafe Condessa for about 1.5 hrs. During that time 5 total strangers held my children. We had 7 pictures taken of them, and had about 15 different groups of people stop to look at the gemalas!! Seriously, watch out Paris Hilton, we're almost as famous as you :) Crazy!

Look at the talent.. no hands!


































Love playing with a pair of shorts on your head!!