No news

Another day without our appointment. I believe the US Embassy is now closed (the adoption unit) until January 2. So now we will continue to wait and work on renewing our I-171. We will hope and pray for Dillon to be home in January or February. Like I haven't said that before. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

No appointment yet. Thank you DHS at the US Embassy

We still don't have our appointment. I couldn't find anyone on all the message boards with an appointment issued today. I have read that for some reason the people at the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) at the US Embassy are purposely delaying adoptions. Congresswoman Gillibrand spoke to them but didn't get much information. She did ask are they purposely holding this up so our I-171 expires? I don't believe she received an answer. I did read that many people are having the same problem as us-not that it makes any difference. Our government jerking around just one family is inexcusable. I hope to be able to post our appointment tomorrow, however we are going to work on our "new" homestudy tomorrow. I'm not certain, but we may need reference letters again. We really appreciate those who have helped us and those that we will need again.

STILL NO PINK!!!!!

Well, still no pink (appointment). If we don't have our appointment by Jan. 12 it is going to be delayed for a while. Our I-171 expires. This is a document from the US basically giving us permission to adopt. We never, ever imagined this would happen. We were "out", approved on Oct.5. Normally it takes no more then eight weeks to complete and here we are going on 3 months. To renew it, we have to have our homestudy updated. Who knows how long that will take, then we will have to wait for the US to issue a new I-171. We have information coming from the agency on how to get the homestudy updated. Along with that will come a nice big "fee". Very few appointments were given out today, I'm sure due to the lack of staff for the holidays. The one appointment that I saw posted was for Jan. 4. We did get a polaroid picture of Dillon from his DNA appointment. He looks very happy playing with the paper on the exam table. I keep you posted.

I'm coming home, not sure when but SOON..

We received a bunch of pictures of Dillon today. Just pictures, no measurements. As far as our appointment, we are still waiting. The Embassy usually issues the appointment 24-48+ after the DNA results are back. Ours got there yesterday. Darr actually got to speak to a human today at the Embassy(next to impossible there). They are just waiting for documents from the Department of Homeland Security. Once they are faxed to

them, they will issue our appointment. We are still hoping for Christmas.

I will post our appointment as soon as I find out.

DNA has arrived

The DNA results arrived at the US Embassy today at 3:24pm Guatemala time (4:24 eastern). Now we just wait for our "pink slip" with our appointment. We have been busy calling and faxing Congress"people", Senators offices and the US Embassy basically begging them for an appointment before Christmas. Kirsten Gillibrand's office has been especially helpful.
I also wanted to mention Hannah is going to be singing the beginning of "Rudolph The Red Nose Reindeer" with some other selected kindergartners in the Christmas Concert at her school. She is soo excited.

DNA is a match...again

We found out today that Dillon's DNA test is done (it is a match, not a big surprise). It is scheduled to arrive in Guatemala City tomorrow, by 6 pm. The embassy should review it on Wednesday and hopefully issue our appointment for December 20. If not the 20th or sooner, then it will probably be January 2.

Visa appointment schedule for the Holidays

I just read that the last appointment for the year is December 20, with the visa pick up on Friday the 21st. After that embassy appointments will not be until January 2. So if we don't get an appointment by the 20th???? then we won't be going until the beginning of January. There is a slight possibility that we may make it by the 20th. If we do, we owe a BIG thank you to Debbie and "the lady" at the lab who has expedited Dillon's DNA sample. Keep your fingers crossed.

DNA update

The DNA sample arrived in the US this morning. The lady at the lab sent an email to Debbie at the agency saying she had put a "rush" on it and it will be shipped back to Guatemala no later then Monday!!! The best case scenario would be the following: Once the embassy gets it, they will issue our pink slip with our appointment. Generally the embassy issues "pink" within a day or two and appointments are usually one week later. So if the embassy gets the results on Tuesday, we may have "pink" by Thursday and our appointment would be the following Thursday. The day after the embassy appointment we have to wait for the Visa, which is issued after 3:30. I don't know if they issue them on Fridays or not. If not we would get it on Monday and leave Tuesday-Christmas day. Worse case scenario: They have to do further testing on the sample, which can happen. It doesn't mean it is not a match, just more testing. The embassy did issue the I-72, which tells us some paper work is not in order, however it has been resubmitted by our lawyers and also Congresswoman Kirsten Gillibrand's office has contacted the US embassy to question why they don't understand the paperwork. So now we continue to wait, and hope for the best.
Either way Dillon should be home by the end of the month.

DNA

The DNA sample is scheduled to arrive at the lab in the US tomorrow by 10:30 a.m. Debbie, our social worker from the agency told us the lab is going to "expedite" it because of the delay. Debbie is responsible for getting it expedited. She explained to the lab the "situation". The delay was due to Dillon being at the wrong lab therefore something to do with payment or something. It's always something.

DNA delay-Big surprise.

Well as expected their has been a delay with the DNA, thus insuring Dillon won't be home for Christmas. The sample was taken last Friday, but for some unknown reason it was not shipped to the US until yesterday. Most labs ship it the same day. Must be a good lab the lawyers use. Our social worker, Debbie, who is great, really, is going to check on the sample this morning to see if this information is correct (true). For some reason the agency must call, not the family. As far as the I-72 that was issued by the US embassy, the lawyers are going to resolve that today, yes, many days after they said they were. Seems to be a pattern here. Now we have been instructed to contact our Senator to help resolve this. I'm not certain that is actually necessary, but we'll do it. I really think the lawyers want us to be distracted and to stop with the rotten emails to them. Some day I will do a post all about our lawyers, but not now.

Pictures

Here are some pictures of the girls. Chloe and Hannah getting ready to go to scout meetings, and Hannah and Braedyn in the "big" snow storm, which wasn't.