Our story...I hope this helps

Hi, TanyaB asked if I would post this on the Panama board so here it goes. This is the story of our first adoption from Gua. we started a 2nd adoption in Sept 2002 from Gua. and because of all the problems our agency suspended referrals so now we are redoing our paperwork for Russia. Our story...I hope it helps This may get long but I thought maybe it would help to bring some comfort to the ones who have been wiating so long. In Jan of 1997 my husband and I wanted to adopt a baby girl from Guatemala. We were told that it would take 8-10 months and that Guatemala was a smooth running country. We used an agency in Texas while we lived in NC. At the time I was very naive about the whole process and while I didn't know much about the agency what I had found out was that they were a good reputable agency. I was so excited about the whole process that I was able to get our entire dossier finished by the middle of Feb. notorized, certified and authenticated! That included out of state documents, INS finger printing everything. We had our INS approval the begining of March and we had our referral the end of March for a 2.5 mo old baby girl! Our agency told us we should be home by July everything was running great. Well July came and we found out that we needed to have DNA testing (this was right as they began to make them mandatory, at that time it was not mandatory but they knew it was coming). For our case they felt there were some concerns and they were going to make us get one. They would not tell us what the concerns were mind you just that it was needed. Needless to say it took them 2 months to get this DNA testing done. Now it was the end of Sept. everyone that had started the process the same time as we had were planning on traveling and 2 of the couples had already left to get their sweet babies! (There was a group of 11 babies in the Antiqua Baby Home that were all going to families with this agency). No problem, we have the DNA now, you will be home with your Halloween baby they told us. Then we heard nothing, my agency either said "any day now" or "they move at their own pace down there..." or they just tried not to return our calls. With them in Texas and us in NC I couldn't even go camp on their door step to wait for answers. She was not officially ours so we could not get approval to go visit her. Meanwhile she was now in foster home number 2 because they moved her from the baby home to a temp. foster home thinking we were going to travel, when it didn't look like this was going to happen they moved her into a "semi/perm foster home". The first of Nov they finally told us that we were in PGN and had been for awhile but they didn't want to get our hopes up so they didn't tell us...but it looks like you will be getting out any day now. But the next word we had from PGN is that they wanted to verify the birth certificate again and that meant travel to the town where she was born...there is only 1 road into & out of this town and during the rainy season the road gets washed out alot so they couldn't tell me how long this was going to take. They got the info fairly quickly and told us that we may travel by Thanksgiving but most likely it would be a Christmas baby. On Dec 1st they told us to get ready to travel, they had heard some favorable comments from the PGN and it all looked good for Dec travel. This didn't happen either...now we no longer got answers to our questions, I cried myself to sleep just about every single night. Every last baby that started out with my sweetie was already home and getting ready to celebrate their first Chirstmas with their new families...and I still did not have my baby. Then I was told she would be home for her first birthday which was in Jan. Needless to say it was the end of March the following year that we finally had word that we were out of PGN but because of the Easter holiday it would be May before we could travel. They told us there wasn't time to schedule our Embassy appt before the holidays. I contacted Jessie Helms who was our Senator at that time and his office called the Embassy and they set up our appt for the next week, the week before the Holiday and we finally travled on April 6th to see our baby girl. All the heartache, all the tears all the fear and frustration were completely wiped from my mind the minute I saw that tiny little face that I knew so well, after hours of looking at her picuture. We had only 3 pictures of her from the initial referral so I was afraid I wouldn't know her...but that fear was unfounded. She screamed and cried until she was purple, then she would take a 1 minute breather and scream some more...5 straight hours of screaming...it was the most beautiful sound I have ever heard. I know first hand the anquish that you are feeling, the sense of hoplessness that sometimes comes to pass...but it will happen...please don't give up hope or feel that you are alone...you have this wonderful sight to come to, I wish I had known about it in 1997 but then agian it probably would have been too painful since most cases were going smoothly at that time. My heart and prayers go out to all of you still waiting and hoping! Kim