Any referral news???

Lauri- That's great news that you'll be travelling so soon!! Super! Which hotel are you staying at?? Also, thanks so much for the future updates... I'm sure everyone on the board will benefit tons!! Hope all goes so well and smoothly for you. Take care, Kathy

We are staying at the Country Inn Suites (the older one by El Dorado Mall area). We'll let you know how it is. We are very excited.

Lauri, We would love to get updates from Panama! Best of luck in your travels, I hope everything goes smoothly! Julie

Just a bit of happy news since we all need it. I talked to my agency today - Faith - and the second Panama adoption family is on their way home on Saturday with their new 4 year old. Don't know lots of details but they were in country 2 weeks. Don't want to spread any false information - so these are the only facts that I know. Adoptions are happening - just slow. Tammy Paperwork in Panama 2/10 Waiting DNA acceptance Hoping for a child under 2 Faith International

Thank you Tammy, you know we have tons and tons of questions. Of course the big ones how long did it take for the referral and how long did they wait to travel. This is great, I can't wait to here more. We just heard from our agency and no new update:( But April is still the expected travel date. TanyaB

By any chance is the latest Faith family Cheryl??? (cmcoy)??? She hasn't posted since July, and I was wondering how her case was coming. (For some reason I thought she was with Commonwealth.) If so, and you can contact her through Faith, we'd LOVE to get an update and find out how she was able to spend only 2 weeks in Panama!!! (Wouldn't that be great?!) :D Thanks, Rebecca P.S. Lauri, we're getting so excited for you!!!! When/if you get a chance, the thing I'd most like to know about is the whole court process--where, when, how... and the followup U.S. embassy stuff. Thanks! And take lots of pictures, write in a journal, etc. Just like a wedding, it will be a whirlwind, and you'll want to remember everything! ;)

Hello everyone! I thought I would drop a note in regards to the Faith family. They spent the total amount of time as we did. Faith has stated all along that it would be 10 days to 2 weeks. I truly am not sure why other agencies would take longer?? The little girl was from Colon which is two hours North of Panama. They have been working on this adoption for 16 months. The adoptions in Colon take more time due to the fact that they are not familiar with the out of country adoption process. They started their adoption at the exact same time we did. The little girl is absolutely adorable, they are so incredibly blessed. Obviously each adoption is completely different, especially if you are trying to compare private Panama adoptions to US agency adoptions. I know the wait is difficult, no matter how short or long, but after bringing Ysa home, it is all so well worth it! Keep the Faith!

I wish I knew her name but I don't push Faith too much for names - I just want as many details as they are willing to give. Our agency tells us to plan for 2 weeks. What this means is we do not go to Panama for the hearing where the child is declared legally free, just the adoption hearing. Our lawyer handles a lot of extra stuff for us that many lawyers do not - we assign him those rights. This avoids a lot of time in country - which is better for our situation. I do know there was a commonwealth Family in Panama when Sara was there in June. Don't know when they finally completed. It seems the big issue still is the US embassy - they warn you that after the adoption hearing, they want to do their own investigation in to the child's history and it could take several weeks. However, this last one only took 2 days. So maybe they are getting it - finally. I do know the referral was from before Oct 2003 - so time to travel was still long. I just hope with each referral and adoption the process gets quicker and smoother. A lot of what I've been told about the process is on the agency's new web site, its general but check it out, it finally has Panama. Tammy

This family that came home this weekend are fairly private individuals. I truly doubt we will see them on the boards. The family that was in Panama when we were (May/June) from Commonwealth didn't come home until late August early September. I have asked the Director several questions, so when he answers I am hoping to be able to give all of you better insight. I know John went to Panama a month or two ago, so he has an updated feel for how things are going. I hope the information that I have currently will help :)

Sara, can you explain what we should expect regarding the Panama court stuff? Do we just go in with our lawyer and get asked a few questions, they stamp a decree, and we leave as parents??? Or is there some stretch of time involving getting the child's original birth certificate from their province of birth, etc.? Also, if the kids have already had their abandonment hearing ("inhabilitacion" in front of the "fiscal"), would the kids be placed with us as soon as we arrive in Panama, and we'd have "guardianship" of them until the actual placement hearing? P.S. I'm Private Messaging you with a question specific to our case that really won't help anybody else (which is why I'm not posting it). Thanks for the insight! Rebecca

Lauri, I can't wait to read your posts from Panama. God bless you on your trip. Roger

The abandonment hearing and the guardianship hearing was done by our attorney. We did not attend, nor were we invited. The judge went strictly by the home study, pictures and the testimony of our attorney. We were invited to travel after the guardianship hearing was completed and we were granted guardianship. They take about 3 weeks to type the documents and have them notorized due to the fact they have no computers and work on very old typewriters. When we arrived we went to the courthouse (which is nothing like ours) It literally is a doorway on a side street and stairs leading to the clerks and judges offices. No waiting chairs, you stand in line to be seen next at whatever court you are in, which is Court 1 or Court 2. Once we received the documents from the court and also from the DNA releasing Ysabella as our daughter we were able to pick her up from the orphanage. We did visit with the judge for a few minutes before we picked her up, but there was no actual appointment or hearing. After the documents are completed, then you have leg work to do, such as obtaining the birth certificate (a building close by) and her passport. That is what takes the 10 days to 2 weeks. If you are going for the hearing you obviously have a much longer stay due to the fact you will be waiting for the documents to be typed. I hopes this helps! Sorry it is so long!

Thank you Sara, the information is a big help:) TanyaB

Sorry if this is overkill, but I have one more question for Sara about the court process if you'll indulge me: Since you were actually granted guardianship BEFORE you traveled, were you able to see your little girl and begin bonding with her before you went to court? Or was everything so fast that you landed in Panama and were in court the very next day?! ;) I'm just trying to get a feel for how much time we'll have between each step, and because we will likely be adopting older children, I'm sure the judge will want to interview them in court. It would be very helpful if we've already had a chance to spend some time with them before the judge asks them if they want to live with us forever! :) Thanks! Rebecca P.S. If our attorney can represent us in the guardianship hearing, we will definitely push for that. She was making it sound like we had to be there for that, get guardianship, wait a month (since the kids are older), then go to the adoption hearing to finalize everything. But since we're running out of time with our I-600A expiration, our lawyer is going to try to speed the process up a bit. (Please keep your fingers crossed for us, everyone!)

When we arrived in Panama it was on a Saturday. We stayed in Balboa Rain Forest Resort. Sunday we arrived at the Country Inn Suites, and Monday we headed to court and the American Embassy. We didn't receive our papers of guardianship until about 4:00 p.m. Monday. As soon as we had them in hand we went to the orphanage, presented the papers and Ysabella was released to us. She stayed with us in the hotel and bonded with us. We didn't do much sightseeing, just because we wanted to spend time with her and keep her on a schedule. As for bonding before she was released to us, there was no time. We did have time during the week though before we went and saw the judge before we took her out of country. The judge is very observant as to whether the child/children have bonded with you. She is a very nice individual and asked some personal questions but was very comfortable to be with. I hope this helps!