The Long Road to Guatemala

 Well, here we are again.  For those of you who don't know, we adopted our son from Guatemala almost 5 years ago.  This post is about that journey.  It began in the fall of 2004.  Adoption is something that had crossed my mind in the past, quickly passing through as just a fleeting thought.  Perhaps God was slowly planting that seed at the time so that when the time came I would be receptive to it.  That time came at a concert when adoption was the topic discussed.  I came home from the concert with an open heart and mind, wondering, was this what God had planned for us?  I brought the subject up to Brian and, long story short, we determined that this was exactly what God had planned for us.  A new and exciting journey to embark on.
After much research, talking, praying, more research, and more praying, we decided to adopt from Guatemala.  There were several reasons, but one of the main ones was that it was supposed to be a relatively short wait for a referral and travel to bring a child home.  The key phrase in that sentence is "supposed to be".  It was not.  We had bumps in the road, setbacks, and a lot of frustration, however we knew that this was what God wanted.  We were willing to endure whatever came, knowing that the end result would be truly wonderful.  
One of the most frustrating things for us was the long wait.  We received our referral of a beautiful baby boy in early March of 2006!  He had been born the end of January and was only about 6 weeks old!  We were sooo excited and couldn't wait to tell everyone.  We hoped that we would be able to travel in late summer of that year, early fall at the latest.  Unfortunately, that was not to be.  For some reason, we were stuck in the PGN.  (The Guatemalan Court processing out adoption.)  We never found out the reason, but we waited over a year for our case to be processed and approved. 
By early 2007, we were having to renew our fingerprints.  (Perhaps they had changed in the last year?? :-)  They were to be wired to the embassy in Guatemala City but for some reason the embassy said they didn't get them.  Emails were exchanged, phone calls made to the agency and in the end it was decided the best course of action at this time was for us to fly to Guatemala and show the embassy our approved fingerprint papers.  By this time it was mid-April 2007.
We flew down April 29, 2007 and on April 30 we were able to see our son for the first time in person!!  He was as beautiful as we had dreamed!!  Later when we went to the embassy and showed them our papers, they stamped them and things started rolling.  We were in Guatemala just over 2 weeks and flew home May 15, 2007.   It had been 15 1/2 months since our son was born and just over 14 months since we had received our referral for him.
It was a long journey, but in the end we had our son.  As frustrating as things got we knew that God was in control.  And in the end, it was worth it and we wouldn't change anything.

  The first picture we received of our son!!!!  So adorable!!