After 5 weeks of being in famly court we got out yesterday!!

Yesterday was such a crazy day!! I was frustrated in the morning because I was told there wasnt any updates on our status at fmaily court. So I decided to call Guatemala Renap office to see if they could give me an idea of how long the process would take to get Mateo's birth certificate done...well needless to say I found out my "week" thinking was more like 15 to 25 days!! So that part was not good. :(

Although I did find out that process... Apparently because Mateo was born in Amatitlan we will have to go there first and then get an "approval notice", this could day a few days to get. Then we take that approval notice to Central Renap in Guatemala City where they will have to go through our file for about 15 days...she said it could be 25. I am praying for the 15 days!!! Then when they are done making sure everything in our paperwork is okay, they will give us a notice that we then take to Amatitlan Renap, which is where we will have them print off the actual birth certificate for Mateo with our last name on it. Once we have that we can have all of our documents translated from Spanish into English. Once that is done our entire file, including the birth certificate will be presented to Embassy where they will assign us a Visa appointment, we will have about a weeks notice to fly out & then get his passport & Visa & then bring him home. :)

So Dinora said that we got out of family court yesterday, but that they wouldnt be bringing our file to the CNA until Monday. Monday will start our 3 day wait period..then HOPEFULLY on Thursday Dinora can take our file to Amatitlan to start the process of getting Mateo's birth certificate done!! Please PRAY that there are no complications!!!

We are on the final stretch!! Will most likely be beginning of July before we have Mateo home, but at least we will have part of the summer with him!!

So far here is our whole timeline:

Oct 2006- started the paperwork to apply for adoption
March 3, 2007- Mateo was born

May 2007- we are assigned to Mateo & accepted referral

June 07- we signed the POA

July 07- we were entered into family court

August 07- we entered PGN

Oct 07- while file was with 3rd reviewer at PGN ( so close to bringing home) they kicked out our file to investigate it in minors court section of PGN. Aparently the Birth mother had a falsified birth certificate for herself because she had lost hers & then has used that same birth certificate with a previous adoption a few years prior, and it went through...but because things are more strict they caught it..and started an investigation of the Birth mother, orphanage, & attorney.

Dec 31st, 2007- Guatemala CLOSED ALL ADOPTIONS

Mar 08- Doug & I met Mateo for the 1st time on a trip to visit him for his 1st birthday. While we were there we fired our attorney that was assigned to us through Semillas & hired another attorney that represented us up until around August of 2009. We were told by PGN official that we would not be able to complete our adoption of Mateo with how things were then...she suggested that we cut ties with orphanage & attorney and start process all over again. It was a scary decision, but we did it.

July 2008- Doug & I flew to Guatemala for a court hearing to let them know that we did want to pursue the adoption of Mateo. This is when we met Mateo's birth mother for the first time. She was still lying about where she was born so they requested another DNA test. We had Mateo pulled from Semillas & he was put into the orphanage he is in now, Hogar Luz de Maria. He was 15 months old. Mateo was pulled out by PGN officials the Friday before there was a raid at Semillas. We got lucky there! For a month we had no idea what orphanage Mateo was at....we found out later he had cried for the first 2 weeks most of the time.

August 2008- Mateo's birth mom did a DNA test & that is when she finally admitted that she had lied about her birth certificate and that she was really born in Nicaragua. Minors Court finally closed the investigation. We were able to immediately order her a new birth certificate which only took 2 weeks!! Although it took another 11 months before we finally go the piece of paper called the "final resolution" that said the case was dismissed.

March 2009- I flew to Guatemala for Mateo's 2nd birthday by myself.

July 2009- Our file was submitted to CNA in Guatemala.

Nov 2009- Doug & I flew to Guatemala to do our empathy study for CNA. We were with Mateo for 2 weeks. It was wonderful, but bittersweet leaving him!

May 2010- We got notice that our file was signed off by the director of CNA.

April 13th 2010- We were entered into family court

May 20, 2010- We got word that we are approved by family court!