Homestudy docs are in the mail...

So I did receive all the documents I was waiting for this week. I actually overnighted them today to my social workers home, so he will have them by noon tomorrow. Hopefully I will have my final homestudy report in the next two weeks. That's the good news...

Bad news...Guatemala's VP & First Lady had their presentation yesterday and presented the protocol now known as the "Manual of Good Practices" (it's a 7 page manual). Apparently it was a softened version of what we read last week, but still basically the same. It sounds like the DOS (Dept. of State in the US) is happy with these changes they are proposing because it brings them closer to being Hague compliant, which they must be by year end in order to continue doing adoptions with the USA. The problem is there is no timeline as to when these changes will be made. The VP of Guat said that the changes would be implemented gradually. The changes involve putting the babies in state run orphanages vs. foster care, doing a sort of pre-screening process to determine that the baby is truly an orphan and that no one in Guat wants to raise the baby before making the baby available for int'l adoption, etc. So it sounds like these changes are basically good, but I think the process itself will become longer as a result. Instead of bringing home a 7 month old, you may be bringing home a 15 month old. Instead of having your baby in the loving, devoted arms of a foster mother, they will be raised in an orphanage w/hundreds of babies. Of course, the lawyers in Guat will try & fight these changes tooth & nail, but it seems inevitable at this point.

So at this point we're just moving along like nothings happening down there. Just moving along w/our paperwork as fast as we can. We're actually waiting on the final homestudy report right now. As soon as I have that I will file my I600A and then start the certification and authentication process on my notarized documents to get them ready for the dossier.

Thanks for reading,
Jen