Introducing Our Baby Girl - Finally ! We have a face to put with all those days and nights of wondering. Who is our child? What does he/she look like? Where is he/she? Is it a he or a she?

We are proud to announce that we have accepted the referral of a beautiful baby girl. She was born on November 23, 2005 weighing 6 lbs and 47cm long in Retalhuleu, Guatemala. We will name her Isabella Susanne Sutton. Below you will find photos of her taken at aprox one week old. They are not the best quality but it will give you a glimpse at our little angel. We should receive new photos of her soon and will post those also.

Now the paper chase begins. Our case will go through about six stages, passing through two branches of Guatemalan family court, DNA testing, US Citizenship and Immigration approval, birth certificate and passport issuance, and a final interview with the US Embassy to obtain her visa and the infamous "pink slip". These steps are not listed in order and there are many steps in each stage. With a lot of prayer and luck everything will go smooth and our daughter will be home in 4-6 months.

Isabella will be cared for by a foster mother while our case is going through the legal system in Guatemala. We will be making a trip down to visit her soon and we are so excited. Our blog should become more active now and we will post all the new information we get so everyone can follow or progress.

We have lots of planning and preparing to do now. We have been planning for a toddler to 4 yr old little boy and low and behold we fell in love with a baby girl. Just goes to show that only God knows what is best! So I'm off to return all the blue stuff and replace it with pink and yellow and lavender :-) What a blessing a baby is! We have had a very hard and very long road and there is still more ahead. I have faith though that the third time is the charm and this little one will be coming home to us soon. Thank you all for your support and prayers so far. Please continue to pray that this process will go smooth and that Isabella will be in our arms forever, very soon.

Isabella's Referral pics 

Isabella-One week old 

Our new angel 

Some Bad & Good News--Well not much happened between October and now with our adoption journey. We ordered furniture for a 4 yr old and started planning our bedroom. Bought some books and toys and a safari jungle comforter. We were getting pretty excited because December was rolling around and we were getting close to time to travel.

November 21- We got a call from our agency. Ukraine is having a lot of changes and things are slowing down. Families have been coming home from Ukraine empty handed because things are so unorganized in Ukraine right now they are not being shown any healthy children. The first 3 months from 2006 will be reserved for those families to come back. For us that means the earliest date of travel in JUNE 2006 ! I was heart-broken because I thought we were so close and we had made it through all that waiting. What's worse is all that paperwork we did will expire before then and we are going to have to re-do %90 of it.


The BIG NEWS- November 30th-After a lot of prayer and some persuasion from our adoption agency. We have decided to change countries to Guatemala. So this is the 3rd country and I'm hoping that the old saying "the third times a charm" rings true for us. We are sad because we felt like there was a child waiting for us in Ukraine. But since we are going to have to re-do our paperwork anyway, and John is getting a bonus at work that allows us to pay the much higer fee's in Guatemala, we thought we'd give it a try.

This program has many pluses. Historically it's a more stable and quicker program. The government is not quiet as strict on paperwork issues, which makes re-doing papework a little less painfull. And most exciting of all, we will be able to adopt a healthy infant! Because we have been unsuccessful with Ukraine for so long, our adoption agency is going to move us to the top of the waiting list for a baby boy! Yes, we have a choice of sex and chose a boy ! Because we all know my family needs another boy! (hahahahaha) . It's all my brothers' fault. So if I can rush through my paperwork and get it done in the next week or so. We will get to adopt the next baby boy born!

Now don't get too excited yet. ( Easier said than done.) The baby doesn't get to come home right away. There is still a lot of legal stuff to get through and it typically takes 4-6 months for this process. The baby will go to a foster home until the legal aspects can be taken care of. We may get to go down and visit him though. How exciting !!

As soon as I learn more about what the steps are I will give everyone more detail. We are kind of sliding into this country backwards and are just rushing to get all the paperworks switched over to Guatemala. We'll learn more about the details of the process later on. Also I can't change the name of this blog so I may be creating a new one soon for our Guatemala angel.

We have had so many bumps in this long road I am almost afraid to share good news. Please pray that this process will move smoothly and quickly for us ! Check in for another update in a week or so.

Baby Sutton is on his way!

-Love, Janine