I hope you all enjoy these new photos as much as I have. We are still waiting for pre-approval which normally takes 14 days and we are half way through week 3 now of our wait. Hopefully, it will come any time now. I can't even walk past my office without stopping to check my email, since that is how we will receive notification of pre-approval. It's so much harder to wait when you know that it could come at any moment.

My mother is coming to town this weekend to help me finish my nursery and I am SO excited!!! My nursery furniture should be delivered tomorrow so I'll be posting photos of the finished project in a couple more weeks. We are going to create the perfect room for our perfect angel. On a budget of course :-) This adoption has cost us almost double what we thought it was going to when we started...but in the end it's just money and in exchange we are getting a priceless gift.

Maybe later today I'll get to post that we have pre-approval. I can dream right?

These are my favorites of the new photos. She's so beautiful...I just miss her so much. I wish I could be there with her. Hopefully, we'll get our pre-approval any day now. Just have to keep on praying. 

Look at those cute Ducky sandals. I'll have to teach her that you don't wear sock with sandals. :-) 

Isabella with her foster mother at her March medical checkup. I think she has about five layers of clothes on which is a cultural thing there. At least I know my daughter is staying warm. LOL. She weights 12lbs now and is 23.5 inches long. 

I thought it was time to check in and post a little update. Actually it's not really an update since there is nothing new to report. We are just playing the waiting game for our US Embassy pre-approval as usual. It's getting harder and harder to wait with each day that passes. Our agency has been slow at keeping us updated lately and we still have not received a copy of our medical reports from Feb. That usually includes a new photo so I'm anxious to get my updates, and she is also due for March's appointment now so they are really behind. They would of course let us know if there were any problems with Isabella, but still it would be nice to have a copy of those reports and my PHOTOS. I'm just venting a little here so I'm sorry for that. I've asked our agency many times for the reports but they only staff one person to do the work load of about five to save them $$, and I think she is seriously behind on correspondences the last few weeks.

Monday will start week 3 in our wait for pre-approval from the U.S. Embassy so it should be coming any day. While in Guatemala an Embassy official told us pre-approval was taking about 14 days, but that is not guaranteed by any means. After we get pre-approval we can move into PGN which is the last stage of court. That usually takes anywhere from 2 -6 weeks if everything goes well, and we don't get the notorious "mean" case reviewer that usually kicks each case out about 3 times before she will approve it. PGN has about five case workers that handle "ALL" 3000+ cases for Guatemala adoptions and rumor has it that one of them is out sick. Then again...how much credit can we give to "rumors?"

After PGN, our attorney applies for the new birth certificate and our visa appointment time with the Embassy and then we're off to Guatemala to bring Ms. Isabella home. That still seems forever away, and it's so hard to think about her meeting milestones that we are missing out on. I bet she is able to roll over by now and she's probably eating cereal too. She will turn 4 months old this week on the 23rd. I hope she comes home soon so she can meet Great Grandpa McCool, and also so she can be with our family at the beach house this summer. I can't imagine going there without her.

Please keep praying!

Thank You,
Janine

Another Step Under the Belt- The DNA testing is complete! Everything was a match of course so all went well with this step in the process. Our results were released from the Lab on March 1st to be sent to Guatemala via Fed Ex. They should be in the Embassy's hands either today March 6 or tomorrow. Then our next stage of waiting starts which is pre-approval from the US Embassy to move into the final stage of court. (PGN)

I'm very happy and relieved to have this part of the process completed. Thanks to the man up above for watching out for us !

Here's hoping for a quick pre-approval!

Janine