The Process

Our adoption process thus far has been very involved and we have expended a lot of time and effort (and $$) since last winter. Now, we are in sort of a homestretch, allbeit a homestretch that can last 3-8 months. What happens now? Well, to simplify things for myself, and to not get too overwhelmed, I have distilled it to four phases:

1. Authentication & DNA Testing

The first step is to send our dossier down to Guatemala and to have it translated and authenticated. We have signed a Power of Attorney for the attorneys in Guatemala City, which allows them to process the adoption on our behalf. The birth mother and Henry then undergo DNA tests to ensure that Henry is in fact the birth mother's birth son. It may be a bit of a process for the birth mother to get tested, as she has to leave work and make her way into the city. Henry will be brought by the foster mother to get tested, and both results will be sent to a lab in North Carolina for analysis. It could take a couple weeks to get the results.

2. Family Court

At this point, the adoption case is randomly assigned to a family court in Guatemala (there are around 9-10 family courts in the country). The main event in this phase is that the birth mother gets interviewed by a social worker. The social worker will ask questions as to why the birth mother is giving up the baby, what her life is like, etc. The social worker will then write a report that will get reviewed, and hopefully approved promptly, by the family court. The report is needed to conclude that the birth mother was not coerced to give up her child, but actually had weighty reasons for doing so. This process is somewhat unpredictable because it depends, again, on the availability of the birth mother as well as the caseload of the randomly selected family court. A couple months? Perhaps.

3. Procuraduria General de la Nacion (PGN)

The PGN department (equivalent to a section of our Attorney General's office) reviews all of the documents in the adoption case. A lot of attention has been paid to this step lately because there have been many delays in the PGN system. This has resulted from a combination of PGN's desire to more aggressively vet the adoption (due to fraudulent activity), and, on the other hand, to put obstacles in the way of the adoption. This has become a very political process, as the media in Guatemala have portrayed adoption as a lucrative business for birth mothers and attorneys, like a "baby selling" business. The administration in Guatemala is portrayed as opposing adoption, or at least wanting to slow down the numbers of children being adopted. Rumors abound. At any rate, it is common for a case to get "kicked out" of the PGN process (known as a previo) due to some discrepancy in the documents, such as an errant signature or a form of a name not matching up with the signature, etc. Some people think that PGN is being very nit-picky and looking for ways to kick people out of the process, while others cite it as a barrier against fraud. If a case gets a previo, the attorneys correct the issue and re-submit it to PGN. If PGN has more serious concerns, the case enters into the "Investigation" portion of PGN, and who knows when the case will rejoin the queue. I think we have almost an expectation of 1-2 previos, but we really want to avoid being investigated.

4. Final Adoption Decree ("Pink Slip")

Once the case gets out of PGN, I think we'll celebrate, because we should be traveling to Guatemala within one month. The birth mother will sign the final adoption decree and new birth certificates are issued, listing US as the parents! The issuance of the birth certificate may be delayed, depending on which civil registry office is used. Our attorney then submits all of our paperwork to the U.S. Embassy, and a visa will be authorized. This approval is on pink paper, hence the "pink slip". The pink slip lists an appointment time for us to arrive at the U.S. Embassy to officially finalize the adoption. Once we are notified of the pink slip, we will have about one week to make travel arrangements.

Kudos to you if you've read this entire post. At this point, we are at the beginning of Phase I, as our dossier is in Guatemala and the Power of Attorney just got mailed from Minnesota today. So, we have a 3-8 month wait! Again, I really only want to think of Phase I, which is the DNA testing. Bring on those cotton swabs!

Andy