Next steps...

I spoke with our agency rep Kelly yesterday and we are waiting on our embassy to give us preapproval. This is about the DNA test results and usually takes 60 days to get. We're probably around 2 to 3 weeks into the wait. Our new social worker has been moving quickly and should have her report done and to the attorney in Guatemala today.

Because we have all the paperwork -- minus the preapproval -- done, we have decided to submit our stuff to PGN. We know we will not get through this time because we don't have the preapproval. But we're hoping that any other documents that need corrected will be caught this time through. Then when the preapproval does come in everything can be resubmitted minus any errors. 99.9% of the time people are kicked out of PGN on the first try. This can be due to anything - misspellings, crooked copies. But doing it this way we will hopefully have all of that stuff fixed so when the preapproval is in we can be resubmitted and get through quickly.

I really don't think all of this will be done by Christmas, but I do think early January is reasonable. I am disappointed we will miss Christmas with him, but am feeling so much better now that we are getting into the final stretch. Here's hoping everything will go smoothly from this point on. Our new social worker seems to have given new life to this process and things are moving better than I had hoped...