Comin' down the home stretch!

Great news! We've finally passed the last bureaucratic hurdle. On Friday we got a call that our case has come out of PGN, meaning the Guatemalan government officailly considers us Mateo's parents.

We're parents!

There are just a few final steps, including our Guatemalan lawyer securing a new birth certificate and Guatemalan passport for him with the name of 'Miller', and the US embassy checking these and all our other papers in preparation for scheduling a visa meeting. These steps have all been moving very smoothly lately, so we can be confident that we'll be getting the call soon. Best estimate is that we'll be leaving for Guatemala in two or three weeks (give or take...always give or take!)

So now we've got a couple of frantic weeks of joy, excitement, uncertainty and terror as we rush to get ready - perfect preparation for parenthood! We'll fill you in as we get closer.....

We're looking forward to some great quality time as a family when we get home. Sarah's going to have 4-6 weeks of full time family leave, and then she'll be able to transition back to work gradually. Matt is looking forward to being the crazy silly guy that all of your children love with our son.

Now off to read about the new air travel rules which should make packing a bit more interesting!

We'll post our next update in a couple of days. Love from us!! Sarah & Matt & Mateo

Quilt, part two

Thought we'd feature a few more of the squares from that amazing quilt. You can see El Lorax peeking down out of one square, from the top of a truffula tree. Matt's niece Tegan made this one from a scene in that favorite Dr. Suess book. "Where the Wild Things Are" was a wood block print made by our friends Dan and Kristi Rose. It's a great illustraation of the remarkable effort our good friends and family made to give us this wonderful gift. Mr. Peabody's Apples is a marvellously illustrated parable about gossip and what happens when one judges another too quickly. It's adapted by Madonna from very old teaching story told by a rabbinical scholar. Our friends Cheryl and Megan Spraur did this one.
The cheery balloons were made by our friend Sarah Fronza, and illustrate How Do I Love You / Como Te Amo? a simple and reassuring board book about unconditional love in two languages.
Johnny Tractor and His Pals was published by John Deere, and pioneered the talking/anthropomorphized heavy machinery genre 50 years before Thomas the Tugboat and Builder Bob. Donna Aljets, whose husband Jerry is a well-known John Deere fanatic, made this square.

We've been sleeping under the quilt for now, getting it all broken in for Mateo, and being reminded daily of the support, love and affection of all our good friends and family.

Latest Pics!

We're now at 5 weeks into PGN (that's the last agency that has to approve the adoption!), and so far there have been no new requirements or nit-picking - keep your fingers crossed!
The latest wordis that once it all comes out of PGN, things should move fairly quickly. Getting passports and revised birth certificates for adoptive children has been easy lately. Those Guatemalan agencies have been turning things around in a few days. Then it goes to the US embassy and they've also only been taking a few days to issue visa appointments (the legendary "pink slip").
On the home front, we're contiuing to prepare Mateo's room and have been getting more great books and clothes and toys from friends. Grandma (Matt's Mom) is settling into her new Silverrton home and waiting form grandchild #5.

Here are shots from our last report

The gift of friendship

So, a couple of weeks ago when my book club was in town, my sister-in-law Pamela hosted a shower for Matt & me. Many of our friends (including the Boise Book Club Babes) celebrated our journey with us by giving us their favorite kids book to start a library for Mateo. Anyone who has ever been in our house, knows how important books are to us (and how pathetic our kids book selection was), so we welcomed the presents. Some of them were even in Spanish--which we adore. While I understand most of the Spanish ones, Matt is much better at pronunciation than me--but we will both have lots of practice as we read them to Mateo.

But, the piece de resistance, was a quilt made up of squares from some of our friends and family's favorite books. The quilt blocks included squares from Shannon Barnes (Old Turtle and the Broken Truth), Paula Miller (Pat the Bunny & Good Night Moon), Mandy Petrik (Big Red Barn), Tegan Mulholland (Dr. Suess' The Lorax), Sarah Fronza (How do I love you?), Pamela Miller (Everyone Poops & Grandfather Twilight), Louise Miller (The Hungary Caterpillar), Julie Brown (Guess How Much I Love You), Joanie Steffen (Love You Forever), Cheryl & Megan Sprauer (Mr. Peabody's Apples), Dan & Kristi Rose (Where the Wild Things Are), Donna Aljets (Johnny Tractor and His Pals), Shannon Kelley (Alexander & The Terrible, Horrible, No-Good, Very Bad Day), Cathy LaPlante (Go Dog Go) and Theresa Kelley (Happy Adoption Day).

We have attached some pictures here, so you can see what a magnificent work of art it is. But most awestriking-more than anything else-is the incredible amount of love that people poured into each square. Special thanks to my sister-in-law Paula who quilted the whole thing (including the names of all the contributers on the side panels)--thanks doesn't actually seem nearly enough. Finally, to my sister-in-law Pamela who organized the whole thing and spent many, many, many hours organizing the troops, finding the perfect fabrics, cutting and sewing all the pieces, and hosting the event, I am simply at a loss for words--except these: thanks for making the surprise wonderful!!

We love you all, and we can't wait to bring Mateo home and tell him the story of his quilt over and over and over again. We are blessed beyond belief to be surrounded by so many people who love us and our son. Wow!!!

Moving Again

Well, it looks like our case has finally moved past its stall. We finally have a social worker report completed and corrected, and all our paperwork went to the PGN on June 28. That agency of the Guatemalan government will review everything and make the adoption final, after which our Guatemalan lawyer will secure for Mateo a new birth certificate with our names as parents and a passport from the relevant Guatemalan entities, then send the mess to the American Embassy. The embassy will notify us with a "pink slip" when they've set an appointment for us and Mateo (about 7 - 10 days out) at the embassy there to get a US Visa on his passport so we can bring him home. From entering the PGN to embassy notification is about 6 weeks on the short track, so we're hoping for a mid-August trip to Guatemala City.
Of course, the PGN is the most notorious bureaucratic hurdle, so everyone keep your fingers crossed....
We also got a mess of new photos. Looks like Filomena has him all outfitted for World Cup!