If you don't like the weather, wait...

We are just one hour away from the deadline for all in process cases to be registered at the Guatemalan Central Authority. This past week has been an absolute nightmare of good news, bad news and no news.

Here in the great white north, Saturday’s weather was a perfect analogy for the ups and downs at the CA. At eleven o’clock in the morning the temperature was a balmy 28 degrees, with no wind and snowflakes the size of silver dollars wafting through the air. It was serene and beautiful. Four hours later the wind had picked up and the temperature was approaching zero. That night, the temperatures dipped to nearly 20 below with wind chills of minus 50. It was volatile and dangerous. All in a day, and all in less then 12 hours the landscape had changed dramatically.

For the last seven days, the situation with the CA has been equally unpredictable.

On Wednesday, three original members of the CA sued to get their jobs back after having been removed by the new president. The US State Department warned parents that there were two CA’s and cases needed to be registered in both locations. However, they also mentioned that no one knew where one of the locations was. Three hours later that message mysteriously disappeared with no explanation.

Thursday, the original members resigned making way for the CA to finally open after over a month of strife and inaction. The offices were to reopen on Friday with three business days remaining until the deadline. Any previously filed paperwork had to be re-verified and refilled. The message coming from the CA was clear: cases not registered by the deadline would not be grandfathered in.

Friday the CA reopened to handle the over 3000 cases pending. Each registration consists of a four page form which includes hand prints, foot prints and a photo among other information. Each line was being checked for accuracy. There were reports that after four hours, only five attorneys had registered their cases. The CA promised to stay open through the weekend. Lines were reportedly out the door.

Saturday, rumors were rife. Speculation by an adoption advocacy agency in Guatemala was that the CA was deliberately slowing down the process so they could take over unregistered in-process cases. At the same time, there were rumors of a deadline extension.

On Sunday, we learned that the CA had stayed open until midnight on Saturday. Numbers were given to attorneys to hold their place in line. We also read that any missing information or misspelling on an application meant that the attorney had to go back and correct the form and get back in line before it was accepted.

On Monday we learned that only five people were conducting registrations. This means five people had to handle 12,000 pieces of paper during this process. There was also speculation that after registrations were complete and before certificates were issued, the CA was going to visit each of the 3000+ children in process.

Today we learned that registration numbers being given out were close to 2000. This left about a third of pending cases yet to be registered.

Finally, this afternoon, we received word that all cases with our attorney were “submitted”. We don’t know if this means that all were registered, or if some were rejected. Midnight is an hour away and then our fate will be sealed.

If we are fortunate enough to be registered, more waiting and uncertainty is sure to follow. After cases are registered, “constansias” will be issued. This is the certificate needed to get into the PGN process. No one knows how long this process will take.

So this has been my week. If you take each of the above paragraphs and multiply by about 100, you’ll have an idea of how often I have checked and evaluated news sources and e-mail.

As you can see from the photos above, Gracie has provided much needed comic relief. I asked her what all the animals were doing at the barn. She said that they were getting the vegetables in the wheelbarrow. And sure enough, if you look closely at the close-up photo, there is one “Little People” person being swarmed by hungry animals wanting vegetables. This is probably how those poor CA workers felt all weekend.

There is so much waiting and uncertainty ahead. I wish I could crawl into my pillowcase and sleep until the grown-ups fix all the problems. But for now, that’s something else I need to hand over to Gracie.

Thanks to all who check in on us. Thank you for your thoughts and prayers – we definitely feel them! Please also remember all the waiting families and the hard workers at the Central Authority.