We're Out!!!!!

We got out of PGN yesterday! I still can't believe it. I was really starting to think that it would never happen, that our adoption would drag on and on forever.

The phone rang at work between two of my classes. The secretary told me that my husband was on the line. I had a faint suspicion that it might be PGN, but I was pretty firmly convinced in my mind that our agency would call me, and I would be the one to break the news to Jack. So Jack says, "I was wondering... what would you think if we got out of PGN today?" So I started jumping up and down saying "Oh my god, oh my god, did we?" And he told me that we were out. So then I had to get off the phone quickly because my class was coming in. And then I was a little bit afraid that I had hallucinated the whole conversation, because it just didn't seem like it could be true!

One nice thing about working in an almost exclusively female workplace is that your coworkers get very excited about this kind of thing. I emailed everyone and I got lots of hugs and congratulations yesterday and today. I was walking on air, and feeling a little shaky.

I happen to be the kind of person that had trouble staying happy for long. I thought about Kit's mother and how she has now irrevocably signed away her right to raise her son. This must be a very hard time for her. I also started thinking about the logistical stuff we still have to do. We've got some forms to fill out and get notarized (does the paperwork ever end?), we've got to change our plane tickets and get a hotel, we need to pack. I'm also having brief moments of panic when I realize that an actual baby will soon be living in our house, under our sole care!

We intended to fly to Guatemala right after my last day of school, but we might have to put it off a little bit. Since the adoption has taken so long, our homestudy has expired and we need to meet with our social worker to update it. She does not have any time available for a few weeks. So frustrating! Our homestudy took forever in the beginning because that agency was so busy. We have time though, because we still have stuff to wait for on the Guatemala end.

First they amend Kit's birth certificate. They change it so that Jack and I appear as the parents. Personally, I do not agree with this idea. I don't like erasing his first parents. This is what Guatemala does, though, and we have to respect their practices. We have a copy of his original birth certificate which we will certainly keep in his life book. Getting the new birth certificate will take 3-4 weeks. Then Kit will get a passport which takes 3-4 business days. Finally, we will get an appointment at the US embassy in Guatemala which will be 1-2 weeks from then. This is the fabled "pink slip" because it's printed on pink paper (who knows why). So, we should be able to bring Kit home 4-7 weeks from now. He might be home for his birthday! Even if he's not, we'll be with him! We plan to fly down there as soon as we possibly can and then we will stay with him until we can come home!