Things are going so well. . . .

I have some great news to share. While they are small in progress, they are huge to us!

First off, our Power of Attorney made it to FTIA yesterday and was shipped to Guatemala. This allows our attorney, Alejandro, to act on our behalf in the Guatemalan court system. Yay! Secondly, we also had made 2 errors in our dossier which needed to be corrected. I got them done and they made it to FTIA yesterday as well. That means that our entire dossier was shipped to Guatemala and will arrive their early next week. Once it arrives along with the POA, it will be translated into Spanish and approved for our attorney to act on our behalf. This process generally takes 4-8 weeks. In the meantime, we are waiting on DNA authorization- hope to have it by July 13th. Once we have this, our attorney can arrange for the DNA testing to be done. We will receive the results about 2 weeks from the date it is taken. Can't wait to cross that off our list! We're hoping to have DNA testing completed and get the results before labor day weekend (our second tentative trip- Rich and I). As this process is moving along our case will also be entered into the Family Court System in Guatemala and will be assigned to a social worker who will review our case, meet with our son, birth mom, and foster mom to make sure everything is legit.

My second piece of good news to share is that I spoke with our foster mom, Maria, again. I just love her! I hired a translator who indicated he was a descendant of Timothy Leary (concerned me a bit, I must say!) but he was fabulous. He actually lived in Guatemala for a while and was in Greenpeace and now lives in Oregon. He did a great job. I learned that Nathaniel is "very pretty and very cute". That's how she described him. I have also been wondering when she got Nathaniel- which she confirmed was on the 10th of May. That is great- as I know he has been receiving consistent loving care from the beginning. She also said he sleeps well, only waking to eat 1-2 times per night and when he is hot (no a/c down there!). She bathes him twice per day to help with the heat, too. He eats 2-3 oz every 2-3 hours and that sounded good to me. She requested I bring a papoose and a stroller- which I already have. She said she had plenty of diapers and formula. Also, I mentioned in my last post that she said she would like clothes. . . well, that's why I need a translator- she said "It would be very very kind of me if I would bring her jewelry". . . I was glad to hear this b/c I got her a jewelry box with 2 pairs of earrings and a watch and a necklace. I hope she will like them. I told her what we have named him and I don't think she quite understood-- probably never heard the name before. It's Natanael David (nay-tan-yul) in Spanish.

Well, that's the scoop without writing a novel! Just for fun- I have also included very cute baby bedding for you to see and let me know which one is your favorite- see to the right and below.

Finally, my mom's husband is in the hospital and is not doing well. Please say a prayer that he will be ok. They are not sure yet what is going on. This may interfere with my mom's ability to come with me. Don't worry though- my Dad is my back-up. I'm very lucky!

4 days left and I'm off to Guatemala to meet our son! :-)