JUNE 2008

Dear All:

June has been a really busy month for me at work. We are working on closing the Fiscal Year 2008-2009 and we are also working on a new FY 2009-2010. There have been a lot of late nights. School is also very hectic. I am in the last leg of the race (sort of speak). I am working on my Capstone Seminar. I have to do different projects throughout the semester, but there are 2 major projects that we have to complete, a Advocacy Paper and an RFP, Request for Response on a Latin American Country respoding to a USAID Request. I am praying that everything goes well. At the same time I continue to update papers on the adoption. We have still not heard anything about registration. We continue to hope that we will hear something very very soon. Nelson's Birthday its coming up. He is my sister's Ana Maria's husband.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY NELSON!!!

We took him to take him to PFChangs for Lunch. We had a great time, Mauricio, Mom, Ana Maria and I. We did a little bit of shopping and then we went to get him an Ice Cream cake from Cold Stone Creamery. He really enjoy it.

Mauricio and I each received an email from Marilyn at CHI, requesting "Signat erifiat re Yadira Codina-Guillen re Application"
At first, we thought that Tver was actually looking at our file, but after asking Marilyn, she informed that this is an internanl procedure that they do to verify certain documents.
This is the formal verbage from her: "Children's Hope has an active Quality Improvement process, and we are verifying the authentication of random documents that are being sent to our international countries. We respectfully request that you verify that the attached document did indeed originate from your office and was signed by yourself, Yadira Codina-Guillen."

I am also in the process of requesting an extension of the from I-171H from Department of Homeland Security. I had to request an additional copy of the latest home study to our Social Worker, Lori, in order to prepare the package for INS.

For a while now, I have been in communication with some Mom's who are in the process of adopting, just as we are. I started talking to T., she is very nice. She and her husband already adopted a baby from Tver in 2006 and are now in the second round of adoption. They filed their dossier a little bit after us.

In one of the emails from the chat groups, one of the Mom's was asking if anyone had used or maybe knew any International Adoption Doctors. There were different responses from parents who had already adopted and some other thoughts of those who are in the process of adopting, just like us. We honestly have not decided whether we are to hire a IAD. Nevertheless, I already did my homework and just in case we decide to hire one, we have one lined up. Mauricio and I asked ourselves this: How can we turn down a child because he might not look "good" or because it is not what we had in mind. I think that its one of the most difficult decisions. #1, after waiting for so long to receive a referral, are we to turn down a child, for x reason?? #2 After we prayed and prayed, God has given you the answer by providing you with a referral for a child, and after you meet that child, he becomes part of your life experience! Can you you go against that. I understand, like in anything, there are different situations for everything, but I am just talking about our thoughts. Each family will do what its best for them....

Next month (July) it's my baby sister's B-Day (July 4th) and it is also my B-DAY :)

Until next time.....