I have the PGN crazies!
Our adoption case is nearing 8 weeks in ProcuradurÃa General de la Nación (PGN), which is the official adoption approval system in Guatemala, and also the second-to-last part of the Guatemalan adoption process. Unfortunately, PGN is also a huge black hole from which some cases take months to emerge, while others have a relatively “smooth” stay of about 8-10 weeks. Of course, we’re hoping and praying for the latter.
Several weeks ago, we also thought we were nearing the 8-week mark in PGN. But, it turns out we weren’t submitted to PGN on the exact date we were originally told (July 13). In fact we weren’t submitted until August 6. It was a letdown to know that we’d still have several more weeks to wait until we could start hoping for an out. Yes, another letdown, but just a normal part of the unpredictable and sometimes-excruciatingly-painful adoption process.
Here we are for real this time – nearing 8 weeks in PGN. I haven’t blogged much since our U.S. Embassy Pre-Approval in July. That doesn’t mean that the adoption has not been on my mind nearly every minute since then. I have a daily routine, you see. It’s a routine that repeats itself several, if not dozens of times per day:
1. Check the PGN Waiters list compiled by several members of the adoption.com forums. Look for my username (PAWZ) on the list, and see how my days in PGN have advanced one day since yesterday.
2. Check the adoption.com Guatemala Adoption forum. Have there been any new outs since I checked 20 minutes ago? If so, when were they submitted (or resubmitted after a kickout) to PGN? How many days difference is there between their submittal date and ours?
3. Head on over to the guatadopt.com PGNers discussion forum. Any new outs there?
4. Navigate to the 2 Yahoo! Guatemalan adoption groups, Guatemalan_Adoptions and Guatemala_Adoption. Yep, you guessed it, I’m looking for outs.
5. Read my Guatemala “Big List” emails to catch up on the latest Guatemalan news, adoption-related issues and ethics, etc.
6. Repeat steps 1 through 5 over … and … over … again …
The aforementioned steps are a result of a serious (and pretty typical, I imagine) case of the PGN crazies. That big black hole is scary, especially when your own Department of State issues reports such as this. You search out any piece of information that you can, even if it’s bad news, just so that you can KNOW where you stand in the process.
Oh, and you pray and hope. A whole lot.
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