Gotcha Memories - Believing

When the proverbial "caca" hit the fan in late September 07 of our wait to bring Aidan home, it was hard to keep it together. We had been looking at his picture and getting updates for five months. So to be told the Guatemalan government might stop in-process adoptions was a huge shock. But we weathered through, some days hearing positive news, some days negative. By the time 2008 rolled around, the Guatemalan government had voted to let in-process cases continue under certain conditions, one being the registration of the case with the new adoption bureau. This doesn't seem too huge of an issue until it was realized that there was no new adoption bureau. They even set a deadline of 30 days after Jan 1. As the deadline approached we were told to be hopeful that something would "give" but nothing did.

Then on the scariest day yet, we were told that there would be an office for attorneys to register cases with, but they were only processing about 50 a day and there were about 3500 cases and the deadline was in 48 hours. The government stated they would not move the deadline because it was written into law and to do so would require a special session of their congress. Needless to say, I lost it. That was the straw on this camel's back. I stayed online all weekend, searching for any news from our agency, Guatemala or other families.

I came downstairs at one point and Dave had drawn a little picture that said "I am coming home." That little picture became something else for me to focus on, something so simple but so powerful.

A few weeks after we brought Aidan home, we made it say, "I am home". It's still on our fridge.