[DolciLady]

Ok, apparently I lied in my last post, but I didn't know it! LOL

Our attorney apparently has more faith than we do, because she ignored our request to stop going to the DNA and following up on our case that we sent her last August.

After writing my last post on the 19th, I dropped our attorney a quick note. Her reply was the biggest shock I've had in a very long time.

In January, she met with someone in the Minestry to see if she could get any informal scoop. The contact in the Minestry thinks the US adoptions are being hindered because Panama is reluctant to let their children come here because we did not sign the Hague Treaty.

She then went over to the DNA that day and requested an appointment. her appointment was yesterday.

They said our age preference was really too young (0-2 at time of the match) since residents get first dibs. And they mentioned being uncomfortable with sending children to the US. They told her that they would like us to find a governmental agency to sign some kind of commitment paper to do the follow-up visits and report to Panama. And include a copy of the social workers actual certificate/license. And to get that info notarized, apostilled, and authenticated by the Panamanian consulate. Normally things don't have to go through the consulate, but apparently this offers Panama some additional level of comfort.

We have a paper with this info on it already in our dossier, regarding the follow-up visits. But apparently it's not good enough because it involved a social worker affiliated with *that* adoption agency we were with.

After much debate, we also agreed to bump our age preference up to 4yrs old.

Don't know where the money is going to come from to have all of our expired paperwork redone. But the DNA is urging us to get the follow-up commitment in their hands immediately. DNA told our attorney that although the child assignation meeting did not take place last week as scheduled, our file was in that group. (we've heard that one before).

We are feeling a gazillion different emotions. We'd emotionally walked away from all this (as best we could), but never formally withdrew our adoption petition. The adoption fund we had is long gone.

Not sure if we are willing to go through this process again, but for now, we're going through the motions. It's definitely in God's hands.

If you are a member of the panama adopt yahoo group, I've posted the latest correspondence between our attorney and me, if you're interested in reading.

Guess we're still in the game, and didn't know it!

Thank you, thank you very much! LOL
Robin