On a bright note, I mailed our care package to a woman named Sara who will be leaving for Guatemala on 11/27/05 to visit all of AFOD's kids and to take photos and video. I packaged an outfit for Franklin with a pair of sport-style pants, a long sleeve shirt and a short sleeved shirt the a dog playing soccer on the front. I included a cute hat, a watch with soccer balls on it socks and a Gertie blow-up soccer ball. It all fit, as required into a gallon zip lock bag with a little room to spare. It is fun to know that Franklin will receive these within the next 15 days.
Also, we received our revised CIS approval (the I-797C) for Guatemala and I faxed this to Jessica at our agency this afternoon. Now, the CIS has cabled the Guatemalan consulate and this is off our list of to dos.
On the unfortunate side of things, Jessica, the case manager whom I have entrusted our process to at AFOD, announced on Friday that she will be leaving the agency at the end of the year. She is engaged and her fiance is moving to D.C. for a new job. I just didn't see this coming even knowing that she was engaged. Even though our process is now predominently being run by our Guatemala attorney and coordinator, AFOD needs someone like Jessica in place. Leslie was hired recently and she seems great but I am nervous that the depth of experience will be missing. The owner/director of the agency, Jen Holdren, doesn't seem very involved in the cases and that has me worried. We shall see...it is just really too bad because I was so comfortable with Jessica and I trusted going with AFOD because of her reputation.
On the hopeful side...I took some time to map out what would be both a reasonable and hopeful time-line to bring Franklin home:
11/16 Dossier to Guatemala
1/16 DNA test requested
2/16 Pre-approval from Embassy
2/20 Case should enter PGN (6 weeks to 3 months):
4/1 ------ 4/20 ------- 5/1 ------- 5/20 Out of PGN plus one more month
5/1 ------ 5/20 ------- 6/1 ------- 6/20 Embassy Date / HOME!
I so hope that this timeline holds together!!!! It would be so great for Franklin to be home in May while John and Ian are in their current school routines and I can have time alone with him!!! But, more than anything, I just pray he is home before July 1st . It is such a mind game already...how do you hope for the best and prepare for the worst with something like this? We shall see...
