The Beginning

This is the very first picture we ever saw of Matthew. We accepted our referral (agreed to adopt him) on November 23, 2006. There have been many bumps in the road and we are sure that there will be many more but we know this is one of the best decisions we've ever made.

OUR TIMELINE:

DOB: 8/23/03

Birth Name: Marlon Antonio

Accepted referral: 11/23/06

Special COfA Court Ruling: 7/10/07 (FINALLY!!!!!)

Entered FC: 7/11/07

Done with FC: 12/3/07

Enter PA: 1/2/08

Exit PA: ?

PGN In: ?

PGN Out: ?

Pink: ?

Home: ?

To explain it all........

DOB is self-explanatory and I already explained the referral.

The special COfA court ruling was a huge nightmare. To make it as simple as I can, COfA stands for certificate of abandonment. It took the court an AWFUL long time to determine if Matthew had any living relatives, if anyone knew who he was and to determine if he could be adopted. After posting him all over the place (TV, radio, newspaper) not one person came forward to identify him. The court then ruled him available for adoption on 7/10/2007.

FC stands for Family Court. This process (which took 5 months for us) is the social worker's report on all of us. The social worker had to pick apart the multiple documents we had to send which included everything from our tax return to my shoe size. She gave a favorable rating and agreed that we would be an excellent family for Matthew.

PA stands for Pre-approval. We are currently waiting for pre-approval from the United States Embassy to bring Matthew to the US and declare him a US citizen. We should receive this any day now and are chewing our fingernails in anticipation.

Once we get PA we will be submitted to PGN. PGN, or Procuraduria General de la Nacion, is similar to our Attorney General's Office. It is their job to pick apart all of our documents to make sure all of the I's are dotted and T's crossed. They will make sure that everything is legal. This process takes about 8 weeks but can take longer if we have to go back to dot that I or cross the T.

Once out of PGN we will go back to the US Embassy to wait on our Pink Slip. A pink slip is the issuing of our appointment date at the embassy to finalize the process (Adoption Day). From here, we bring him home!!!!