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For earlier posts see below
Learning as you go can be fun but can be frustrating. Terminology like “dossier”, “I-600″, “I-600A”, seemed almost too much for us as we still had not completely settled if we were doing this independently. Daily we walked into our new nursery and thought of our daughter that would someday come home to live in this room. Something about the fact that it was prepared as a gift for us made the room even more special. However, unsure we were about the process itself, the support we were receiving gave us the confidence that we could do it.
During that summer (2003) we began thinking of names for our baby. We both agreed we wanted to adopt a baby girl. We knew that once we saw her the name we chose may not fit at all but the process of choosing names was a fun one so we bounced names around for months. We even used the Baby Name Locator here at adoption.com.
One day at the home of Kristina’s parents, her nephew asked us if we had found a name for our daughter. Himself a big soccer fan, he said we should name her Mia so she would become a big soccer star like Mia Hamm. Great logic huh? It was only about five minutes later when Kristina and I both looked at each other and said “Mia.” We loved the name not as a nickname for Amelia or Maria or anything else but as a name itself. Kristina looked the name Mia up on different sites and found and entry on Homestead Designs that said had name meanings but it also had Kristina’s favorite verse associated with it as well. Mia was to be her name.
Shortly after our homestudy was completed and approved we mailed it off along with our I-600A to USCIS to wait for approval. We knew that this process was going to take time and yet it seemed each day following we grew more and more anxious to hear something. Finally we received something in the mail and we rushed in to see what it was. It was an appointment slip to come get our fingerprints taken. We planned our time off from work early that November. We went to Alexandria preparing for a day of waiting to be seen, paperwork, or whatever. Instead, when we arrived, we signed in and sat down. A minute or two later we were called, fingerprinted and left. It was a long trip for a couple minutes of nothing very exciting. So we decided to make a day of it in our nations capitol. A few street hot dogs later, a Wizards-Mavericks game, and a long walk later, we headed home waiting for whatever was to come next. Our trip to Guatemala was in 16 days…
The Mummau Series
1. Choosing To Adopt
2. Why International? Why Guatemala?
3. The Call From Guatemala
4. The Process Begins
5. A Prelude To Mia
6. How Can You “Choose” A Child – Leaving Others Behind?
7. Peer Into The Heart – Journal Entries
8. Meeting Maria – Finding Mia
9. Leaving Our Daughter…is that…no way!
10. Rivers of Waiting
11. Mistakes, Intentions, and Naivety – How Hope Began To Die
12. Alone in Guatemala and Waiting
13. Time Marches On – Goodbye Mia for Now
14. Joyful Gringos in Quetzaltenango
15. Mia Mia
16. Abuela Comes To The Rescue
17. Doctors, Couriers, and Delays
18. Even So, You Won’t Believe This
19. The Summer of Frustration Ends
20. Fall Approaches with Broken Hearts…Teeth
21. 1600 Miles from Tecpan (pt.1)
22. 1600 Miles from Tecpan (pt.2)
23. Kristina Comes Home
24. Mia’s First Steps
25. December’s Momentum
26. An Angel In The Embassy? I
27. An Angel in the Embassy? II
28. A Christmas to Remember…and Forget
29. Daddy’s 2nd Visit
30. Clash at The Embassy
31. We’re In The PGN! OK Let Us Out!
32. Accomodations
33. The Pencil – Never Give Up
34. Exiting the PGN…sort of
35. Exiting the PGN…yet again
36. Daddy Has Enough
37. The Countdown Begins
38. Easter Brings Hope
39. Sit With Me in San Cristobal
40. T-Minus a few things and counting
41. My New Favorite Color
42. Hope Becomes Reality-The Embassy Interview
43. Mia Mummau Goes Home
More blogs about Guatemala Adoption.
