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Early November of 2003 was a very exciting and yet anxious time in our house as we prepared ourselves for the trip to Guatemala. Our main purpose for visiting Guatemala was for me to speak at the Word of Life Camp to the south of Guatemala City. However, that would occupy only a small portion of our time while we were in the country. The director of Word of Life Guatemala, Marcelo Diez, was a dear friend of ours. He and his wife had become foster parents to a young girl from an orphanage they worked with in Antigua. Through that process, in a way only Marcelo can do, he became acquainted with officials throughout the adoptive/foster care process all the way up to the director of the PGN (at this time it was still Director Merida.) He had arranged for us to meet with officials while we were in the country so we could investigate the possibility of an independent adoption.
“You may want to prepare yourselves” Marcelo told us just weeks before we left “because we will be meeting in the orphanage and there is a possibility that they will introduce you to some of the children when you are here.”
Of course we were excited at the thought of holding these children and exploring this opportunity. We weren’t nervous but we wanted the day to arrive so we could face the unknown of meeting these officials and hearing what they had to say. We were face to face with the fact that though we had tried to learn as much as we could we still knew very little. Marcelo told us that adoptions had pretty much been shut down through the Hague and that as things progressed, we would be going into the process as cases were being started once again.
Then a friend asked us a question that haunted us in the back of our mind yet we had not addressed it with one another. Without knowing the impact it had on our hearts this friend said “I don’t know how I could walk into an orphanage and just choose a child while all of the others are left behind.” Kristina became so burdened by this that it was almost too much for her. After spending time in the orphanages serving the kids in ministry in years past, she knew that each one would steal her heart and the thought of leaving them there would be too much.
From that night on Kristina prayed earnestly that one of two things would happen. Either that we would not be afforded the opportunity to meet any of the children or that the moment we walked in that we would know without a doubt as though we had left her there 20 minutes before.
Then came Thanksgiving Week of 2003…
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.
