Caught between Heaven and Hell

Heaven: Ahren continues to be delightful. We spent most of yesterday seeing doctors and having some simple tests done. I don't want to have him poked and prodded too much but we need to rule out or treat anything contagious before we let him socialize much. So, poo-poo samples off to the lab (believe me, this is a never-ending renewable source) stop in at the imaging center for a couple of chest x-rays to rule out TB, and then several hours at the orthopedist following up on what the foster mother told me. (She felt he had trouble walking and fell too much so she took him to an ortho in Guatemala. That doctor prescribed orthotic shoes which look like Frankenstein boots. They rubbed his little ankles badly and he hated wearing them) The doctor here feels he has low muscle tone, hyper-flexibility and some concerns with his left leg (he scrunches his toes up, tippy-toe walks and drags it behind him). He may have a bit of cerebral palsy on his left side or he may just need to get some exercise. In Guatemala he was carried or in a stroller so much he never was able to build a lot of muscle. We will see the doctor again in 2 months to look at his progress. During all of these visits he and Levi played and entertained everyone.  He doesn't like it if I get too far away form  him, but that is a good sign.

Hell: It will be quite a while before we find out where PBJ is and what we can do to fight the situation. At this point, PGN has terminated our adoption, claiming the birth mother requested the baby back. They also determined the birth mother is possibly incompetent and therefore must undergo a homestudy to determine if she can parent PBJ.  The US government cannot do anything since the case is now terminated. We have a couple of options so far. 1) The birth mother and her family convince PGN they do not want PBJ and want her adoption to go through, and if the BM is incompetent then her parents can give consent, or 2) find PBJ and keep tabs on her until the new adoption system is up and running and then we can petition to adopt her under the new rules. We have a couple of other ideas, too. One is to make an offer to the government to provide PBJ with all of her care and needs, placing her back with the foster family and making sure her medical needs are met. The doctors are writing up reports to help us with that fight. The other is to request she be moved to the hogar under the supervision of the facilitator that we had with Ahren. His facility is nice and we could be sure we got all of her medical needs met. We would pay him directly for everything. The gov't might like that idea better, but who knows. it's not about the children. It is all about power right now. Power and money. Whoever wins the power will control all of the money in the future. One tiny little precious girl is nothing but a pawn in the power play. 

We are doing OK with all this. God is holding her right now. He has a plan that we just don't see yet. We will continue to fight to have her cared for, no matter if we get to parent her or not. It's not about us. It never has been. It is about her.

OK, I promise more pictures later today. Lots and lots of pics!