The Andersons:
Chapter 4
May 5, 2003, the next day, upon Audrey’s acceptance, their Power of Attorney (POA) was filled in and sent to Building Blocks. Their attorney in Guatemala, as listed on the POA was Maynor Vicente Ortega Rosales whose name was misspelled. This would cause a delay later on in the adoption. The law firm of Diaz-Duran is not listed on this document.
In June they received news that the DNA test with the biological mother went smoothly; their next step would be PGN. There were delays occurring into July with respect to some Hague issues Guatemala was undergoing, but these were cleared up by September. These Hague issues caused delays with cases already submitted to PGN between March and September.
On Aug. 18 Denise Hubbard sent an email that their case was submitted to PGN. This was before the attorneys in Guatemala had sent in an apparo contesting the Hague compliance standards. Cases had to be into PGN before an apparo was filed on their behalf. They emailed Denise and asked her if, since their case they thought was in PGN, if Mr. Rosales had filed this apparo. She said he had. Therefore, they thought Audrey’s case was right on track.
This wasn’t the first lie Denise Hubbard was going to tell the Andersons, but it was a significant one.
In May 2004 the Andersons learned Audrey Pearl’s paperwork hadn’t entered PGN until October 21. Where had it been for those two months? Sitting on Mr. Rosales desk at Diaz-Duran?
By the middle of September, there was still no word for Audrey’s pickup date. Reading various Guatemalan internet newsgroups, Vickie stayed on top of things. At such places as Adoption Forums Guatemala BBS, people blithely told of their timelines, progress, delays and other information. Obviously Denise hadn’t given Gina and Andrew her lecture about the how evil the Internet was or warned Andrew to keep his mother from going online for concrete and helpful information.
The Andersons thought the worst case scenario would be Audrey home for Christmas. Their hopes were dashed in an email on Nov 18 from Denise. She wrote stating the paperwork had been kicked out of PGN. Happy Holidays!
The Hague situation did cause a backlog of cases at PGN, so perhaps there was a kernel of truth to this. But not if Audrey’s paperwork had been submitted in October, past the backlog. According to posters on the Adoption Forums Guatemala boards, their cases were being kicked out of PGN. Theirs had been submitted at the same time as Audrey’s. Unlike the Andersons’ their agencies and Guatemalan attorneys were giving them concrete reasons as to why they had been kicked out.
Denise came across with some information, namely their case had been resubmitted into PGN. She did not tell them why it had been originally kicked out. Denise said it was going back in on or around Dec. 6.