The Andersons:
Chapter 6
Three days later on Jan. 9, Andrew, Gina and Vickie boarded a flight from Cleveland to Guatemala. They had no idea what was going on, but they were certain of one thing: Audrey was going to be worth every financial sacrifice they were making.
They learned later that very day their case was re-submitted into PGN. Had Denise known this when she suggested the trip?
When they arrived at their hotel, the attorney’s assistant Roxann Gudiel brought them the baby. She told them their paperwork had been in PGN for several days. Regarding Denise’s allegation that the PGN was “under investigation,” they learned that was a bunch of baloney. Roxann said they should be returning in 15 - 20 days for Audrey’s pick up trip.
Roxann Gudiel was trying to be hopeful and helpful.
They learned Audrey’s foster mother was herself heavily pregnant. Audrey appeared a bit weaker than they had anticipated – she could barely hold her own bottle. How was the foster mother going to attend to two infants once her own baby was born? Would Audrey’s care suffer? As it turns out, the foster mother did a wonderful job. They needn’t have worried. Audrey was in capable hands.
Like many adoptive parents in a foreign country, the Andersons spoke with other travelers. Jan. 12, the day they left Guatemala, they were speaking with an American woman who was leaving with her new baby. To their astonishment, the woman said she had gone to PGN herself two weeks prior and the people at the PGN had signed off on her case right there. Sadly, they learned this at 4:30 PM and PGN closed at 5:00 PM.
They’d never heard that going to PGN on their own was even an option, nor was it something they dreamed they could have done by themselves.
What they also heard from other American adoptive parents picking their babies up was unsettling. If they wanted to get Audrey home it was going to cost them another $500 to $1,000. These parents informed the Andersons that is what they had done and it upset them.
They were absolutely heartbroken to leave the nine month old Audrey Pearl. It was the hardest thing Gina and Andrew had ever done in their lives. All they wanted was to bring her home. Their stay with her was too brief, and she was not going to stay an infant forever.