One Year Anniversary

When I was in Honduras last week, something felt odd. For one, when I arrived at the Ranch it was like I never left. As I hugged and greeted people, their first question was “Y Margarita?” which literally translates “and Margarita?” I got to share about the wonderful progress she has made over the year. I was able to tell stories of her learning English, a new school system and the day she was lost and picked up by the police. I visited with Tia Marixa, a woman that cared for Margarita for over 1.5 years, when she lived at Montana de Luz. Marixa is an exceptional woman and a caregiver to all. I told her over a meal of pupusas, that Margarita asked me one day… “Mom, why did you pick me?” after reminiscing about her early years at Montana de Luz.

During my trip, the time spent with my best friend Chris was full of excitement and activity as she planned and organized her foundation where she recently received a grant from the Global Fund. One thing was different between us though…we used to spend countless hours discussing our adoptions and the insane legal hoops we had to jump through, but this time none of that was threaded throughout our conversations. This time we got to talk about our children, their successes and challenges, growing up in Honduras vs the US and how do we as adults mix both worlds.

It has been one year today that we arrived in the US, that Margarita became a citizen and that we started our life together as a family with Skz. For mother’s day and father’s day this year, not only did we get to spend it together, but my parents were here with us, making it a double blessing.

Tonight we celebrated by going out for our favorite food…PIZZA, and let me tell you, even though I love Honduran pupusas they don’t come close to a Margarita pizza!


Thank you to everyone that has made this year so special.
We love you.
Monica, Margarita and Skz

Feliz Prospero Año!

Hello all. Margarita, Monica and Skz wish you a Happy New Year!

We are celebrating that we are together this year. Well Skz and I are going out to dinner and then a party. Abuela Donna is staying home with Margarita and they will be watching Sleeping Beauty. Skz and I have missed being together the past 2 new years so it will be nice to go out on a date.

Margarita enjoyed Christmas, along with our new adopted cat Amaya. She showed up two months ago with 3 kittens. We fostered the kittens for one month until a permanent foster was found. 

Abuela Donna arrived in December and Skz's sister LeAnn came down from Utah. Margarita got to hike to the top of Piestewa Peak Mountain. She did a great job.

We got invited to a Christmas party at the Ritz Calrton, which was a treat. Margarita got her picture taken with Santa and they served macaroni and cheese, her favorite.

Christmas eve we went to candlelight service and on Christmas day my sister came over and we all went out for Indian food. 

In 2008, we are looking forward to my very good friend and her son visiting. Chris and Gregorio will be here for 10 days in January. Chris is the reason I met Margarita in 2001. Margarita was the third child that came to live at the home where Chris was the director. Gregorio and Margarita have grown up together and they have a very special bond that spans from brother/sister to statements, mostly from Margarita that they will be husband and wife one day. They even have their own language and understand each other completely. It will be fun to have them visit and do activities here in Arizona that we could never do in Honduras. Part of me misses Honduras terribly. It is never far from my mind.

I start on-site freelancing in January at an agency that I worked at previously and also have a few clients to keep me busy.

Skz is still hoping to sell or rent out the loft space. Here is the link of the site

I hope everyone has a fabulous New Year and wishing you all the best for 2008.

Love,

Monica and family

(Picture is Margarita on the path at the Ranch)

Happiness does not depend on outward things, but on the way we see them. 

Leo Tolstoy

October First's

October was a month of many first's.

First photo shoot with our friend who is a professional photographer.















First State Fair with Tia Chanon.















First pumpkin patch.















First birthday celebration together as a family.



















First bike.




















First Halloween.


















First Trick or Treating with Dad, the K9 officer.

Margarita’s Adjustment

I didn’t know what to expect, but as usual, Margarita’s adaptability has been a huge blessing. She has jumped right into living in a very hot city, new school and meeting people.
In airport

The first order of business was to introduce herself as Margaret to her teacher and all the new friends and family she meets. After being in the US one day, she put a post-it note on her bedroom door and bathroom, stating that Skz and I needed to ask permission to enter. Skz jokingly pointed out that she had to share a bedroom and bathroom with me in Honduras and here she is one day after her arrival and she has already claimed her territory.

Swimming in pools was Margaret’s next encounter when the boy across the street invited her to come over and swim. She soon asked every day, repeatedly if she could go swimming. We don’t have a pool but luckily have easy access to one and my sister has one as well.

She acted like the huge public library was old hat. I was a bit disappointed in this because it was one of my childhood favorites and I was so excited to see her reaction to it. Margaret walked right in and started picking out books, making sure that she liked what was on the cover first. She wasn’t phased that the building was five stories high or that it was made out of glass.

Margaret is attending the local public school and is in first grade. She is in the first grade classroom that is called Structure English Immersion, where the teacher is trained in the state education program and the materials and teaching methods are geared towards second language learners. There are handful of children who are at the same level as Margaret and the teacher feels confident that she will do great.

She was also evaluated by a speech therapist that knew two of the therapists from NPH Honduras. Small world. Margaret will continue to have therapy twice a week that will target on certain issues.

Some interesting comments from her;
“Mom, the kids don’t fight in the U.S.” (After a few days of attending school)
“It’s so pretty and clean here.”
“I’m going to be a doctor,” (she replied, when asked by a girl at her bus stop what she was going to be. The girl then told her that SHE was going to be a rock star and Margarita could sign back-up)
“Wow Mom, the food is so good here,” while drinking her first Starbucks Raspberry Frappicuno with whipped cream


Adjusting to a 2-parent household has been rather bumpy at times. The idea of sharing her mom and getting accustom to having a dad around is a learning process for her. Luckily both grandmothers have been around to visit and give her extra, extra attention and spoils. Skz is doing a fantastic job and knows exactly when to step in and take charge. Parenting is so different when you have a partner.







Finally, throughout this whole adoption process, we got to celebrate by having a party hosted at my sister’s house. Over 30 adults and 10 kids arrived to meet Margaret and to share some time with us. I had to stop at times and breath it all in. Especially when my mom was here and we were all eating dinner together in our house, the entire family. I took a deep breath and I thought of all our friends and family still in Honduras and how torn my heart is, being in both places. I would not change this time for anything though and daily, when I have my moments, really can’t believe that we are actually here.

Pros of the Ranch (Honduras) vs the U.S., according to Margarita
Pros in US
Chain cord to light in her closet
Tubular enclosed slides on jungle gyms at school playground

Pros at the Ranch
The Porton (the main gate, this made Margarita feel secure she said and that they watched out for the people coming and going.)
Pancakes
La Venta (where the babysitter Dania and her family lives)

Hope you are all doing well and please drop me a email at
monica.gery@revolutionagency.com
or
mgery@nph.org

Thank you for all your thoughts and prayers during our transition.
Love,
Monica

Just one day in Teguz…

Well the days get crazier and more bizarre. First when we got in the car (renting a car due to running all over Teguz and don’t want to die on public bus), it was infested with ants. I accidentally left a banana peel in there…opps. Then I got stopped at the police checkpoint and legally not supposed to be driving with my AZ license because its only valid for 3 months since the last point of entry, but I cannot bear to get a Honduran license which would entail waiting in 5 different lines at the transit office. The police officer informs me that I look like a Leti, not a Monica. I smile and bat my eyelashes so he doesn’t ask to see my passport. It worked.

Poor Margarita, I drag her into the laboratory at the clinic in Teguz, without any breakfast because she supposedly had to have lab tests for the visa medical examination – but once we got there they said “No, only for children under 12,” but of course they didn’t tell me that when I called.

So then we go upstairs to the physician’s office in anticipation of getting the medical exam over with. Her office hours are listed as 8-12am. Here in Honduras there are no Dr’s appointments. You just show up and wait your turn. Well what I thought was going to be the exam was only the nurse collecting the documentation and checking her vaccination card. The nurse then gave me a deposit slip for a bank and told me to go deposit the $108.00 in the bank downstairs and told us to come back at 4:45pm to see the doctor, but also bring an ID photo of Margarita.

We then walk 5 block to get the ID photos, then wait 20 minutes outside my bank to open to find out that the ATM machines doesn’t work. We go to another bank. I withdrawal the money to pay the medical exam. Next we go wait in a 30 min line to deposit the money in the doctor’s account.

Our next stop is the US Embassy where I am told that my Orphan Application has been approved and that it was been forwarded to the Visa Immigrant Unit. Great news!

We then wait in line for the Visa Immigrant Unit window to speak to the officer to confirm the documentation that we must bring to the interview. The officer tells me that I need a “long” version of one of my Honduran papers. I only have the “short” version.

We then go to the Honduran Person Registry. Here we try and enter 3 doors and the guard tells me each time it is another door around the corner. Finally we find the right door but the person who needs to attend to us is of course at lunch.

We wait ½ hour outside. I confirm with my lawyer that the long version of this paper is going to take some time for the Registry to produce and that I need to speak with the civil register of Tegucigalpa for them to do it faster.

Next we wait in line for window #3, then window #2, then window #1. Margarita looks at me with a look like “Why didn’t we just wait in window #1?”

I then find out that to get my “long” form of the paper will take till August 24^th. I plead to get it sooner. They tell me only with the Civil Registry approval. We then wait for him to show up. I start flagging everyone that passes me down to ask where Marco Tulio is, the man I need to speak with. Out of the corner of my eye I see a man with a mustache and think that must be him. I wave at him and ask an employee near me if that is him and she confirms that it is. I then ask her to go tell him I need to speak to him.

Finally 10 min later he comes over to me and I tell him that we are leaving the country and I need this paper. He then signs and stamps (stamps are every big here) the document that I need and it will be ready on the 7^th instead of the 24^th.

By this time we have an hour before the doctor’s appointment so we stop by Chris’s house because the 2 hours in the hot registry waiting in 4 different window lines has left me with a huge headache. Margarita is happy to play with Gregory for a short time.

We then dive the 30 min downtown to the Dr's office. The physician turns out to be very nice and she very quickly examines Margarita and gives her 2 vaccinations, chicken pox and Hep B. I then ask her why the cost of the appointment was over $100 when the US Embassy handout states that it is $25. She explains that the vaccinations were over $75, but of course the nurse did not explain that to me in the morning and just gave me the total cost.

I then think to myself that she already had a chicken pox vaccine when she lived at Chris’s project, and I could have saved the $50. Later Chris confirmed that yes, she had it and it was listed in her vaccination card.

When we return to the Ranch after this long, hot day I was ready to pass out. Seriously if anyone asks for another document I am going to loose it. I have filled out and produced so many documents during this process its ridiculous.

But here is the GREAT NEWS…this Monday, August 6^th at 7:30 am, Margarita has her Immigrant Visa Interview. Supposedly they will issue it the same day, meaning that we will be able to leave the country after Monday.

Oh geez, I don’t even want to explain what it took to get her Honduran passport. Much like the above.

More after Monday.

Love Monica

Finally...a miracle.

On Friday June 29, 2007, I signed the final adoption decree.

Margarita and I were at the children’s social welfare office present with my lawyer, the director of adoptions and their legal counsel.

This still hasn’t quite hit me yet since we have been through so much over the past few years. Unfortunately, we still have to complete the U.S. immigration paperwork before we can come home. My hope is that it won’t take longer than 2 months.

Thank you to all who have supported us and prayed. Most of all to Skz, (Mono, as Margarita calls him) for his never ending emotional and financial support, including his many, many trips to see us. We would not have gotten to where we are now without him.

Thank you.

Monica

We are fortunate

I ran to his grave, in fact I run past graves almost everyday. The Ranch has a trail to the cemetery, up a steep hill and about 2 miles into the woods. This morning was different though because it had a fresh grave from the day before. The earth was in a rectangle mound with fresh white lily’s placed on top. The slope of the cemetery leads the body to view the pine trees that surround the site. Horses are sometimes lingering around the cemetery. I think they are taking the souls up to heaven.

Sam (name change) was the 17 year old boy that was buried. He was shot by a gang member in the capital, leaving 11 siblings to mourn his death, the 5 youngest living at the Ranch. He was the eighth person in his family to be killed by this gang as a tragic vendetta haunts the family. The parents of these children were also slain along with their uncles.

Sam was on his way to the Ranch for visitor’s day, an event we have 3 times a year. He went in to the city the day before for a visit. He boarded a bus with his girlfriend to buy some take-out food to bring to the Ranch, he was then shot, with his girlfriend witnessing everything.

I went with our social worker to investigate this case back in April. When we arrived at the poor neighborhood on the outskirts of Tegucigalpa, we walked down about 100 steps to a brick house with a metal laminate roof. The house actually has just one room with bed sheets spreading across it to make a divider. Four beds were behind the divider for almost 15 people living in the house. Plastic bags stored all their belongings. There was one wood hutch in the room for kitchen items but no stove, no sink and no refrigerator.

The children were all living with an older sister who had a family of her own and was having difficulty as it was making ends meet. The house had neither running water nor a shower. There was a large plastic bucket outside for water storage and a metal barrel used for a stove.

A latrine, that was barely standing, existed with three pieces of wood around it. The children were ready to come to the Ranch. They had their small belongings packed into a backpack and each one seemed eager to start a new adventure.

Sometimes I can’t even fathom the pain and suffering that these children go through. For their safety, our director is working on taking them to another home, outside the country because the gang stated that they won’t stop killing until the entire family is dead.

In comparison, we don’t have it so bad. Yes, we are STILL WAITING for papers to be signed and for some other legalities, but at least we don’t have a threat on our lives.

I still hope and pray that we will be returning to Phoenix in August but right now I am just taking one day at a time. If the final sentence is signed by the end of this month, we might have a good chance at making the August date.

Miss and love you,

Monica

In anticipation of Mother's Day

How does a mother walk out of the hospital without the child she just birthed?

How long did she wait till she skipped out? Did she hold her?

How long was it before someone else came to the hospital to get Margarita?

How can you give 4 children away or see them but not acknowledge that they exist?

How destroyed are they for the rest of their lives?

These are the questions I ask myself about Margarita’s birth mother. Questions I will never have the answers to because she died.

I have two other friends in Honduras in the same adoption situation as us. The first friend is the reason I have Margarita. She was the director of the home where Margarita first lived. She is adopting a boy who was orphaned because both parents died from AIDS. The second friend is adopting a child who was so severely beaten by his step-father that both legs where broken and she took the child to another country for the operations that he needed. We are all adopting as single women and we are all at different stages of the process. Adoption reform has been talked about for years but it has not happened since I started this process back in 2001.

The judge was supposed to have signed the adoption court sentence this week but it didn’t happen, so we are still waiting as usual.

In February I handed in the initial paperwork to the U.S. Embassy here in Honduras and they took my fingerprints to send to the FBI for clearance. Unfortunately they didn’t send them via DHL like they said they would so they did not reach the FBI till 1.5 months later. Then the FBI said that my fingerprints were “unclassifiable”, meaning too smudged or something. So they re-took them and we are waiting for their response.

Margarita is doing well and spontaneously said three phrases in English last week.
“Tomorrow is Monday.”
“I am ready.”
“Check me out.”

She continues to surprise me at how well she handles situations and how adaptable she is. She is also very compassionate like when I wacked my head on the brick wall the other week, she heard me shout out from the other room and she yelled “I’m coming Mom,” and ran over to me and was rubbing my arm as I cried in pain.

Well please write if you get a sec. I would love to heard from you.

Take care.

Monica

Power Lawyer Marta

About one month ago, my friend Chris (in photo, Margarita took this) and I met with a lawyer named Marta, who Shannon, another friend, quickly dubbed Power Lawyer. After a brief 20 min meeting with her, both Chris and I knew that we had to hire her. She knows the system forwards and backwards and has a good relationship with all the levels of the adoption process. After going to the court and asking to see Margarita’s file, all public information here, she discovered that my previous lawyer had not done anything for almost over a month. The file was just sitting there. Therefore the additional costs in hiring a new lawyer at this stage is well worth it since she knows what the heck she is doing.

We are waiting for the Child Welfare Institution to send the Family Court their communication that I have passed all the requisites and their testing. Once the family court receives this report they then will proceed with the legalization of the adoption sentence, which takes 3 weeks. My lawyer then takes the sentence and it is notarized into a public deed which I and the director of the child welfare institution will sign. Then Power Lawyer takes these various papers to the registry office to the island of Roatan, where Margarita was born, to obtain a new birth certificate with me as the mother. I then take that to immigration to get Margarita a Honduran passport.

Simultaneously, U.S. Immigration is doing their Orphan Child Investigation. I had to pay a fee, have my fingerprints taken and provide a whole slew of additional paperwork on the legal status of Margarita, death certificates of her biological mother and the woman that registered her as her child, and when they asked for more proof, I just called Power Lawyer, and she got the documents from Roatan for me. Really, she is well worth the money she is charging if she completes this in less than 3 months, like she has promised.

I will be in Phoenix April 3-10^th, so hope to see you then.

Hugs,

Reunited with Misael

I have been with NPH Honduras for over five years working as the Home Correspondent. In 2003, I had the opportunity to spend 2 weeks at our home in El Salvador to help them develop their website content. I thought before arriving, that I could never have the same connection with children in another home as much as Honduras. I was wrong. In El Salvador I found a large rented house with over 100 boys ages 8-18. They immediately welcomed me and I soon felt right at home with many curious children asking questions concerning my life and habits. “Tia, why do you paint your hair, do those holes in your ears hurt; pulling in and out my earrings, do you know that caffeine is a drug?”...as I sipped my morning coffee.

These were the cutest boys I had ever seen until I met Misael. Misael was a 6 month old infant who lived in the babies home. His case was referred to NPH by the Secretary of Health. His father was paralyzed from the waste down and has since died. To add to the difficulty, his mother is mentally ill and could not properly care for him and his 3 siblings. They had no electricity, no water, no bathroom and hardly any food.

I was able to see his home, meet his father and document bringing his half-brother, Carlos, to the NPH home.

Almost 4 years later, during the February International Meeting in El Salvador, I got to see Misael again. A shy at first, little 5 year old. He agreed to sit with me during mass where he looked at me inquisitively. The children, like in Honduras, grow up so fast. In a blink of an eye this little infant is now in kindergarten and his older brother Carlos is in the percussion group playing the bongos. When I spoke to Carlos and told him that I remembered his home and his family he told me that his goal is to continue to study to help support his brothers. His eyes shone with such pride as he played with the music group and I thought what a life changing opportunity for this family. There are countless stories like this within our homes but it makes such an impression when you see the results over the years that NPH achieves. It also validates the work that everyone contributes to, everyone that participates in this NPH family is helping a family like Carlos and Misael.

Good news for the new year!

Since the last entry many new things have happened. After meeting with the Honduran children’s social welfare agency director, and calls from the Honduras Embassy in Washington D.C., (thanks to Senator John McCain’s office), the judge in Roatan finally issued the sentence for Margarita’s abandonment decree.

The social welfare agency had their committee meeting on Dec 12th and officially “assigned” Margarita to me. This is a HUGE step and basically the last part of that process. Now my lawyer takes that paperwork and hands it into the judge of minors so they can issue the adoption decree. I was told this will take 3 months so I estimate 5 months.

Also simultaneously, U.S. immigration will do their investigation to confirm that Margarita is an orphan. I have been translating the documents to hand in and found a social worker in Phoenix to review my Honduran home study which is one of the requisites for immigration. I am aiming to have someone fill my position for our July orientation and hopefully be back in Phoenix by early fall.

Skz has been down twice in the last few months and is coming down again on January 17th with his sister. We will be on the Ranch for 5 days and then travel for a week first going to the lake called Lago Yojoa, then to the north Caribbean coast to a town called Tela. In Tela they have a few national parks with hiking and canoeing. Then off to La Ceiba, another north coast town that has a cloud forest called Pico Bonito. We will hike there, go to hot springs and hopefully visit Cayos Cachinos, a small island chain off the coast with little inhabitants.

I have been to most of the above places but not have done the exploring so I am excited about it too.

Margarita is doing well and I am trying to speak more English with her daily. She understands a lot, especially commands and sometimes she throws a few English words in with her Spanish.

She told me the other day that when she grows up and has lots of money that she wants to buy a child here on the Ranch in the babies house. I told her that the children arrive with their brothers and sisters so they aren’t for sale, not do we buy children but she can donate money for the children. She looked at me and nodded, like that’s what she wanted to do.

Wishing you all a Happy New Year from Honduras.
Write when you can. hc.hn@nph.org
with love,
Monica

Saludos de Honduras

Hi all.
I know it’s been a long time. I do have one bit of positive news regarding the adoption paperwork. The social welfare office publicized Margarita’s photo and announcement stating that if anyone knows any info or the whereabouts of her biological parents to notify the authorities. Since her mother died and father is unknown, we don’t expect anyone to come forward. This is needed for the abandonment decree.

We’ve waited 5 months for that step. The bad news is that the family court in Tegucigalpa sent Margarita’s file to the court in Roatan, the island, because that is the jurisdiction since she was born there. The annoying portion of all of this is that the court sent her file to Roatan in April and nobody knew, neither my lawyer nor the person in the social welfare office who is handling the case. I continue to pray for patience…lots of it!

Margarita is doing good…well, she will have 2 great weeks of behavior and improvement and then have a set back of a day or two. Like this week, she misbehaved in school and at home so I made her walk around the Ranch and collect trash. Problem was that she enjoyed it. She was skipping around the grounds picking up wrappers and paper or the occasional soda bottle. I thought I had to get tougher with her punishment so I then had her sweep patios and walkways and wash a brick wall with a sponge. She didn’t enjoy that as much and seems like she learned her lesson.

Margarita loves the Montessori program that she attends plus she has a ½ hr of English everyday with a teacher from the U.S. Also she still has speech therapy once a week and ergotherapy for her coordination and balance. Once a week she also has religion class that I observed one day because I was curious and also wanted to know what they are teaching her. It was very simple, songs, the Lord’s Prayer and vocabulary of the items used during a mass that are placed on the altar.

What keeps me busy is work, motherhood, legal paperwork and meetings and the children here at the Ranch. Every week we have a different group of “chicas” come over for a few hours. We make popcorn, cake and dinner. Well, I made them Kraft Macaroni and Cheese and the chicas hardly took a bite. They looked at it like it was grubs! I thought to myself what kids don’t like mac and cheese? One of the chicas then asked me “ah Tia…what’s in the kitchen for dinner?” So I went down to the kitchen to get other food for them, laughing to myself. Well of course they want this dinner. It was cinnamon cookies, banana and strawberry cream of wheat.

I am fortunate that my work is very flexible. I usually start at 8:15am and end at 4:00pm. I have a babysitter pick Margarita up at school and then they walk up to our house. I do most of my work on-line, communicating with our international fundraising offices, mainly supplying them with on information on projects that need funding and info on our children and activities on the Ranch. For example, our chicken houses are 14 years old and are falling down. I get the plans and estimates from the engineer, take some photos and then upload that info to our intranet so the fundraisers can use it to look for donors. We haven’t had chicken in months because it’s too dangerous for our farm workers to be going in and out of the buildings and climbing the dilapidated ladders for the feeding system.

Also whenever anyone needs photos of anything, they call me, or design work. Another example is that the director of family service needed a brochure explaining our policies and procedures of new children, so I staged a bunch of scenario photos and designed a brochure that hopefully all the homes can use. (We have 8 other homes in Central America, South America and the Caribbean).

Every year I take a photo of each child, youth, for their godparents to receive during the holiday season. This year this process was extra special because the photos will be used by a non-profit in the U.S., called The Memory Project. Each one of our children will receive a portrait of themselves, painted by a high school student artist in the U.S. It takes about 9 months for the students to make the portraits so it won’t be till next year until the kids receive them.

Skz arrives on the 26th for 2 weeks! He’s agreed to walk Margarita down to school everyday and then go pick her up and watch her in the afternoons while I work. In total it will be about 3 miles of walking for him.

We also will go to the island for a few days so I can try and meet with the Judge and investigate what stage Margarita’s paperwork is at.

Please know that I think about all of you and I would love to here from you when you have time, even if it's just hello.

Hugs,
Monica

More of the same...

As of March 29th we are still waiting for the social welfare office to publicize the abandonment decree in the local newspaper. Now the tricky thing is that the presiding judge over the case wants to send the file to La Ceiba, a town on the north coast of Honduras because Margarita is from Roatan, but there is no Family Court in Roatan, just a general court. The judge named Ruben, was a colleague of my lawyer Oscar. I have asked Oscar to BEG him not to send our case there. After the announcement is placed in the newspaper then the social welfare lawyer takes it to the judge to have him issue the sentence, after the sentence is issued then the decree is issued.

Here’s another problem. The social welfare office has not paid their outstanding bill at the newspaper therefore they cannot place any more announcements! Yes, I will be going to the newspaper to offer a “donation” for the social welfare office outstanding bill, well actually Chris will go because I shouldn’t been seen involving myself in the matter. Chris also went to the social welfare office for me to ask when they were going to publicize it and the woman very nicely said, “Oh yes, the little black girl. Her file is right here. As soon as we get our bill paid we can place the announcement.”

I tried really hard to hold back my tears when Oscar asked me what I thought of all this and I said the “system” does not look out for the welfare of the Honduran children. This judge wants to send a perfectly complete open and shut case of abandonment to another city just because Margarita wasn’t born in either of them. She has been and currently lives in the jurisdiction of Tegucigalpa!

On April 20th, Margarita’s birth mother died in the public hospital in Roatan of HIV related causes, including tuberculosis. She was 41 years old. I went to the island a few days later to get the death certificate. It was not easy! I had to wait at the hospital to get the attending doctor who pronounced her dead to fill out a death sentence form and then take that to the registry. Hours waiting at both of these places. The hospital was filled with crying babies and people waiting on wooden benches. Dogs walking in and out with no one concerned about it. Luckily Nora’s daughter Teshanna helped me find Margarita’s oldest brother Kenny to be witness at the registry. It’s a miracle that it all worked out.

Margarita has two other brothers whom I got to visit with. One is doing well, he is 8 and lives with a woman and attends a good bilingual school. The other one who is 11, has failed first grade 3 times so they didn’t send him back. He runs in the streets all day. Supposedly his father and or step mother are caring for him after Nora died, but he looks bad.It was sad to see this and know there is nothing I can do to help him. He’s lost.

Skz came to visit in April for 8 days. We had a great time and went to Copan Ruins, a town by the Guatemala border with Mayan Ruins. We stayed at a bed and breakfast and also went to a bird sanctuary and a coffee plantation/farm, where we went horseback riding and went to the hot springs. Margarita and Skz continue to develop their relationship and it’s wonderful to see them together. Margarita asks about people in the states all the time and what everyone’s name is. Also if they like certain food like, “does Polly (my mom) like pancakes?” or “do they have ice cream cones in the states?” She also says a lot of funny things like after mass she said, “the whole world loves Jesus, right?”

So the good news is that I will be in Phoenix July 5th through the 12th! Margarita will stay in town with Chris and her son, so I know she is in good hands.
I hope to see all of you then.

Take care and send me an email when you get a chance,
Love,
Monica

Abandoned?

Margarita said to me, very matter of factly, “Mom…I don’t have a Daddy.” I said, “Well you have Mono (Skz), and he can be your dad if that’s okay with you?”
“Okay,” she replied. Since then she’s been commenting every so often that Mono is her dad and that she is going to the states to live in Mono’s house when her papers are ready.

So yesterday, when Margarita was questioned by the Family Court social worker, “Who is your Dad,” she replied “Mono”, that her dad was a Monkey! Unfortunately I was not in the room which made me quite upset, but yet again I don’t have much control in this whole abandonment adoption process.

The reason why we went to the Family Court in the first place was because I was told the day before by the Social Welfare office that is handling the legal aspect of Margarita’s abandonment issues that the Family Court Social Worker and Judge did not believe that they should issue an abandonment decree for Margarita since she has biological family. This infuriated me and my lawyer, who luckily was with me! I am sure that every child that has been abandoned has biological family SOMEWHERE! Margarita’s mother left her in the hospital! I have an affidavit from The Secretary of Health stating that her mother Maggie rejected her and left her in the hospital after she gave birth. Maggie has given away her other 3 children!

The social welfare office sent an investigator to Roatan (the island where Margarita was born) to investigate Maggie and Nora (the neighbor that cared for her the first few months of her life) and wrote a report and this was handled in with my paperwork. The court did not believe their own government appointed social welfare office investigator! Does this sound as crazy as it is?

The advice of the social welfare office was to get in front of the Family Court social worker so that she could meet me and Margarita and hear first hand from me that NO ONE in her biological family ever cared for her, sent money for her care nor ever called. Thank God Chris came with me as a witness because she testified as well that while Margarita lived at her project for 1.5 years that no one ever came to see her or called even when she was thought to be HIV positive.

The disturbing thing was is that the Family Court social worker came up to me, did not even introduce herself and said can I talk to Margarita. I then held out my hand and told her I was her mom, Monica, and then she took her away!

Oscar, my lawyer was with me and while we were waiting he ran into an acquaintance who is a judge at the Family Court. He then told Oscar that he would be handling Margarita’s case and not to worry about anything. He told Oscar that as a Judge he does not have to take into consideration the social worker’s opinion. A secretary then briefly interviewed me and I signed a written statement saying when I met Margarita, when she came to live with me and where we are living now.

The bad news is that the same morning I phoned Nora to try to confirm what she told the social welfare office investigator in case I needed to reinforce what she said and I spoke to Nora’s daughter who told me that Nora had died. Nora cared for one of Margarita’s brother’s, Alberto, who is about 11, but they aren’t sure because he doesn’t have a birth certificate.

Now I have to call Nora’s daughter and get a death certificate, because Nora registered herself as Margarita’s mother. So legally, Margarita’s mother has died and there is no Father listed on the birth certificate.

My friend and co-worker Shannon (video journalist) suggested we go to Roatan and film a mini documentary about the people involved in this case; to support the urgency that they act to finally give justice to this little girl and let her have an identity and a home. If they don’t then we have a story and footage to give to the press.

If you believe in prayer (or sending good energy) please direct it our way over these next weeks as we see what develops with the abandonment issue. Forgot to mention that I cannot apply for adoption unless I have the abandonment decree.


Hugs,

Monica

Day with the Chicas

This is from Sunday January 29th

Thursday was the end of vacation courses so when Margarita woke up Friday morning the first thing she asked was if she could play with the chicas. I explained that the chicas had their chores to do and that she couldn’t just run off and play on the jungle gyms, that she had to participate as well. An hour later, I walked past her and about 10 chicas raking the grass and brush that was cut by the older girls with machetes. She was also stuffing the clippings into a large flour sac which they then drug 200 yards to the incinerator.

After we had lunch she asked to go back again. It works out for me too because I can work without being interrupted and I had just gotten word that we had to take on a new project that we thought the international office was completing. I walked out of my office at 530 pm to go pick her up on the way to the kitchen and 5 chicas came running up to me telling me that Margarita had a headache and a fever. When I walked into their “hogar” home, Margarita was sobbing and I picked her up asking her where it hurt. She said my head, my head hurts. Pelin, the coordinator of the girls’ home then told me that they walked down to the front gate and back, probably 2 miles, plus she had worked in the morning and had done a bit of walking with me even before she went to meet the chicas.

I brought Margarita back to the room and checked her temperature which was 101 and gave her some Tylenol and a banana. Shannon brought over the dinner from the kitchen, whole red beans, avocado, white soft cheese and a whole wheat roll. Margarita had about 3 bites and then fell asleep with her head on the table.

Then arrived 5 chicas to see if Margarita was “okay”. It was so cute of them checking up on her. Margarita’s fever continued the next day and she was miserable. She wouldn’t eat, except jello, and her fever got worse. By 9pm it was 103.7. I called Chris, my nurse friend that lives in the city to get her opinion. She was concerned that in children, high fevers can result in seizures and told me to put her in the cold shower and get some ibuprofen from the clinic to give her along with the Tylenol.

Margarita was not happy about being placed in the shower and starting screaming and sobbing as I tried to cool her off with a washcloth and cold water. I told her that Chris, the nurse, whom she knows very well, said I had to do it to help keep her fever down. She still screamed bloody murder. After I cooled her off and dressed her I ran up to the clinic to get someone to give me so ibuprofen. Merlin was working in the clinic. He grew up at NPH with his brothers and was one of the first children to arrive here at the Ranch, 20 years ago. He is a medical student now and has 2 years left to get his degree.

He came with me to examine Margarita and said her lungs and heart were fine and recommended that I give her the ibuprofen and some antihistamine for her runny nose and check with the doctor in the am if she still has a fever.

She woke up without a fever and slept through the entire night. She still has a cold and doesn’t feel 100% so I took her to our volunteer doctor from the U.S., just in case. Liz, from Maine, thought that it is just a virus and should pass. I hope so too because she will not stop asking about the chicas!

Photos

Hello. Here are some photos. Email me!

Ants in my pants...

Literally. Yesterday I dropped our plastic Snapware lunch container, full of food, right outside the door to my office. By the time I bend down to pick up the surviving food still in the container, the spilled food was already being accosted by tiny ants, which some of them got lost and made their way inside of my jeans.
They pack a mean bite and create a red sore like a mosquito bite and soooooooooooo itchy! I ran to the office bathroom twice, taking of my jeans and shaking them out. The little suckers made about 20 bites on my legs and all the way up to my torso!

Other than that I’m doing fine. Margarita is loving the Ranch and always wants to go play with the “chicas”. The chicas are age 7 to around 16. They live in two large dorm style houses with 3 tier bunk beds and showers and bathrooms in each dorm. When they aren’t in school they have chores, play soccer, cards, whatever they can get their hands on. Margarita is probably the most popular chica here. Everyone adores her and she can play with the chicas for hours while I catch up on work.

Tonight we had mass at 4pm and then ate calzones with the chicas. Mass is actually much better since I left. We have a Priest who is Mexican but grew up in Germany and speaks fluent English too. The chapel is new and amphitheater style so the sides are open. Margarita gets a little ansy during the service but she seems to like the live music, choir and guitars.

It's fabulous having internet connection and I was even able to listen to Sirius Satellite radio on-line the other day while I worked.

Hope everyone is doing well. Hope to hear from you.

Scratching away…Monica

The Ranch

Hello! We are alive and well. Just getting into a routine. We are moved into our room which is about 300 sq ft. It has its own bathroom and shower but no hot water. The Padre (priest) has been kind enough to let me use his washing machine which is a life saver. Previous to that, Margarita and I washed underwear and socks one day and it took about an hour.

I now have a laptop and Shannon (ex-volunteer and current volunteer) and I share a decent size office. We have temporary furniture in the office but will be going out next week to buy desks because the wood tables that are in there now are infested with termites. The Ranch (were we live) now has satellite internet and cells phones do work so I feel much more connected than my time here before.

Margarita is handling the changes so well. I am very impressed with her ability to adapt. She is enrolled in vacation courses at the Ranch school which are from 8 am to 1 pm. She has painting, theater and ballet. At 1pm one of my girls brings her up to my office and then we have lunch (food from the kitchen) which has been pretty decent and I haven’t gotten sick yet. Oh expect for the chicken feet soup….uggghhh, gross!

I went to court last week so that I could become the guardian of Chris’s son Gregory in order for her to complete her adoption. It was no big deal, we just had to show our residency cards. Oscar, my lawyer who is also Chris’s lawyer told me that Margarita’s abandonment decree paperwork was turned into the family court on Dec 12, 2005, so we just have to wait until we have that in our hands to file the adoption paperwork. I hope within the next 3 months.

The Ranch is having the international annual meeting in Feb so we will have about 500 visitors from other NPH homes, offices, godparents, etc. So, lots to do. I helped Shannon finish the annual report and now I’m designing business cards for the directors.

You can still email me at monica.gery@revolutionagency.com
Or at
hchn@nph.org
Love and miss you all!

Leaving for Honduras

Thought I would create this so its easy for friends and family to know what's going on with my life and Margarita. Hope everyone has a wonderful holiday. More once I (and Skz) arrive.