Spanish Inheritance/probate Cultural Gap

My grandfather passed away in Spain and because my father is already deceased, I am to inherit his portion of the estate. At first I attempted to reach out to the consulate but they don't answer the phone and if you do go in person you will be scheduled to never see somebody.

So I hired a lawyer in Spain who I planned to give power of attorney too so that he could assist me in this process. The lawyer sends me an 'example' of a power of attorney written in Spanish and tells me to have my financial power written up and have it notarized and sent to him. So I take his example PoA and I fill in my name and information and such and have it notarized here in Houston and I send it to the lawyer.

The lawyer received it and says he is sending it to the notary to be approved (evidently in Spain a notary is not like a notary here in the USA, it's a very selective prestigious position there). He writes me back and says 'As I thought the notary did not approve it.' and basically said that I need to have a notary here write up my financial power of attorney. I don't think he realizes that a notary here has no legal training and can't author any documents.

But also like..wouldn't he, as the lawyer, be the one writing up my power of attorney? Like what am I even paying him to do then? I feel like there has to be some kind of cultural/legal barrier happening here because the email he sent me really just didn't make very much sense to me. I couldn't imagine what else a financial power of attorney could possibly say other than what I provided.

Can anybody help enlighten me here? Or is anybody a probate lawyer in the US from Spain ? Every part of this process has been so confusing, I thought hiring a lawyer would help me clarify things but that doesn't seem to be the case.