A Child Chosen - Perspectives of an Adoptive Parent

Guatemala Adoptions Halted?

by Marcie on May 6th, 2008

I’m so disappointed this morning that I either want to crawl under my covers and hide or hop a plane and cradle him in my arms again. I know that neither can happen because real life has to go on but the bed sounds mighty good right now.

I do hope that this is simply media farce but I know that sometimes this can be all too real. Media tends to over examine events like this and make it into a mass hysteria event for ratings and page views. At this point our agency has not heard anything about a suspension and there are only two media reports so I don’t even know if this is real.  Please read this post with an objective mind and do some more research of your own before you “freak out”.We were told last week (via our representative in Guatemala who specifically went to PGN to confirm) that Guatemalan officials would not close or suspend adoptions because they wanted to proceed with adoptions plans. However, this morning, officials state that they want to suspend adoptions for at least a month to review paperwork of all pending adoptions. They are specifically looking for irregularities in paperwork.

I understand that Guatemala officials want to ensure that cases are official and that their children are protected but do they really have to shut the entire process down? Why can’t they simply double check each case as it passes through PGN? Then, after all cases have been processed through PGN they can halt all adoptions and facilitate an entirely new adoption process with safeguards for their birth mothers and children.

To me, that makes sense because no children get stuck in the system, waiting in foster care for their families.

Here is the Guatemalan paper, Prensa Libre.

On a Side Note

For all of you waiting to bring your children home please remember that this is absolutely NOT your agency’s fault and please don’t hound them to get something done, as they can’t really do anything. Please don’t make their job any harder than it is to bring you information and help you through the process. Allow them to gather information and do their jobs…vent on your own time, not to them.

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POSTED IN: Adoption, Agencies, Countries and Domestic, Guatemala, Law, My Family, News, The Bebe, birth-mother