Heavy heart, clear conscience

I am taking this blog private on Monday, October 1. Unfortunately, I have someone who posts angry or insulting comments, and I am tired of deleting them.

My only recourse is to take this blog private. This blog has not been part of my public profile for awhile now, but the person who posts obviously has the blog bookmarked.

If you would like to know how I'm doing, you can post a comment with your email address or email me directly. I'll send you an update when I start my new adoption blog.

Many thanks for reading and caring about what I'm doing!

Guatemala 5000

If you would like to make a difference for thousands of families, please visit the Joint Council on International Children's Services website to learn of what they are doing to help families adopting from Guatemala

http://www.jcics.org/Guatemala5000.htm

You can also write the Guatemalan ambassador to ask for cases that are in process to be finalized. His contact information is

US Ambassador James Derham
3190 Guatemala Place
Washington DC 20521-3190

Online petition to bring the children home

Click here to sign an online petition addressed to the President, Congress, and Department of State

As of today, there are 1304 signatures.

Clarifying my viewpoint on Hague process

I support the Hague principles and ideas. It is better to have standard processes in place when dealing with inter-country adoption. It is good to know that the children are truly available for adoption.

What I do not accept about the current situation is that our Department of State seems to be saying that current cases in process may not be finalized. Earlier our government has said that cases in process will be completed. Now they are saying they won't be.

That's why I'm asking you to contact our representatives. It is unfathomable to me that our government is using children as pawns in a political game of "if you do this, I'm doing that" within the international community.

No more anonymous comments

This morning I received a comment from someone who does not understand the current adoption climate or why I asked others to help.

Because I have had numerous situations like this, I'm now instituting a policy of no more anonymous comments on my blog. Feel free to make up a name and continue to comment. Just know that I will reject all anonymous comments from now on.

How You Can Help Others

My original agency stopped me from starting my paperwork to adopt from Guatemala or I would be in the same position as thousands of families who are waiting for their children's adoptions to be finalized.

If you have ever adopted, you know what it's like to wait for paperwork & bureaucracy.

Even if you haven't adopted, I'm sure there have been moments where you longed for something or someone. In the midst of all the obstacles, hurdles, negative opinions, you still longed for what your heart wanted most.

You can help all the families who are currently in process by contacting your congressional representatives - House & Senate. You can contact the Department of State and ask them what the #@%* they are doing to our citizens. You can find your representatives by clicking on this link and entering your zipcode in the upper right hand corner where it says Find Your Officials.

It's easy to send email or a printed letter right from this website. I just sent a short email to all my officials, and I will also follow-up with phone calls to my senators.

If you want a clear list of things to do, you can visit Cheri's blog. She lists the contact information for the Department of State and the White House.

Please take 10 minutes to tell your representatives that they have work to do to take care of our citizens. This situation shouldn't be about politics. It should be about caring for children who need homes and the people willing to give them homes.

Latest DOS statement and ADA response

State Department just released this statement:

WARNING: The U.S. Department of State urges American citizens not to commence an adoption process from Guatemala at this time. Fundamental changes in Guatemalan and U.S. adoption law will take effect over the next six months. These changes are likely to inject considerable uncertainty into the adoption process

Guatemala has stated that it will become a Hague Convention country on January 1, 2008. Guatemalan officials have informed us that Guatemala plans to require cases pending or filed after December 31, 2007 to meet Hague standards, even if the adoption procedures commenced before that date. They have also informed us they will not process adoptions for non-Hague member countries after December 31. We understand this to mean that Guatemala will stop processing adoptions to the United States beginning January 1, 2008, until U.S. accession to the Hague Convention takes effect. Given the average time frame for completing an adoption in Guatemala, cases started now cannot be completed before January 1, 2008.

When the Convention is in force for the United States, projected to occur in the spring of 2008, there may be a period of time during which we will not be able to approve adoptions from Guatemala, until Guatemala’s adoption process provides the protections for children and families required by the Hague Adoption Convention.

The Government of Guatemala has confirmed its commitment to the Hague Adoption Convention, and is already working to amend its adoption law to conform to Hague requirements. However, the current adoption process in Guatemala is not consistent with the Convention. Designing and instituting new procedures will take time. The U.S. Government is working closely with the Hague Permanent Bureau and other interested governments to support Guatemala’s transition to meeting its obligations under the Hague Convention.

American citizens pursuing adoptions in Guatemala are already encountering some delays in the process. As recently as August 2007, several dozen children who were to be adopted by U.S. citizens were taken into custody by Guatemalan authorities because of alleged irregularities in the adoption process and concerns about the care of the children. A court-ordered investigation is now underway.

Several adoption service providers are under investigation in the United States, and at least one U.S. adoption facilitator faces prosecution in the United States. Under these circumstances, prospective adoptive parents face the real possibility that current, pending cases may be disrupted by legal investigations.

The Department of State strongly recommends that prospective adoptive parents defer plans to begin an adoption in Guatemala until the legal and procedural issues described above have been resolved.

I am incredibly ANGRY that the Guatemalan government continues to use Casa Quivera as an example of a potentially illegal operation that was not caring for its children. The children at CQ were not hospitalized until 2 weeks after the government took over their care. It was the government who did not care for those children.

Again, I will say that any agency or hogar (including CQ) that is unethical should be shut down. However, the comments being heard in Guatemala is that CQ was targeted because they allowed homosexuals to adopt.

Okay, I've got to get over this somehow. This is a closed door. It's a closed door for months if not longer.

UPDATE: ADA is attempting adoption reform within Guatemala that maintains the good things from the current system (including singles being able to adopt) while correcting the bad things. Here's their response to yesterday's DOS warning: http://www.adaguatemala.org/English/news/