Warning!!

Yesterday the Department of State issued a very disturbing warning regarding adoptions from Guatemala! They state that any adoption cases, which are still pending as of January 1, 2008, will NOT be grandfathered in and will NOT be completed!! You can read the DOS warning here.

Guatemala has said that they plan on being a Hague country by January 1, 2008. The US will not be a Hague country until sometime in the spring of 2008. Guatemala will not conduct adoptions with non-Hague countries therefore adoptions will cease on January 1, 2008. Once the US becomes a Hague country, supossedly in the spring, the DOS feels that Guatemala may not meet the Hague compliance guidelines and therefore the US would now not conduct adoptions with Guatemala. So as you can see things are very uncertain. Our agency closed the Guatemalan program to new applicants in April of this year based on several reports from the DOS, but there are many agencies who continued to take applications, and the US continued and continues to issue approvals of petitions to adopt from Guatemala. Many of these adoptions will not be complete before Dec 31st and if this situation comes to fruition they will not complete for a long time if ever.

Now, I typically do not post anything on my blog about the political side of adoptions between the US and Guatemala, partly because the information is never very clear or straight forward and partly because I chose to turn a blind eye to the information and live in my dream world that nothing bad will happen and we will get through this process and bring Olivia home.

There have been many many uncertainties with adoptions from Guatemala since we began our process on October of '06. We knew the risks when we started the process and the stakes were very high. We new that we could possibly never complete our adoption depending on which way things went with the Hague Treaty implementation. We knew that at anytime Guatemala or the US could decide that they were going halt intercountry adoptions. We did not tread lightly when we decided to adopt from Guatemala. We had hope and faith that everything would work out and we would have our baby girl home with us forever. We have continuously tried to stay one step ahead of the tornado bearing down on us, I have always felt, that at any moment, we are going to trip and fall and get swept up into the tornado, and all we can do is pray that when the tornado is over we will come out unscathed and closer to completing our adoption rather than further away.

While I still believe we will bring Olivia home, I am feeling more and more certain that we will not be able to stay one step ahead of the tornado for much longer. Our case as well as all the others must progress quickly or we are sure to fall. I no longer feel comfortable watching over my shoulder and waiting to see what happens, it is time to take action before it is too late. I ask for everyone who reads this blog to pray for all of the families who are in the process of adopting their children from Guatemala, that they may be able to complete their adopton and bring their children home. Pray for all the children of Guatemala who need a family, that adoptions will continue without delay or interruption. Without adoption these children will not fare well long term. The Guatemalan government does not have a plan to fund the care of these abandonded children so they will end up on the streets and in situations that I cannot bear to think about. What would happen to Olivia and all of the children who are in private foster care and orphanages, which the adoptive families are funding, if adoptions were to cease? It makes me ill to think about it. We will not let this happen, please join me in using your voice and expressing your concern about this situation to our government by writing or calling the following departments.

DOS phone numbers -- (202) 736-9090 or (202) 647-4000
DOS email -- AskCI@state.gov
The US Embassy in Guatemala email -- AMCitsGuatemala@state.gov
The US Embassy in Guatemala fax --(502) 2326-4654
DHS email -- Guatemala.Adoptions@dhs.gov
White House phone number -- (202) 456-1111
White House Fax -- (202) 456-2461
White house fax for mail from kids -- (202) 456-7705 (Have your kids write, too!)
White House emails --comments@whitehouse.gov, resident@whitehouse.gov">president@whitehouse.gov, vice_president@whitehouse.gov.

I hope to post a sample letter tomorrow for you to use.

Thank you all for your continued support and prayers for my family and all of the other families in the process bringing their children home.

Love,
Bill, Sharon & Olivia