As Susana Luarca reported in her last update on ADA, the registration forms for in-process adoptions have changed; here is a copy to view.

This must be driving the attorneys crazy and that may actually be the motivation behind the changes. Adopting parents who were told that they were registered will now be waiting to hear if the have been “re-registered.” When will this chaos end?

The DOS (Department of State) released this statement... more

Susana Luarca’s latest blog has caused panic in the Guatemalan adoption community. According to her, the new registration process with the Central Authority is just not taking place.

In my last blog, I reported that registration was underway, and a friend reported to me that her agency confirmed that her daughter’s case had been registered with the new Central Authority.

However, according to Susana, who is usually pretty accurate, the registration forms are being changed weekly, the Central Authority adding more required information all the time. The latest requirement for the forms is a photo of the... more

I’m constantly searching for more information on the registration process for in-process adoptions. This is what I have found to date.

The lawyer handling your adoption must complete the paperwork (a copy of which you can see here) and then submit it to the new Central Authority. In addition to details about the adoption case, these forms require the finger and footprints of the child to be adopted. Apparently a lot of the information on these forms relates to the Power of Attorney (POA) document. Perhaps this is an indication that the POA will be the requirement to be grandfathered in under the... more

One week away from my computer and much has been going on in Guatemala. The new president, Alvaro Colom has already replaced three members of the new Central Authority. Rumors are rampant on the reasons for these changes; such as the members replaced might not have been objective enough.

I don’t doubt that there are also politics involved; after all, most newly elected officials want “their” people in important positions of power. What concerns me is that we still don’t have a stable committee doing what they were appointed to do. Hopefully they will now be able to get down to the serious task of registering the in-process adoptions so they can be completed. There is no need to keep... more

Dateline NBC has set up a website in preparation for their show on Guatemalan adoptions airing Sunday, January 20th, at 7 pm (ET). On this webpage you can enter a photo or video and share your family’s adoption story with the possibility of it being shown on Dateline. Personally I will not be sending anything in as I’m more than wary of the context it could be put in.

An article by NBC correspondent Victoria Corderi "graces" the front page of the webpage. One sentence in the first paragraph immediately angered me. “The market is driven by the demand for adoptions from prospective parents... more

Last night the members of the new Central Authority for adoption were sworn in. This council, technically known as the “National Council for Adoptions"(CAN) is composed of: Anabella Morfin from the Foreign Ministry, Nery Soto Ovalle from the Supreme Court, and Mynor Rabanales of the Social Welfare Department. Lawyers will no longer have any part in the adoption process.

Apparently there are already 2000 cases waiting for the council’s action and some 800 in PGN. I’m not sure just how accurate this number is, but this is what was reported.

I would consider this a positive step in the direction of getting a new adoption committee up and running, and hopefully enable a registration... more

The Joint Council announced that PGN is no longer processing adoption cases unless they have been approved. Cases must be registered with the new Central Authority (which is not functioning yet) in order for the cases to be completed.

Registration of in process cases must be completed by January 31st, but there is no place to register yet. Most lawyers submitted cases to PGN even if they did not have pre-approval from the embassy, anticipating a kick out, but at least having the cases registered in... more

Sitting here today I can’t help but think of the future of Guatemalan adoptions. What will be happening one year from now?

At this point, most of us involved in Guatemalan adoptions are tremendously relieved that adoptions in process will be grandfathered. Fear that they wouldn’t kept many people awake at night, but Guatemala obviously came under pressure from the US and is going to do the right thing and let those adoptions being completed.

However I cannot help but feel helpless and a bit hopeless about the future. A new Central Authority will be in charge of adoptions. This new Central Authority, comprised of one representative from the Supreme Court, one from Social Welfare,... more

I had hoped to have all the information about the changes in the Guatemalan adoption laws by now, but the Guatemalan government has not been forthcoming. I do have some partial information; please remember that this information is not official.

The adoption agency I used has provided the following information on the status of adoptions in Guatemala.

1. All pending adoptions that have a power of attorney dated before December 31, 2007 and are registered with the new Guatemalan Central Authority within 30 days after the new law goes into effect, will... more

This day will no doubt go down in Guatemalan history as the day the Adoption Law was passed, and the Guatemalan adoption process changed forever. The law is scheduled to be implemented on December 31st, 2007

The new Central Authority will be called the Consejo Nacional de Adopciones (CNA), and its directors will include one representative from the Supreme Court, The Social Welfare, and The Foreign Affairs Ministry. They have two weeks to choose a representative and sixty days to write regulations.

Adoptions in process have to be registered within thirty days of the law going into effect; how exactly this will be done is still a huge unknown. At what stage the adoption is grandfathered... more