Since Guatemala ratified the Hague Convention there has been nothing new to report. Pre-approval from the American Embassy is taking around 60-70 days and PGN varies from case to case. Children are coming home and that is always good news. We’ll see what happens at the end of the year.

Standards and Poor gave Guatemala a thumbs up in the economic department, expecting the GDP to reach its highest rate in more than ten years. Apparently this is a sign of confidence in the economic policies continuing... more

Working with the Early Intervention program in our city has been a good experience for the most part. Yes, there is a lot of paperwork to sign and bureaucracy to deal with, but we have been pleased with the speech therapy Ella has gotten.

However, yesterday I had second thoughts about continuing with them. Once a year the state dictates that each child must be evaluated to see if they still qualify to be in their program. Stupid me thought they would evaluate her speech and be gone.

For two and a half hours two women sat in my house,... more

I noticed on the discussion group for Guatemalan adoptions on adoption forum that there were several posts on sleeping problems. As long as there will be children, there will be challenges with sleeping. Just step into any bookstore and note that there are more books on sleeping issues than any other single issue.

Most of our children do not sleep alone in Guatemala before we bring them home. Babies usually sleep with their foster mothers and older children... more

Quite a while back I read the post of a very honest adoptive mother. She was having a difficult time attaching to her young child, recently home from Guatemala; she said that she felt like a “glorified babysitter.” If you think this is an isolated situation, think again.

In her book “Attaching in Adoption” Deborah Gray defines attachment as “enduring relationships that are formed over time and experience, almost always by members of a family.”

Attachment takes time, and each person has their own individual “timeline.” Sometimes... more

While I was going through the adoption process, there were only a few people I told about our plans. It made it a private journey, but it also saved me from some hurtful, inappropriate remarks that were easier to handle once my little girl was home.

Recently I’ve had many people in the process tell me that “people who haven’t been through it just don’t understand.”

Although this could certainly apply to domestic or international adoption, somehow the adoptions from Guatemala add extra emotional stress to the prospective parents... more

Anyone embarking on a Guatemalan adoption is made aware that the birthmother can change her mind right up until the very end of the process. That means that even though the DNA has been done, Pre Approval granted by the U.S. Embassy, and the adoption file has gone through Family Court and PGN, the birth mother can decide not to go through with the adoption. The most likely time for a birthmother to change her mind is during the DNA test, when she holds her child in her arms for the first time since giving him/her up for adoption.... more

I’ve mentioned the organization Mayan Families in the past and all the wonderful things they do in Guatemala. Through them I was able to sponsor a young girl so that she could attend school. There are numerous ways you can contribute to this organization, and every dollar donated goes to worthwhile projects as it is run on a volunteer basis.

Checking over their website tonight I was once again totally amazed by all the families they reach and projects they initiate. Their aid ranges from helping individuals in need of food, medical care... more

I wrote this post yesterday, but due to technical difficulties was not able to post it. So here it is a day late.

It is the fourth of July, a hot and unbearably muggy day in my part of the world, but nonetheless an important historical day; a good day to sit back and reflect. The opening words of the Declaration of Independence, written well over two hundred years ago are a fine mantra to guide our lives.

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal,... more

In response to a question posted in comments on my yesterday’s blog, I’ve been searching high and low to find some statistics that will shed light on the percentage of children adopted from orphanages in Guatemala. I have not been lucky in my search.

However, I did find out that 18% of the children adopted were between the ages of 1-4 and 79% were... more

With so much noise coming from the anti-adoption movement in the country, it would be wrong of me to keep silent. I’ve decided to discuss Guatemala in particular.

Adoptions from Guatemala have been going on for over twenty-five years, coming into existence during the brutal Civil War (1960-1996) when so many children were orphaned. There was little hope for these destitute children and adoption was a viable option in a country that had nothing in place to accommodate these homeless children.

Anti-adoption activists would call this exploitation... more