Back on April 5th, I made a commitment to speak out against gross inaccuracies or blatant lies about Guatemalan adoptions. Sometimes these come from places where you expect honesty and integrity, like the UN.

Well, this recent announcement from the UN "urging Guatemala to suspend adoptions," convinced me even further that this organization... more

Adoptionblogs.com has a blog devoted solely to older parent adoption, and Sandra does an outstanding job of discussing the issues involved in older parent adoption.

Guatemala is one of those countries that allows older people to adopt, and I commend them for that. However, most agencies set their own age limits. Our agency allows adoptions up to the age of 55 from Guatemala; however some have... more

Last Friday there was an offshore earthquake on the Pacific Coast of Guatemala with a magnitude of 5.8. This was followed by another one yesterday registered at 6.8 on the Richter magnitude scale. There was some damage to homes on the Pacific Coast, but to date no casualties have been reported. Guatemala has a long history of earthquakes. Back in 1773 the city of La Antigua was almost completely destroyed by a huge earthquake. It was rebuilt and... more

In my previous blog, I wrote about language delays in Guatemalan born children. I did not do a scientific study and want to stress that it is just my impression that a lot of our children have language delays; not all of course.

Diagnosing language delays is not a particularly difficult process. As a parent you are bound to notice that your child is not making baby sounds as an infant, or beginning to produce words as a young... more

It seems to me that an unusually high percentage of adopted children from Guatemala have language delays. I haven’t done a scientific study, but from talking with other parents and following posts on various websites, it seems that there is a pattern here.

A language delay is language development that is significantly below the norm for a child of a specified age. I pulled out my textbooks from my years as a student of linguistics and... more

With summer here and most of our children exposed to many hours of sunlight, I thought it timely to remind everyone that, yes; our children’s skin must be protected from the sun even if their skin is darker. While many of us erroneously assume that the people with fair skin, freckles and moles are the ones who get the skin cancer, this is far from the truth. I came across an excellent article in BBC news that reported this:

“Contrary to common perception, people... more

PHOTO: Ella (leaning over to pat her cousin's head) and her family in Israel.

With most of our Guatemalan born children being raised by foster parents, they are introduced to the advantages of having an extended family early on. Guatemalan homes often have more than one family living under one roof, and if not, they congregate with family frequently to eat, talk, and enjoy the children. Babies are lovingly doted upon and spend most of the time in someone’s arms.

There is some criticism of our children having little tummy time before... more

In my May 16th,’07 blog I reported that the Hague Treaty did not get passed in congress. Then I went on leave for two weeks to visit family and friends in Israel. Upon my return, I discovered that on May 22nd the Guatemalan Congress approved a law which would give the President the right to accede to The Hague Convention on Intercountry Adoptions. Consequently, Guatemala... more

Those of you who follow my blogs probably know that I spent the last couple weeks in Israel with my husband and Ella. My husband was born and raised in Israel, and I met him when I was visiting my sister. We spent the first seventeen years of our married life there. It was so wonderful to see family and friends again; I could easily have stayed several more months.

While we were there, we also celebrated the one year anniversary of Ella’s arrival into... more

In my post, Reasons to Adopt from Guatemala, I discussed several advantages to adopting from Guatemala. I also put together a separate post about how impressed I was with the mandatory DNA testing to ensure that the woman placing a baby for adoption is, in fact, the child’s mother. What I did not know is that some of the biggest challenges... more