According to Guatemalan newspapers, members of the Guatemalan Congress have come up with some new legislation for the adoption process in Guatemala. This legislation could be voted on as early as next week.

Apparently this legislation calls for pushing back the implementation of the Hague Convention to April to coincide with the estimated time that the US will implement the Hague. In addition, one Guatemalan newspaper claimed that the legislation called for an April date for the implementation... more

The new Vice President of Guatemala, Dr. Rafael Espada is considered to be one of the top ten Cardiothoracic Surgeons in the world. Born and raised in Guatemala, he received his doctorate degree at San Carlos University in Guatemala and went on to do his internship at Baylor College of Medicine, as well as training in some of the world’s best medical institutions.

Until recently, Espada practiced medicine in Houston, Texas, and taught Cardiothoracic Surgery at Baylor. But all the time he was living in the... more

Businessman, ordained Mayan minister and former vice economy secretary, Alvaro Colom, of the center-left National Unity of Hope Party, will hold the title and bear the responsibilities of the president of Guatemala for the next four years. He received over 53% of the vote in a run-off election with Gen. Otto Perez Molina in yesterday’s election.

Nicknamed the “anti-poverty” candidate, Colom has made promises to overhaul the judicial... more

Yes indeed - November is “National Adoption Awareness Month.” Last year we were half way through the month of November before I realized that there was a month devoted to adoption. Busy with my little Ella, I was watching almost no TV, and our local newspaper must have forgotten to mention it or it was hidden on an inside page and I missed it.

Now my awareness of adoption is pretty much daily with this blogging position. Sometimes I feel as if I’m in another world when I spend time with friends who are not involved in adoption. I follow their conversations until... more

Back in June I wrote a blog about language delays in children adopted from Guatemala. Ella was nineteen months at the time and definitely speech delayed. I’ve yet to find any new information about the subject, but have had an interesting development in Ella’s case regarding the connection between sign language and speech.

One of the most enjoyable learning processes we’ve had with Ella is watching her acquire sign language. She loved it from... more

Last Sunday we celebrated Ella’s birthday with family and friends. It was a wonderful party. Ella knew everyone and genuinely enjoyed being the center of attention. She didn't shed one tear or have one whiny moment.

Birthday parties with a house full of toddlers and their parents just aren’t for me. With the exception of my first born, we didn’t invite other children until their fourth or fifth birthdays, when the boys really wanted other children to participate.

Since birthdays only come once a year (unless you are a leap year child of course…)... more

In my previous post, I asked my readers for help locating a recent article I had read on the whereabouts of some of the children removed from Casa Quivira; many thanks to my friend Julie for sending me the link.

This information, posted on guatadopt on October 25th, 2007 informs us that two children from Casa Quivira are residing at Amor del Nino, an orphanage close to San Cristobal. The couple running Amor del Nino is Steve and Shyrel Osborne. Shyrel was interviewed for the ... more

If you read my last blog early this morning, you might want to reread it as it has been fine tuned and edited. My friend and fellow blogger Sandra and another friend and fellow adoptive parent Julie, were kind enough to point out a few, shall we say, type errors and inaccuracies. This is the result of blogging late at night (actually it was early morning), my spell check wouldn't work, and I couldn't get it to work probably because I wasn't as clear headed as I am during daylight hours.... more

Dear Elizabeth,

I’ve just finished reading and rereading your article,"Did I Steal My Daughter?” I highlighted several of your statements and readied myself to begin a systematic and hopefully forceful rebuttal to your article. But then I think “I got it.”

This is not really an article about international adoption or concern about the legitimacy of your daughter’s adoption from Guatemala; this is an article about fear and insecurity - your personal fears and insecurities.

Being Jewish, I can’t help but make the analogy between you and self-hating Jews. Self-hating... more

For two days I did not have the time to blog or even read the news due to being away at a family wedding in Las Vegas. This morning after seven good hours of sleep (we arrived home at 2:30 AM) I quickly turned on my laptop before "Sleeping Beauty," aka Ella Paola, awoke from slumber land. I was eager to see any good news about Guatemalan adoptions, including the eagerly awaited announcement from Guatemalan President, Oscar Berger in which he would formally declare his support for the amendment to the Ortega Bill that would have all "in process adoptions" (abandonments and relinquishments) officially and legally grandfathered in before the Hague Treaty on International Adoptions takes effect.

It... more