It's been some time since the Guatemala Blog has been updated and since our last post, adoptions from Guatemala have gone through a number of dramatic and sometimes heartbreaking changes. At this time last year, there were rumors of an adoption halt while the U.S. Ratified the Hague and Guatemala became "Hague Compliant" but everyone kept a tight grip on hope as rules, laws and guidelines changed countless times at the end of last year. As December approached, Guatemala announced that they would no longer accept new cases and instead focus their efforts on revamping the adoption system in Guatemala and processing the current 'in process' cases that were spread throughout the different stops along the Guatemalan Adoption process. As of December 31, 2007, Guatemala became subject to the terms of The Hague Treaty on Inter-Country Adoptions and because they were not considered 'compliant' adoptions to countries that had adopted "The Hague" were no longer allowed.

As of today, there are still hundreds of cases pending before the Procuradoría General de la Nación (PGN) and families from the U.S. as well as European countries wait anxiously to bring home the children they have loved from a distance since the journey started.

Most of the in-process cases currently working their way through the Guatemalan Adoption process were required to participate in a new step that has been implemented in order to get Guatemala one step closer to become Hague Compliant. The Central Authority (CNA) now requires each child to be registered with the CNA in order to take the next step towards adoption.

All in all, the adoption process in Guatemala has all but completely stopped. Those cases currently in process can continue towards completion, but new cases are not currently being accepted. There have been countless rumors surrounding the status of inter-country adoptions from Guatemala, but the fact remains, as Guatemala works towards becoming Hague Compliant, the process as we knew it will be a distant memory.

If you have information or updates, please post them below. I will continue to monitor the situation in Guatemala and update as needed.