I have two sons adopted from the children's home which was raided in Guatemala -- Casa Quivira. I am a lawyer myself and have done quite a lot of research on all matters relating to quality of life for poor children in Guatemala etc. It is a fact that a very high percentage of poor children (perhaps as high as 1 in 4) die in infancy or early childhood because their families cannot afford to buy filtered water. The unfiltered (tap) water is very dirty and often causes fatal intestinal infections. Beyond that, education for poor children is almost non-existent and doesn't usually go past the 2nd grade. Even worse, there are many, many children living in the streets in Guatemala, surviving by doing everything from selling candy to selling their bodies. There is no doubt in my mind that Casa Quivira conducts adoptions in an absolutely legal way. First, I have a picture of my baby with his mother on the day they went to the U.S. Embassy to have their DNA taken. There is absolutely no way to fake that. If the baby had been stolen and then taken to the embassy by another woman, then the DNA test would have revealed that instantly. My child's biological mother told the social worker that she is single, has 5 other children, works as a maid, lives in a hut with a dirt floor and doesn't have enough to feed herself and her other children. She said she was malnourished while pregnant with the baby who is now my son. This is clearly true when you look at his legs which are bent from lack of calcium. So tell me please, why it would be necessary for any adoption agency to "steal" children when there are mothers crying for someone to take their children to be adopted so they know they will be taken care of? Following is another reason why I know Casa Quivira operates by the rules: My middle son was adopted from there when he was 7 years old. He could have been adopted at age one when he was abandoned by his father after his mother died. But instead, he had to do without a family for 6 important years while the government searched for the father who abandoned him in order to get the father to sign a relinquishment paper. If Casa Quivira weren't operating by the rules, do you think they would have kept my son all that time? No way. The problem with Guatemala and adoptions is this: Guatemalans love children and it is deeply embarassing to them as a society that they cannot provide for all of their children. That's it; pure and simple. So the poorer, uneducated people invent wild tales that Americans are adopting children to harvest their organs and ridiculous stories like that. This puts pressure on the government to "do something." As for the UN. If there's anyone out there who still puts any credibility in the judgment or integrity of the UN, I suggest you do a little bit of research. The UN is one of the most corrupt organizations on earth. Kofi Annan's son and others skimmed millions of dollars which were sent by the American community to Iraq, intended for food and medicine for civilians. Bottom line: The poor in Guatemala are very poor and cannot care for all of the children who are born to them. Americans adopt these children and treat them like little princes and princesses. That's it and that's all. The cost of adoptions are not excessive. It includes the legal work on the American side of the border and the legal proceedings on the Guatemalan side. It also includes the cost of care for the children. In the case of my younger son, Casa Quivira cared for him for ten months. In the case of my older son, they cared for him for 6 years. You figure out how much all of that would cost.

I agree with almost everything you said.
Lisa